Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68012
PRACTITIONER AS PARENT Working for Someone Else? Here are a few topics to discuss with your potential employer or consider if you're an independent contractor. Are you available during sessions? Probably not. Make sure your kids and your sitter know when you are available to answer tough questions and handle emergencies. Are your children welcome in your office from time to time? A tranquil spa setting may not be the place for a 5-year-old, no matter how cute. What are the rules? What happens if you have a last-minute family emergency? Can you get a substitute? Can you partner with another MT and offer the same support in return? The advantages are that the commute is a few seconds and when my daddy day care duties are over, I disappear into the office for a couple hours to do my bodywork and have the quietest, most relaxing part of my day. I might even have a conversation that doesn't involve a negotiation about who has more play dates and who deserves more Webkinz. We have trained the kids well from an early age about professional and personal boundaries. One day Connor was standing in front of the door to the office with his cheeks full and chewing furiously like a squirrel. My wife asked him what he was doing. "Mom!"—after some more furious chewing he swallowed and said—"I'm going to see Daddy, but you know I can't take food into the office!" When a client is on the premises, the household goes into stealth mode. Those couple hours are good times for the kids to read, do homework, watch TV, hit the backyard, play at the park, or run errands with mom. I can always turn up the stereo to mask the odd sound. I've never had an office that achieved tomb-like silence when I worked out in the world, either. As parents we know that when we didn't have kids we had all the time in the world. Tragically, we didn't know it then. The fun of playing with our kids balances out family travails, sleep deprivation, and tantrums. But I'm really cutting back on my tantrums. Massage & Bodywork and you can read his column, Practitioner Parables, on page 144. Contact him at consciousbodywork@hotmail. com. He' ll be glad to read your e-mail when Ciara and Connor let him on the computer. Robert Chute is a regular contributor to NOTES 1. Based on a family making less than $45,800 per year, USDA Expenditures on Children by Families, 2007. 2. Average massage-related income for massage therapists in 2007 was $17,750 (2007 Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals Member Survey). 3. U.S. Census, 2006. 4. "Child Care Expenses of America's Families," The Urban Institute, 2000, Linda Giannarelli & James Barsimantov. visit massageandbodywork.com to access your digital magazine 59