How do YOU combine work and unschooling?

[Sarasvati]

I am interested to hear people's experiences of combining paid work with being at home with unschooled children. If you are planning on it, what are your plans?

Obviously it's something I've vaguely thought about, but am wondering if I can combine something that has set hours (like university tutoring etc) with unschooling... so would love to read a range of experiences.

[Ceres]

Yes and no. I have worked off and on, always part time, between 1 - 3 days a week. It requires some pretty serious babysitting committment from the DS's dad and grandparents. It didn't really work that well for a variety of reasons. I have had issues with the things that DS was exposed to when he was with them (too much computer and TV) and with their sense of entitlement to make decisions like haircutting and clothing which meant it just didn't work well to have him there so regularly. I also found that I always felt rushed and was more short tempered and stressed when I was working more. The weeks would just fill up so quickly with things I *had* to do that there was little time for the things I wanted to do.
(Bearing in mind I did all this as a single parent).
I will probably always work but right now it just needs to be more casual than it was.
Having a supportive partner or another parent to pick up the slack would have been a whole other story.