At-Home Workers Say Enough Is Enough
4th August 2010
The pool of people who are at home today – because they’re unemployed, retired, have telecommuting jobs or are stay-at-home parents or caregivers – keeps getting larger. That’s been welcome news for those who leave their neighborhoods to go to work. They consider stay-at-homers to be easy marks for carpooling, errand-running, church-volunteering, school-committee-leading, and being the go-to neighbor for every UPS delivery.
A lot of at-homers who commiserate online are torn between their willingness to help and their resentment about the way their help is sought. As one poster wrote: “I get calls from my daughter’s school to pick up sick kids. Many parents put me on the emergency contact card at school without telling me… Yes, a lot of it is my fault because I feel sorry for the kids and can’t say no. But I have quit going to play groups since this is how most of the parents zone in on me.”
Oh, say it ain’t so…. See, this is where being a grumpy fellow with few friends really pays off.