It’s school time again and I am resuming my job as Mr. Taxi.  I have a son that is starting middle school and a senior in high school. My senior also has an internship every school day at a vet clinic. I’m driving all over the place every school day. The up side of this is that I have a captive audience at least twice a day each. During this time, we have gotten into the routine of sharing our lives.

I get to find out what’s going on in their lives. I know if something is bothering them and can help them out. They can’t brush me off and run away to their room.

What makes this possible? I get to do this because I have lifestyle freedom. To me this time with my sons is irreplaceable. They will grow up only once.

Technorati Tags: Captive Audience, freedom, Internship, job, lifestyle, Mr Taxi, quality time, School Time, Vet Clinic

I have been transferring some family memories into the digital age. These are VHS-C tapes that were shot in 1994 & 1995 right after we bought our first camcorder. I’m transferring them to DVD. It’s a window back to another time. This was before the Internet hit big, before 9/11 and before I worked for myself.

In these videos, there are images of people who are no longer with us and an absence of arrivals since then. Many people say that at the end of their lives, what really counts is relationships and memories.

At the time of the filming of these videos, both my wife and I were working more than full time jobs. We had our routines of dropping our son off at day care in the morning and picking him up when we could in the afternoon. The day care providers got to spend more time interacting and influencing our son than we did.

Things changed when our second son came along. My wife became a stay at home mother. This allowed us to raise our kids but put the burden of income squarely on my shoulders. In an effort to make up the losses and to capitalize on the then tech bubble, I got a new position with a new company. To this day, my youngest son’s recollection of that job was that I came home during or after dinner.

The dot bombs hit soon after and eventually, I was laid off. This actually was a good thing in the long run as it helped me get the courage to work for myself. Since then, I have been actively involved with both my sons’ lives. Often, I am the only dad at my youngest son’s elementary school parties and I was the only dad to chaperone my oldest son’s choir trip to Walt Disney World.

What has made this possible has been my home based business. I had started working my business while I was still working and I had a Plan B in place when the time came. Making money from home has allowed me to spend quantity time with my kids. When you spend quantity time with your kids, the quality time appears more and more.

A home based business like mine can be started on a part time basis and grown until you can fire your boss. It can take an hour or two per day but the results are worth it, especially if you have young kids. My oldest son was 2 and 3 in those videos. Now he’s ending his junior year in high school and will soon be starting his adult life. Being able to be a bigger part of his life has created memories that will last both of our lifetimes.

If you would like to find out more about if a home based business would be right for you, go to FreeRKCDForYou.com to get a freed CD from Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, called “The Perfect Business”. Get yours today.

Technorati Tags: dad, day care, family memories, fire your boss, full time jobs, home based business, making money from home, Plan B, quality time, relationships, rich dad poor dad, robert kiyosaki, The Perfect Business

My youngest son starts the 5th grade on Monday. Yesterday was packet Pickup Day where the parents sign all the forms and pay all class party fees, PTA fees and buy spirit wear. They also have open house so that you can see where the class is and meet the teacher. It’s back to school time!

Since I have been a work at home dad for some time, I use these activities as reminders about how lucky I am. Most of the other parents are worried, harried and look like they rushed there from work. They act like they are there for as little time as possible so they can rush back to work. They are there to have ‘quality’ time with their kids so they can put ‘quantity’ time in at work.

I go there in my ‘summer business casual’ which are usually cargo shorts, a t shirt and tennis shoes. I put my attention on my son and spend as much time as he wants. Because I spend quantity time with him, we end up with lots of quality time. These are times you can’t schedule into your life.

I learned a long time ago, people have it backwards. They should spend quality time at work so that they can spend quantity time with the people they love.

Technorati Tags: back to school, quality time, quantity time, work at home