My Daddy Works in His Underwear

I recently received a demo of the Motormouse. The pint-sized Porsche car is a 2.5 GHz wireless mouse that uses a simple USB input to rev up navigation. The utility of this gadget got me thinking about that place where fun and functionality converge in the home office.

To hear the IRS tell it, the tax-deductible home office must be a place of business. It has to be used “regularly and exclusively” for business purposes, and cannot double as a playroom, guestroom or music studio after hours (unless, of course, your business is music). Does that mean your PC or Mac cannot store a music library or play iTunes? Or you cannot practice music over lunch (if your business is NOT music)?

Lines definitely are blurred.

Tell that to the people at Motormouse. More than some kitschy toy, the Motormouse ($49.95; http://www.motormouse.us.com) fits neatly beneath one’s palm, making it responsive to use. It’s “superbly crafted” (it says so in the press materials) and is available in black, red or silver. The tires are rubber; the scroll wheel is the spare. The trunk even opens to stash two AAA batteries and the USB receiver.

The media kit also says it’s perfect for the décor of almost any car enthusiast or gadget lover. Or home officer?

Truth be told, I use a Wave keyboard with an integrated touch-pad pointing device (a.k.a. mouse). So the Motormouse’s functionality in my home office was rather limited. My son surfs like any teenager. That, coupled with his penchant for Porsches, has made the Motormouse a fixture in his bedroom.

But the question of the gadget in the home office helps define – and blur – the space.

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Good eatin', but apparently not in New York's PS 9.

New York Times writer Susan Dominus interviewed a woman - MeMe Roth - whose children seemingly are offered enough sugary snacks and candies in school to send them into a diabetic coma - or at least an afternoon sugar crash.

So Ms. Roth has launched a campaign (her second, apparently) against the practice of well-intended parents sending cupcakes to school for a child’s classmates to share in a birthday celebration.

An Atlanta native, apparently the fair Ms. Roth is no Southern Belle. In principle, the concept seems fair: Sugar run amok is contributing to rising obesity, diabetes and other disease, which, in turn, costs our nation untold suffering and billions in healthcare costs.

In the article, she’s been painted as belligerent and confrontational. Some in her school - and previous schools - have seen her rants as self-serving and ill-intended. She reminds me of the woman in the 1990s who railed against Married: With Children, hoping to get Al, Peg and the risque show ditched from the TV line-up.

Viewership spiked.

As the father of three grade-school kids also offered cakes and snacks during school (birthday snacks, holiday treats and the lot — sometimes offered by our family in celebration of our own children’s milestones or events), I can see Ms. Roth’s concern. But frankly, she seems in it for the battle - or notoriety.

A more thoughtful approach, one that probably would serve her children better in their own futures, would be to espouse their saying three words: “No, thank you.”

What do you think…?
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What’s Dad worth?

Salary.com, Inc., the compensation expert, posted a dad version of its popular Mom’s Salary Wizard. Among its top-line findings:

* Dads don’t earn as much overtime as moms for their stay-at-home jobs.

* The typical working dad earned no overtime in his 39.6-hour dad’s work week, while working moms earned, on average, 27% of their “mom salary” in overtime.

* Although their hours differed, all parents had eight jobs in common: Day Care Center Teacher, Laundry Machine Operator, Computer Operator, CEO, Facilities Manager, Psychologist, Van Driver, and Cook.

* Dads had two jobs in their top 10 which moms did not have: General Maintenance Worker and Groundskeeper.

* Moms had two unique counterpart jobs: Janitor and Housekeeper.

* By working long hours in a high-wage area, stay-at-home dads near Silicon Valley in California, clocked in at an annual value greater than $149,000.

* Working fewer “dad hours” in a low wage area, working dads on the rural Texas-New Mexico border rated about $83,500 in dad pay.

What else did the survey discover…?
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MyDaddyWorksInHisUnderwear.com is for dads who work from home.

Teleworkers or 1099ers. Corporate citizens and entrepreneurs. If you work from home — even occasionally — then this site’s for you.

And the people who love (or tolerate) you. Or appreciate the commitment you’ve made and the challenges you face. Or the fun you have — even sometimes at your own expense.

Working in your underwear is not mandatory (fully clothed is acceptable, as is commando). But it’s about a mindset, a perspective that says, “I work where my life is.”

And my life includes three kids, a wife, a dog, a hamster — and all the trappings that come in tow.

Coming soon will be a collection of stories from dads who work from home and the decisions that drove them there. Check back. Often. It should be a hoot for dads, moms, guys, gals and anyone who digs the workspace called home.

Even if you’re in your underwear.

Those who follow my Tweets on Twitter might have noticed an increasing sense of cycicism and sarcasm of late. Let’s not mince words here. It’s rage. Raw, freakin’ rage.

Today’s tweet: Memo from Main Street: BOLO for Wall Street’s honor. Feds slept as banks ran amok, debt grew, jobs wilted. CEOs bonused millions. Now what?

Seriously. Now What?! Bankers and international money managers (launderers?) bought enough sub-prime mortgages to wallpaper a thousand tracks of once-overpriced-now-foreclosed McMansions in the burbs. CEOs lied about their bottom lines, keeping federal regulators in the dark (though they were complicit in the process anyway, acting as if all was honky-dory in their scotch-n-Valium-induced stupor as a small fire sparked in a corner closet somewhere in Rome).

Today, Rome is a flash fire ready to explode. And Lehman CEO Richard Fuld pocketed $22 million in bonuses in March. Yeah, “You’re doing a heckuva job here, Fuldie…”

What does that have to do with entrepreneurship, the home office or us out here on Main Street? Everything.
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This week was chock full of news related to Dad in his home - and home office…

- Mark Trainer had a piece in his Fathers & Druthers blog for The Washington Post on how Dads Are Still Saddled With Detached Image. The article explores the relevance of Father’s Day in the modern era when dads stay — or work — at home. But I got neither a Wii nor the new Death Cab for Cutie CD. But I did get the chance to sleep in, which for this over-worked work-at-home dad is pretty important indeed.

- An element common to at-home workers is the balance we seek. Cindy LaFerle had a piece “In the middle of this road we call Life” , her new recurring column for the Michigan’s Women’s Forum. Learn more at Cindy’s site, Cindy LaFerle’s Home Office. A new addition to the home office blogosphee is SOHOBlog.org, a site ostensibly created to “guide home officers on the right path through a business maze to achieve a unique corporate identity.” I couldn’t find a person associated with the blog (”Admin” doesn’t count), and most of the pictures plainly were of corporate offices — or very well-endowed home offices.

- In a follow-up to last week’s Work-at-Home Father’s Day, here’s Entrepreneur.com’s take on Father Knows Business. “Move over, mom,” they write. “These entrepreneurial dads prove they know a thing or two about babies–and business.” According to the stats, “home-based dads become more common. The U.S. Census Bureau reported an estimated 159,000 stay-at-home dads in 2007, up from 143,000 in 2006.” Said one dad, “I think what you’re seeing is a fatherhood movement that’s mostly based in guys’ hearts, who want to be closer to their kids than their own father was with them.”

Have a great week, Dad…