The first mechanical wristwatches required manual winding. During 1950s, Hamilton Watch Company introduced first battery-powered watch, which required no winding. The first digital watch appeared in 1970s, but digital watches still have not replaced analog watches due, in part, to a wildly successful marketing campaign by Swatch. Toward end of 20th century, a consortium of Swiss watchmakers and worldwide graphical designers resurrected analog watch as a throwaway fashion accessory, and introduced their first wild designs in 1983. It's design stupid! Swatches flew off shelves and they remain true to their original concept—cheap, fun, bold, Swiss—analog.

Along way, watches evolved into solar operated, kinetic powered (self-winding), lithium powered, digital, light-emitting diode (LED), liquid crystal display (LDC), and waterproof. Today's men's watches routinely include a calendar, and many women's watches also include a calendar. But why stop there? You can find a watch to suit your every need. Today's watches contain calculators, digital cameras, cell phones, and games. There have been several attempts to create a computer watch, but to date, only one has made it to market, Ruputer, by Seiko, and it didn't last. At time, it proved unmarketable, but stay tuned…

Whether you want high-tech functionality or you prefer to concentrate on aesthetics of your timepiece, watches are still about marking time, that precious, finite commodity around which our everyday lives revolve.

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However, I knew babysitting was not long term solution, and I ache for independence I read about with internet based business. So I plug away early morning, nap times and evenings after children are in bed. This is how we move towards a simpler life. Eventually, my kids and my husband will have me pretty much to themselves. I know that working will always interfere with living, but this is a solution that I can accept.

My main learning, or coping strategy, is to do things in blocks. Writing an article is one block. Reading and responding to emails is another. Feeding children, taking them for a walk, or planning an afternoon out (which is what I do with mine every day off), all combine to make this work-from-home mother’s work day move forward.

Should my children be classified as part of my work? No, absolutely I do not view it that way. This is fabulousness of working from home. Stressful as it may be at times, I am choosing a life that allows me to step out of my office (so to speak) and cuddle on couch with four little darlings (well, some of time!). I can shake off frustration of figuring out HTML code by having coffee with my neighbor. This is a life worth choosing.

So to all you work-from-home mothers (and fathers too), perhaps balance isn’t always possible, but keeping priorities is. You can decide that children must quietly watch a video while you make a phone call or finish your project, and know that you are not putting them in second place. Why? Because you are there. And as long as you know when to put office ‘away’ and be there for your children, you are giving them a life that, while busy and not always easy, it is a life that you are a bigger part of.

To all of you who take on important task of raising your children, while making a living, my congratulations and encouragement!