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It doesn’t seem to matter how often a work-at-home-mom tells her children and significant other to keep quiet and behave because she has an important client to speak to on the phone. Planning meetings around nap times isn’t always fool proof, so what can you do when faced with a sticky situation? Even if your children and spouse promise to be on their best behavior, plenty can happen, leading to an awkward moment for you to deal with.

Children Screaming in the Background

If possible, warn your children before the call that they will be punished if they do not behave. Reward the kids if they do behave for the duration of the call or meeting. Close the door to the office and be prepared to press the mute button. If the client doesn’t require an immediate response, mute the phone, tell the children to be quieter, and return to the office. If the client does require an immediate response, politely excuse yourself – most clients do understand that working from home involves caring for children as well – and handle the children as best you can without raising your own voice. Offer something to distract them while you work, such as a movie and snack, to reduce the risk of this happening.

Unexpected Guests

Even though people around you are completely aware of the fact you work at home, at times you may find yourself with unexpected guests who seem to forget you need to work an eight to ten hour day with as few interruptions as possible. This can be a tough one to handle, especially if one of the guests has an embarrassing ringtone blaring from their cell phone.

If possible, grab your cell phone, make sure it’s on vibrate to avoid a potentially embarrassing ringtone problem yourself, text the guests at the door, and let them know they need to come back later. If the client manages to say something about the music in the background, apologize and say that an unexpected interruption occurred. Don’t go into detail; quickly bring attention back to the important conversation.

Sometimes, it may be best to ignore the person at the door entirely, until the meeting is over and you can make a phone call to let them know what was going on. If you do choose to answer the door, signal to the guests to be quiet and let them know you’ll be with them as soon as you can. Communicate with a written message on a piece of paper, but remember not to detract too much attention away from the meeting.

Noisy Pets

There’s not much you can do to stop a dog from barking or scratching at the door unless you really put in the time training them to stop barking. The best thing to do to avoid any awkward moments with your pets is to simply leave the pets outside. Notify the children not to let the dog inside under any circumstances, and position yourself in an area of the home – regardless of whether or not it is your office – far away from the doors where the animal could be scratching and barking, to lessen the impact of the background noise. Take a pen and pad with you, and if you have to be at the computer without the convenience of a laptop, do your best to distract the animal with food or treats. Utilize the mute feature of the phone whenever possible until the pets stop making so much noise.

Nearby Construction

If there’s any sort of construction going on near your home, chances are it will be loud enough for your client to hear it through the phone. There’s nothing you can do to stop the construction, because those workers have a job to do just like you, so the best thing you can do is to let the client know at the beginning of the call that there is construction going on outside. Let them also know that you’ve taken steps to minimize the noise, such as closing windows and doors or trying to do your meeting on their lunch break. Being honest with them about the noise will give them the option to reschedule the meeting if they want, and allows them to prepare for the noise beforehand if not.

As work-at-home moms juggle many responsibilities throughout the course of any workday, it is important to consider anything can happen at any time. If at all possible, try to find another person to care for your children for the duration of the meeting to avoid any awkward moments with them. It’s nearly impossible to have a completely quiet home for more than five minutes at time, so always be prepared for noises and distractions. A mute button can be a WAHM’s best friend. Even if your phone doesn’t have this feature, many of the most well known teleconferencing programs do have a mute command you can use to disable your line if necessary.