Working from home in the holidays? What was I thinking?

This whole month can be filed under 'what was I thinking?'. Usually I try to keep work to a minimum in the school holidays. For some reason, I decided the boys were old enough this year to amuse themselves a bit while I got some work done during the day.

They'd watch a DVD or play the Wii or do whatever it is that young boys do to while away the hours quietly, so I was perfectly safe to take on a feature or two.

Or so I thought.

When you have small children at home and people find out you work from home, they think you're nuts. "How do you do it?" they ask, breathlessly. I wrote my first feature when Mr9 was three months old and just sort of got back into the saddle from there.

The truth is, it gets harder as they get older. When they're little, they sleep during the day. And I got very good at squeezing interviews and features into the two hour window of the midday sleep. Sleep time is very, very quiet time.

Now that they're older, they are good at entertaining themselves. They will play Lego, do the DVD thing, play the Wii, read a book, colour in, whatever. But they're never quiet. There's always bickering, they're always hungry, and, frankly, they just want to have a chat sometimes. Two hours is just a dream. I work in 15-minute snatches, and only once we've done some kind of kid-friendly out-of-the-house activity to a) tire them out and b) appease the Mother Guilt that eats me alive no matter how much I try to tame it.

I've always worked at night. But nine years ago I was... younger. I could do a full day with the kids, have a 4pm coffee, and work until midnight. Now I simply don't want to. I have got used to writing in the daytime. I like it. Going back to my nocturnal habits just makes me tired.

I have three deadlines this week. What was I thinking?

Are you working from home this holidays? Did you organise yourself better than I have, or are you wondering what you were thinking as well?