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Eldercare Help For The Self-Employed
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Article 9: Real Stories: The Upside
For the self-employed, care-giving of elderly relatives eats up precious hours that not only can’t be billed, but also can’t be recovered. Yet, there are upsides.
“I am self-employed and have to be because I have to have the flexibility,” says Cheryl Coleman, a California real estate agent who had to move her elderly parents from Mississippi to live near her so she could provide the care they required.
Coleman previously worked for a large company that graciously accommodated her, allowing time off work to arrange for her parents’ needs. But Coleman felt she was shortchanging her employer, thinking, “This isn’t fair. You didn’t hire somebody . . . to pick up and leave every day.”
Self-employment provided Coleman the flexible schedule needed as her parents’ health worsened. “It wouldn’t have been possible” had she remained an employee,
Like Coleman, Barbara Comiskey in Ohio held a corporate job, but had to make a change to self-employment so she could accommodate two sets of parents, hers and her husband’s.
“Basically . . . that’s when I started working at home as an entrepreneur,” Comiskey says. “It gave me the flexibility I need.”
For both self-employed women, permitting their parents to fend for themselves was not an option.
“The (insurance) forms become overwhelming, and the constant doctor appointments” have to be met, says Comiskey, who drew on her corporate background to start her own communications consulting business. Comiskey’s care-giving experience, “was wonderful. . . (but) there is a need for a caregiver to maintain professional ties and the stimulation of being in the work force.”
There are trade-offs, Coleman agrees.
She gave up an opportunity for a six-figure annual income because her new care-giving responsibilities wouldn’t permit the heavy travel involved in the corporate job. “When you’re self-employed you have to work harder, but I don’t have the choice. I need the flexibility.”
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