Life is good in the Mayville household, about as good as it gets for two full-time working parents with demanding careers.
Family life flows in and around an eat-in kitchen and two offices — one near the kitchen, the other at the opposite end of the main floor.
You will find both parents working at home during the day while their children, 11-year-old Nick and 10-year-old Abbey, are away at school.
But don’t interrupt them, please. There is nothing casual about their workplace except maybe the way they dress.
Debbie Mayville, a director at a Washington, D.C.-based consultancy, starts telecommuting at 6 a.m. and tries to finish in time to meet her daughter at the bus stop, up the hill from their Alpharetta, Ga., home, when Abbey returns around 2:30 p.m..
Dan Mayville, a manager for Deloitte, starts at 8:15 a.m. on the days when he does carpool duty for Nick. He tries to walk away from his office by 5:30 p.m.
Of course, their routine changes when one or the other is traveling. Dan’s new job as manager of analytical programs for Deloitte’s global practice requires international travel. There will be adjustments on the home front, but that’s nothing new.
In an age when, at least in theory, many professionals could do their jobs from anywhere, few couples manage to evolve routines that don’t require calling in reinforcements: nannies, au pairs, day care.
The Mayvilles tried all those and other arrangements when their children were younger. Debbie worked part-time for a while, and Dan stayed home with the kids for three years while she worked full-time. He recalls the hit to their income — “Three times my annual take-home, that hurt” — but they decided the trade-off was worth it.
photo from stock.xchng.
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