[sjf]

Are his kids really that loud? Why doesn't sound proof his office and discipline his kids for being too noisy. (I'm sure this would please his neighbours as well).

[duck]

Yeah, your kids should be quite and respectful... but in the real world sometimes that isn't going to happen because, well, they're kids. It just takes one time to make you feel a little uneasy about being on the phone during an important conference call.

I have three of them and luckily I don't need to be on the phone much, but my ultimate plan is to build a detached home office. Not a solution for everyone, but if you have the land and skills you can do it yourself with very little cost when you factor the value it adds to your home.

This article also points out a couple other bonuses, mainly that it gives you a physical divide between home and work, which I think is a hard problem for anyone that works at home.

http://shedblog.historicshed.com/2008/12/perfect-home-office...

[dmm]

My parents would just banish us outside for the afternoon if we got noisy.

[thirdstation]

I was on a sales call once when my neighbor's kid burst into my house and started shouting in Bengali.

I managed to hit the phone's mute button while furiously gesturing at him to be quiet.

Because I don't speak Bengali, I had no idea what he wanted. I had no idea how he got into my house either. He stopped shouting, looked at me and scampered out the front door.

Turns out he was looking for his sister, who was playing with my kids, who I had banished from the house for being too loud.

[proee]

Sound proofing is a possibility, but disciplining his kids for being too noisy? Having four kids myself, I'm busting up laughing picturing them sitting quietly around a table doing 'quiet things.'

Kids need to make noise - it's good for their development.