Road Warrior at Home

I travel a lot for work. But when I'm not traveling, I work out of my home office. The pro for me in that is that when I'm not traveling, I'm at home. The con for me in that is that when I'm not traveling, I'm at home. My husband understands that when I'm in the office working, I'm at work. But other people are not so clear. Take my mother for example (to paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, "take my mother, please!"), when we talk each Sunday, she always asks me where I'm going the next week. When I tell her that I'm not traveling, that I'll be at home. She always says "how nice, you don't have to work next week". Wrong! Neighbors also don't get it. Yesterday afternoon, a neighbor came by and asked me if I could watch her 3 year old daughter "for just a few minutes" until her husband got home, because she had to leave. I don't know where she was going, but it was not an emergency. I told her no, that I was still working and had a call in a few minutes. She persisted until finally, I told her again, that I was still working and it would be the equivalent of taking the child to someone's office and asking them to watch her. That got through to her and she went off to ask another neighbor, but I'm sure that she is angry with me. I try very hard to establish boundaries between home and work. It is especially necessary when one works from one's home office. I just wish that other people would "get it"!