Anonymous wrote:
Find a job that is telecommuting friendly, even if you are technically attached to an office location. Arrange for telecommuting 2-3 days a week for a year. Show your skills, reliability, network within the company. At your one year review, let them know you'd really like to move to full time remote and give them a list of things to expect from you. You're basically negotiating going remote at your annual review.
For me, I did everything through the first year, but just sent my boss an email saying "hey, I'd like to go full-time remote this year" and his response was just "I approve." I don't think that would have worked without giving the FaceTime and building a reputation within the company first.
This is good advice. My experience has been that many non-profits are very telecommute friendly. I WFH 4 days a week at mine. It's basically how they keep talented people despite the low salaries.
It will likely take some time to build up to mostly remote status, but if you look for jobs at companies where many people telecommute, you can start working toward that. As PPs have said though, the key is demonstrating your value and dependency (for example, I am 100% available on my telecommute days and respond to skype or email within minutes of receiving it). If you read company reviews on Glassdoor, you should be able to find references to telecommute policies and family-friendliness or flex schedules.