Tips To Help Parents Work While Kids Are At Home
Many of us will be working from home during this pandemic, which might be a new experience all on its own. However, it also comes with the challenge of having your family around you and possibly even needing to homeschool your children. Because of this, you possibly have less time to complete your work deliverables, and you also have more distractions to cope with while doing it.
It’s not easy to split your focus across so many responsibilities, but with a little planning and preparation, it is possible to streamline your day and make it easier to manage.
Create A Roster
If there are two parents present in the home, it’s important to create shifts for managing schoolwork, meals, and other family responsibilities alongside work. Take turns doing everything. For example: if one parent does the schooling for the day, the other parent can cook dinner that night. Or you can alternate between subjects so that the other parent gets to concentrate on work while you’re helping the kids.
If you’re a single-parent family, use the roster system with your kids. Get everyone to help with meals and cleaning the house, so that there is not as much pressure placed on you to manage everything. Use the roster system for school too. Set times for schoolwork, time for play, time for rest and relaxation, time for reading, meals, bath time, and free time. You can even go so far as to identify what subjects will be done at what times of the day to keep everyone on track.
Prepare Children’s Schooling In Advance
Being organized is the key to making home schooling work. If you prepare your children’s lessons the night before, you won’t be fumbling around during valuable work or school hours. Print or write out worksheets in advance and prepare the space so that your kids can get in and get on with things. With this system, there might be a lot they can do on their own, which will free up some time for you to focus on your work.
Get Up Earlier
If there are pressing deliverables that you simply need to attend to, wake up before everyone in the house starts school, meetings, video calls etc. Use that quiet time to focus only on what you need to do for the day so that you can check off a number of tasks (or even just one) before everyone needs your attention.
Let your family know that this time is for you and you alone. Be firm about setting this boundary so that no one disturbs you during this time. Close yourself off in a separate space or room, if need be, and set the timeframe so that everyone knows what time you will be available again.
Get Everyone Exercising
Lockdown restrictions currently allow us out of the house between 6am and 9am. Use this time to burn some energy and give everyone a sense of freedom. Take family walks, get the bikes out, walk the dogs, or even run together outside. Exercise is a great way to clear the head, reduce feelings of tension, and release feel-good endorphins. Your entire family will feel much better for doing so, especially if you make it a daily habit.
Negotiate Terms With Your Employer Or Clients
It might be impossible to work to your normal capacity, and your employer will no doubt understand this. If not, it’s important to voice concerns about your current predicament so that realistic expectations can be set. Remember that we are all under huge amounts of pressure, so you should not be made to feel like you have to deliver everything to everyone at the same time.
Negotiate flexible working times with your boss to allow for family time, schooling, and a little downtime too. Ask to move meetings if they don’t suit you or are in the middle of school. Request some leniency in the times you need to be online so that you can freely be there for your family too.
Take it one day at a time and be gentle with yourself if you don’t get everything done in one day. You can try again tomorrow.
Call the Crisis Control Centre on 0860 111 646 at any time for support, advice or counselling.
Resources: https://www.bbc.com/worklife; https://www.vox.com/