While the recent move to enforce work from home policies offered a lot of benefits for workers, it also brought in challenges. None felt the impact of this more than parents who now find themselves trying to juggle doing their jobs and taking care of their kids. To help them, here are some ways work at home parents can manage their double duties.
Work at home parent tip no. 1: Don’t expect to work at your usual capacity
One of the challenges work at home parents face is finding themselves less productive at work. That reduced productivity is a well-known side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, as people struggle trying to cope up with it. But parents are likely to feel it more due to their work time being reduced further because of domestic duties.
As such, you need to embrace that situation instead of trying to fit in the same amount of work into reduced work times. Determine what your optimum work hours would be based on your domestic needs. Lean towards giving your kids as much as time as possible since they would likely demand your attention often. Do note that you might end up with some odd working hours but it is a compromise you need to accept.
Once you have determined your work hours, talk it over with your employer. They are understandably going to be hesitant in negotiating working hours, as businesses would want to maintain their regular operations. What you can do is to provide them with options they can consider like taggering your work shifts and moving meetings to more convenient times.
Creating goals
Another important strategy here is creating your goals for the day. The idea is to make sure that you are still able to do a sufficient amount of work while accomplishing home chores. Here, you would want to set five goals to accomplish, namely:
- Two goals at work
- Two goals to do with the kids
- 1 activity to do with your partner
Again, don’t try to do more than these goals, as you will find yourself struggling to complete them. It would also help to talk with your partner to ensure that your goals align with each other. This is vital if both of you are working from home.
Work from home parent tip no. 2: Build your schedule right
With the above tip, you have a rough schedule for your daily activities. But don’t stop here, refine it further to better suit your specific family lifestyle. For a start, take into account when the kids will be waking up. If you start work at 8 am and your kids wake up at around 9, you need to insert a short break at the latter time. This way, you can get them prepped for the day.
Creating work blocks
One thing to note is that you aren’t creating a schedule just for yourself. Instead, you need to plan out how everyone in the house will be doing. Creating work blocks is a good strategy here. You can implement these work blocks in several ways:
- Partner swap: You and your partner take turns working for four hours and then taking care of the kids afterward.
- Short shifts: These would be 30 minutes to 2-hour work shifts that rotate among older members of the family. This is useful if you have older kids who are also working at home with you.
- Video shifts: This isn’t a work shift but a time where your kids can connect with friends or relatives through video chat. With them preoccupied, you get extra time for both work and home chores.
Use more than one type of work block arrangement depending on the composition of your family. You would also want to make sure that the schedule is flexible enough to account for some changes. Don’t forget to take in suggestions from the kids, as they will more readily accept the schedule if they are part of making it.
Work from home parent tip no. 3: Take advantage of nap times
Kids’ nap times are invaluable opportunities for work at home parents to get more time in their hands. As such, you would want to use it wisely. One way to do that is by doing work that requires more focus during those times.
Do note that this will benefit you more if your kids have regular nap times, as you can plan your work accordingly. If they don’t, then you need to be a bit more proactive in putting them to sleep. Since this might require a bit more effort, try and get them napping at least an hour before the start of your work.
If they are not keen on napping, you can just give them some quiet time. This can be as simple as letting them play on their own near you. Set aside a pile of toys that they can play with for minutes on end.
Work at home parent tip no. 4: Use non-verbal cues
While you might have a carefully crafted home schedule, the kids would still come to you during work hours. Instead of trying to shoo them away, you can use simple visual cues to tell them not to disturb you.
This could be something as simple as surrounding your work area with strips of masking tape. Instruct your kids that they are not allowed to cross the tape line if you are sitting in front of your work desk. You can also cue them by wearing your headphones to indicate that you are working.
Note that this does require a bit of training to get your kids used to the cues. One good way to do this is by letting them play the “do not disturb” role and sit inside the workspace while you approach them. This way, they will have a better grasp of the rules and adopt them easily.
Master working from home while taking care of the kids.
Being work at home parents is both a blessing and a challenge during these times. By following the tips here, you can make it work for you. Take advantage of this opportunity and have fun with your kids while staying safe at home.