More and more opportunities are available to parents today that allow them to work at home. This is a true benefit to parents who want to be closer to their kids, but yet who also need to earn a living to support their family. While working from home close to your kids can be a blessing in so many ways, it also can be a real nightmare, too.
Regardless of how old or young your kids are, they no doubt interrupt you numerous times per day. Sometimes this can simply break your concentration and reduce your efficiency or productivity, and other times, such as when you taking a business call, this can be quite disruptive and can make you seem unprofessional.
Working from home with kids does indeed come with its challenges, but often a little bit of playing and forethought on your part can really make all the difference to you. Here are some tips to help you:
Structure Your Day. Your family likely has a certain natural rhythm to it, as most families do. Your family may be early birds and crash early, or vice versa. When you work from home, you often need to make some adjustments to your own workday so that your need to turn their home into your office doesn’t interfere with home life as you know it. This may mean taking most of your business calls during nap hour, in the morning while older kids are sleeping in during those breaks from school, and so forth.
Provide Activities and Incentives. As a work-at-home parent, your job is not just to work at your job but also to be a caregiver for your kids. For little ones who are with you all day long, plan structured activities for them to do while you work or even invite a friend over so the two can run off and play together. For kids of all ages, offer incentives for allowing you to work such as by promising to take them down to the park when you get done working or reach a certain point in your work.
Break Up the Day. Whether you work part-time and commit four or six hours a day to your job or you work a full eight hours each day, you no doubt understand that this is a large chunk of time for a child to sit quietly at home and wait around. If your job permits, break up your day in a split shift style so that you work perhaps two hours at a stretch. Between those work times, you can have lunch with your kids, take them on a walk, toss the ball around the backyard, and more. They will be more likely to accept your work hours and leave you alone while working if they know you will tune in to them soon.
Before you started working from home, you no doubt were beyond thrilled with the prospect of spending more time with your kids and still earning a paycheck, too. It doesn’t take too many days of working at home to realize that as great as it is, it does come with its challenges. Put some of these tips to use, and you may find that those challenges are a little easier to overcome.
Here are a few other articles written by this author:
How Positive is Your Parenting?
Helping Your Kids Through Fights with Friends
Kids and Friend Drama: When to Step In