How To Balance Remote Working With Kids At Home

Working from home can be a challenge even in the best of times. It isn’t easy to stay productive, and it can be quite lonely. There are plenty of benefits that go along with it, but those are the two biggest complaints from new people to working remotely.

With the pandemic raging and more people forced to work from home, it is their new reality. To make matters worse, many children are also at home and are required to do distance learning to complete their schooling.

So, with a parent at home trying to work and help kids with their schooling, it is becoming apparent that this is a bigger challenge than many had anticipated.

In this article, we will go over some ways to make sure you get the work done and the kids can do their studies effectively at the same time.

Let kids make choices

Unless your children are doing video classes, then they are likely on a somewhat flexible schedule. Let your kids help in deciding what time things get done. They should be on a schedule so that you are free to work during your working hours but let them decide how they want to arrange their time and then set it on the calendar.

For instance, armed with social distance learning supplies, your kids can be self-starters and take on a lot of the work on their own without too much guidance from you. They should also decide what time they want to do certain activities and what time they want to break for lunch. And if you don’t have time to have lunch with them, then prep food that is all ready to go and put a list on the fridge of their options. Then they can take out their preferred lunch for the day and heat it.

They can also choose other activities for the day and even when they want to take their break.

Be flexible with your schedule

Not only should your kids have flexible schedules, but you should do the same. There will be sure times when you need to be on a virtual meeting or video call with clients at specific hours. But, when you don’t have a particular time or place to be, you can arrange different times to get things done.

For instance, you could try to do a lot of your routine work in the evening after dinner when both parents are home. Or you could get up early before everybody else and get as many emails out of the way as possible.

Be upfront with your boss

You’re certainly not the only one going through this, so your boss will surely understand that you face some challenges. If you communicate clearly that this is your situation, you may be able to agree on when the work gets done.

Communication is essential during these trying times, and your boss will give you some parameters to work around that make it doable for you and the company.