Parenting is challenging, and while you might be with your child all the time, looking after them, you can still feel guilty over a few things that you might have done better – or – when you were occupied with other things and couldn’t immediately attend to your child’s needs.
Working from home might have fewer distractions, but you will still have to stay on top of your job, do chores, and run errands while looking after your child. Of course, you can leave your child at the best daycare in town while running errands, as the daycare is exclusively designed to help busy parents and offer them mental peace while looking for their children’s emotional, physical, and social development.
However, when you are strictly working from home and looking after your children simultaneously, then the below-given tips might help:
Switch Turns
If your partner is as busy as you, you will have to be strategic with taking turns and coordinating your schedules so that the children can get the attention of both parents during the day. This strategy can be integrated if both partners work different shifts so that when one partner looks after the children, the other works.
You could also have alternative days to look after the children. If both are packed with work, you might want to call family or drop your kids off at the grandparents. And, if the grandparents live far away, you can always rely on the best childcare to look after your little ones while you complete your tasks.
Teamwork is the Key
You will want to ensure that it isn’t always one partner whose work schedule becomes the priority. If both are working from home, you will want to negotiate clearly about who will look after the children during which time slot.
You could, however, also team up with the grandparents if they don’t have strict work commitments. Trust us when we tell you that grandparents are always more than happy to spend quality time with their grandchildren.
Now, if your children are old enough to be left alone without supervision for some time, you can set them up for a fun activity in a different room that you can monitor through the camera while you get the important tasks done.
Set Solid Rules
Even toddlers are good at understanding ground rules, so during the days when you have multiple meetings lined up, you will want to be crystal clear about when and for how long you won’t be available. You could ask the older children to look after the younger ones while you are busy doing your priority tasks.
You can turn this aspect into a fun game by setting up a signal system at the door of your office. When you attend virtual meetings or on the phone, you can set up a red signal, indicating that your kids cannot enter the room unless the kitchen is on fire.
A yellow signal will mean that your children can only enter the home office and disturb you when it is important. Additionally, the green signals will tell your kids that it is okay to enter the room. By having solid rules, you can still look after your kids and be a good parent, even when you are working from home.
