8 Simple Tips for Parents Working From Home
Considering the current pandemic situation, we could easily find ourselves working from home for another few weeks or even months. For many parents, this might be a very new experience and can be overwhelming. Pressure to remain productive at work, while taking care of your kids, can be quite challenging. While you work from home, these tips can make your work life less stressful. They will also help you become more productive at work while balancing your family life.
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Organize Your Workplace or Workstation
Setting up a proper workstation is not only necessary to be efficient and productive but is also important for our health and wellbeing. Working on a laptop while sitting on a couch, bed or even on our dining table for a longer period can be psychologically and physically challenging. Setting up a proper station will help us with our posture and keep our work-related documents and devices safe and out of reach from our kids. We also strongly encourage you to explain to your kids that it is your workstation and they are not allowed to touch or play with anything from your station. They might not understand it right away but with time your work station and belongs will be much safer even without your watch.
Introduce Fun and Educational Toys
Introducing fun educational toys will not only keep them engaged but will also help them develop essential motor and cognitive skills. Kids won’t get easily bored with these toys. Also, we won’t have to worry about our kids spending too much time playing as the toys will be highly beneficial for them. Here are some of the best educational electronic toys, augmented reality toys and popular board games for kids that could be a lifesaver for you while you work from home.
Seek Help of Older Kids
If you have older kids at home then now would be the best time to teach them to be responsible. You can divide small chores among them or ask them to look after the little ones. By doing so, not only you will get a chance to focus on your task but will also help to develop the bonding among the siblings.
Screen Time
I can’t imagine working from home without providing any screentime for my kids. Screentime doesn’t necessarily have to be our kids playing their favorite songs and rhymes repeatedly for hours. Here are some of the best educational apps and games that you can introduce to your kids. They are free and will benefit your kids from any screentime he/she gets. Providing extra screentime to kids can be stressful for many parents but knowing that they are improving their cognitive skills from the screentime can provide a relief.
Take Advantage of Naptime
Naptime is different from one kid to another. Your little one might sleep for 1 – 3 hours and you can take advantage of this period. Try to work on the tasks that require more focus and concentration during this period. Once they are up and running, it will be almost impossible to stay focused and work on any task for more than half an hour. They can be demanding and as parents, we will have an urge to check on them now and then.
Wait Till Your Kids Fall Asleep At Night
Not all of us might have the flexibility to work outside the office hours. However, if it’s possible, you can have 1-2 productive hours after your kids fall asleep. Getting the same task done while kids are running around might take you much longer than that. So, you might as well take regular breaks, spend some quality time with the kids and get some chores done while keeping an eye on them in the afternoon. Here are some fun storybooks infants and toddlers that you might find handy as you put your little ones to bed.
Engage Kids in Activities That Don't Require Continuous Supervision
Activities such as coloring a book, playing with their favorite toys or watching their favorite rhymes or songs don’t require continuous supervision. While you leave them engaged in their favorite activities, you can still keep an eye on them via camera. Many cameras in the market are easy to use, cheap and don’t require any complex setup. It should easily buy you at least 2 hours daily to focus on your tasks.
Assign Tasks and Reward Them
Most of the schools have closed due to an outbreak and even if they are open, we might be skeptical about sending our kids to the school. Just because our kids are not going to school or are on school holiday, they shouldn’t stop learning. You can create some assignments for them that will keep them busy and help them to keep their minds sharp. Just to make things more interesting, you can reward them as they complete the assignments. A little bit of extra screentime as a reward can bring them back asking for more assignments or you can figure out the rewards based on your kid’s likes and dislikes. Once they are busy with the assignments then we can focus our tasks without any distractions.
