Working from home with kids is hard work. But for many people, it’s also the only way to make ends meet. And when you have small children who need care, it can feel like an impossible juggling act.
I’ve been there. In fact, my daughter turns two years old this February! So let me share what has worked for me: some strategies from my own experience that may help other parents find more time for work and family life together plus some tips from other working moms who are doing it right now too.
| Takeaways |
|---|
| Working from home with kids is challenging, but it’s possible to establish a healthy balance between work and family life. |
| Maintaining productivity when working from home with kids requires a dedicated workspace, routine, and effective time management. |
| Effective communication and flexibility are essential when working from home with kids. |
| Regular self-care practices, such as exercise and relaxation, can help prevent burnout and improve well-being. |
| There are many resources available to help those who work from home with kids, including guides, articles, and productivity tools. |
Creating A Schedule
Create a schedule. It’s important to plan your day and schedule time for work, family and yourself. This will help you feel more in control of your time and responsibilities as well as allow you to set limits on when you will work (such as not during dinner).
Schedule downtime and breaks. Set aside time for play with kids, relaxing or exercising so that you can have some down time without feeling guilty about not working.
Schedule time for meetings with colleagues. If possible, schedule meetings with colleagues outside of working hours so that these are not part of their core working day.
Creating a productive work environment while working from home with kids is crucial for maintaining focus and managing distractions. Our article on creating a productive work environment at home with kids provides essential tips to improve your work-from-home setup.
Planning Ahead
Planning ahead is one of the most effective strategies for making it work from home with kids.
It will help you get more done, avoid distractions, and avoid stress—not to mention being more efficient.
If you don’t have a plan in place, it’s easy to get distracted by the things that need to be done around the house or by distractions from your kids (like when they’re upset about something).
By having a plan for how you’re going to use your time each day and what projects you want to focus on first, this helps reduce distractions so that you can focus on getting things done without getting sidetracked by other tasks (or just plain old boredom).
Tools for Planning Ahead
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Trello | A powerful project management tool that helps you organize tasks, set priorities, and collaborate with team members. |
| Google Calendar | A web-based calendar application that allows you to schedule appointments, set reminders, and sync with your other devices. |
| Asana | A comprehensive task management tool with advanced features for project planning, team collaboration, and progress tracking. |
| Todoist | A simple yet powerful to-do list app that helps you prioritize tasks, manage deadlines, and stay on track. |
| Notion | A multifunctional workspace that allows you to create custom databases, wikis, notes, and task lists. |
This table suggests tools to help with the semantic of “Planning Ahead.” These tools can help individuals and teams plan their tasks, projects, goals, and deadlines. The table includes popular tools like Trello, Google Calendar, Asana, Todoist, and Notion, which can help in different scenarios related to planning ahead.
Getting Kids On Board
Get your kids involved in the process. Let them help you decide where to set up your workspace, and why. Make sure they know what you’re doing, why it’s important for you to work from home, and how it can help their lives.
Make sure they understand the benefits of working from home. For example: “It’ll be easier if I’m here when you need me.” Or “I can work on more projects at once without having to travel back and forth.”
Talk about what they can do to help make this arrangement successful for everyone involved (including themselves). This could include helping with chores or picking up after themselves while mom is working, taking care of younger siblings when needed, etcetera.
Balancing work and parenting can be challenging, especially when working from home. Our article on tips for balancing work and parenting while working from home with kids contains practical advice to help you manage your time effectively and create a healthy balance between work and family.
Be Kind To Yourself
You are not a failure if you can’t do everything.
It’s okay to ask for help. If you need someone to watch your child so that you can get some work done, try a local sitter or daycare provider.
If you need help with childcare during the weekdays, consider hiring an au pair or babysitter through an agency that has been vetted by the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
This ensures the safety and quality of the service they provide their clients with—and it’s also easier than having to coordinate between multiple people who can refer each other on different days over email or phone calls!
You might also want to consider joining a parent co-op where other parents can swap childcare responsibilities with each other in order for everyone involved here at home with little ones gets some time off once in awhile without breaking bank accounts doing so either!
This way everyone wins no matter who takes care of what for whom since most people have kids but don’t necessarily have extra cash lying around waiting either.”
Self-Care Tools to Be Kind to Yourself
| Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Headspace | A meditation and mindfulness app that offers guided meditations, sleep aids, and stress management exercises. |
| Insight Timer | A meditation app with over 40,000 free guided meditations, music tracks, and talks from various teachers around the world. |
| Calm | A stress and anxiety management app that provides meditation sessions, sleep stories, nature sounds, and breathing exercises. |
| Fabulous | An app that creates personalized self-care routines to build healthy habits and improve overall well-being. |
| Happify | An app that provides research-based activities and games aimed at reducing stress, increasing happiness, and building resilience. |
This table suggests self-care tools to help individuals be kind to themselves by reducing stress, prioritizing mental health, and improving overall well-being. The table includes popular apps like Headspace, Insight Timer, Calm, Fabulous, and Happify, which can help individuals in various aspects of self-care.
Managing Online Learning
Set up a home office. If you’re going to be working from home, you need a dedicated space for your office. This could be an actual room or simply an area of your house that is free from distractions and interruptions.
Set up a work routine. Once you’ve set up your home office and arranged for childcare, it’s time to get into the swing of things by scheduling in blocks of time where you can focus solely on your work tasks without interruption and without having to worry about what else needs to be done around the house!
Plan out when each day will be devoted entirely to working on schoolwork (and plan accordingly).
Some days will be better than others depending on how much work needs doing: some days may require just one hour after dinner; other days might require longer stretches of uninterrupted time during which no one disturbs them but themselves (i.e., no phone calls or texts!)
An organized home office can significantly boost productivity, reducing stress levels, and promoting focus. Check out our piece on organizing your home office for maximum productivity for tips on how to declutter, organize, and optimize your workspace.
Preparing To Work From Home With Children With Special Needs
The first thing you need to do before working from home is define the problem. What do you want to change? Do you want to make more money, have more time with your family, or just get out of the house? Think about what’s important to you and write down a goal for yourself.
Next, set some goals for yourself at home. It can be easy when working from home with children with special needs to get caught up in what other people are doing the amount of work they’re getting done or the amount of money they’re making but it isn’t helpful!
Instead, focus on what matters most: achieving tangible fitness goals within 3-6 months (for example, losing 5 pounds), taking care of your kids’ developmental needs (such as reading them bedtime stories) and performing routine household tasks such as cleaning up after meals or laundry every day (these help keep clutter under control).
Tools and Resources for Working from Home with Children with Special Needs
| Tool/Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Understood.org | A comprehensive website that provides resources, advice, and community support for parents of children with learning and thinking differences. |
| IEP Checklist | A downloadable tool that helps parents and caregivers of children with special needs prepare for individualized education program (IEP) meetings and create effective IEP plans. |
| Brain Balance Achievement Centers | A program that provides personalized plans to help children overcome learning and behavioral challenges, such as ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. The program includes one-on-one coaching, nutritional support, and sensory activities. |
| Sensory Tools | A collection of products and sensory tools aimed at helping children with special needs reduce anxiety, improve focus, and regulate emotions when working from home or attending virtual classes. These tools include weighted blankets, sensory swings, fidget toys, and noise-canceling headphones. |
| Teletherapy Services | A range of virtual therapy services, including speech therapy, occupational therapy, and behavioral therapy, for children with special needs. These services are offered by providers like E-Therapy and Taable. |
This table suggests tools and resources to help parents of children with special needs prepare for working from home while taking care of their children’s unique needs. The table includes resources like Understood.org, IEP Checklists, and programs like Brain Balance Achievement Centers, as well as sensory tools and teletherapy services that can help with the transition to working from home.
Giving Your Kids Some Responsibility
Giving your kids some responsibility is a great way to give them a sense of belonging and show that they’re an important part of the family. This can help them feel more independent, while also teaching responsibility and self-esteem.
Make sure that you don’t overburden them, though they still have their own lives to live! Don’t expect your child to do everything or even necessarily anything at all, unless they’re capable of it. And don’t ever expect your child to clean up after themselves or make their own meals.
There are many useful tools and apps that can improve productivity when working from home. Our informative guide on productivity boosters: the best apps and tools outlines tools and techniques that can help you optimize your work process and get things done.
Establishing A Routine (Again)
Establishing a routine (again) is one of the most important things to do when working from home with kids. Whether you’re doing it for the first time or have been working from home for years, it’s important to get into a routine with your children.
Routines help facilitate kids’ development and give them security, which helps them sleep better at night and adjust more easily to their new circumstances.
Routine can also help parents feel more relaxed because they know what’s going on during the day, which makes parenting easier. They also make sure that everyone knows where they need to be at what time — no surprises!
There are lots of different types of routines you can try depending on your unique circumstances:
Bedtime routines: Go through each step with your child before bed so he knows exactly what will happen next — this way he won’t worry about waking up alone in an unknown place when he wakes up in someone else’s house (which would be scary).
For example, you might say something like “Okay buddy! Next we’re going upstairs into our bedroom where I’ll read one story before lights out.”
Then go through all those steps one by one until everything is ready for bedtime after which point mommy puts kiddo down for story time only after both parents say goodnight together out loud three times each without fail every single night without fail until forever ends…then repeat again tomorrow night at exactly 8 PM sharp 😉
Creating Designated Workspace
The first step to creating a work-from-home set up that works for you and your kids is to make sure you have a designated workspace.
Your space should be large enough to accommodate your computer and any other necessary tools, such as a scanner or fax machine.
This can be as simple as setting up your desk in the corner of the dining room or living room, or if there’s space, moving all furniture from one end of a room and making it into an office area.
Next, make sure that there is at least one private area where the kids can do their schoolwork without disturbing anyone else.
If they need privacy while they do this work, they might prefer working in their bedroom with headphones on; however, not everyone likes doing homework alone some kids prefer having another person around when they study so they don’t get bored (and so someone will listen if they get stuck).
Keep in mind that some children are quieter than others when studying; if you’ve got more than one child working on school assignments at once, consider noise levels carefully before deciding where everyone should sit down together!
Finally—and this might seem obvious but it really isn’t—make sure there’s plenty of food around! When I was working from home during my first pregnancy (when I was still breastfeeding), I had no idea how much energy goes into keeping yourself fed throughout the day until suddenly finding yourself unable to cook anything substantial because everything makes its way back up again within minutes after being consumed…
Self-care is vital when it comes to managing the demands of self-employment. Our article on the importance of self-care in self-employment highlights strategies for maintaining good health, preventing burnout, and achieving a balance between work and personal life.
Setting Expectations, Boundaries And Rules
- Set clear expectations, boundaries and rules for your children.
- Be open and honest with them about how much you will be working, and when.
- Establish a set time each day that they know they can expect to see you (either in person or via video chat).
- Have a good working environment – one where you feel comfortable and won’t be distracted by anything in the room around you that might keep you from getting work done (i.e., kids running around).
Conclusion
Working from home with children shouldn’t be a scary proposition. There are many ways to make it work for you and your family, and many resources available to help. You just have to put in the effort up front to find what works best for your situation!
Further Reading
Want to learn more about working from home with kids? Check out some of these helpful resources:
Working from Home With Kids: A Complete Guide: This comprehensive guide offers tips for balancing your work and home life when working from home with kids.
Working from home with kids—during coronavirus: This article provides advice on managing your work schedule while caring for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How to Work from Home with Kids: Upwork’s guide to working from home with kids provides useful tips for maintaining productivity and work-life balance.
FAQs
How do I create a productive work environment when working from home with kids?
Creating a productive work environment requires finding a quiet space where you can focus on your work without distractions. Consider setting up a designated workspace and communicating boundaries with your kids to minimize interruptions.
How can I balance work and parenting while working from home with kids?
Balancing work and parenting can be challenging when working from home, but it’s essential to establish a routine and communicate your availability to your children. Scheduling focused work time around your children’s schedules and delegating tasks can help you manage both responsibilities effectively.
What are some helpful tools and apps for working from home with kids?
There are many tools and apps that can improve productivity and help you manage your time effectively when working from home with kids. Try using productivity apps, like Todoist, Trello, or RescueTime, to stay organized, focused, and on-task.
How can I prevent burnout when working from home with kids?
To prevent burnout when working from home with kids, it’s crucial to establish a balance between work and personal life. Take breaks, get outside, and communicate with your support system when you need assistance.
How can I communicate effectively with my family while working from home with kids?
Communication is key when working from home with kids. Establish a routine and communicate your availability with your family, set boundaries around interruptions, and use technology to stay connected throughout the day.
Hi there! I’m Hellen James, and I’ve been working at home for over a decade. I’ve been looking for ways to be more efficient at home, and I have a bunch of tips that you’ll love.
