Our members’ tips for working from home with children

The coronavirus crisis is giving many people their first taste of working from home for an extended period. There are some nice benefits, for sure, but also significant challenges and potential downsides.

However, working from home with a young child, or children, takes things to a whole new level.

In an email to members last week, we asked you to share your tips for working at home, while also looking after children.

We know that every situation is unique.

Looking after a toddler is different to looking after a young teenager; looking after one child is different from taking care of two or more children; and some of you may be single parenting or have a partner who is still going into work, while other households will have both parents home at the moment.

Nonetheless, many of you contacted us with helpful advice and tips on how you can still be professionally productive at home, while also taking care of your precious offspring.

Here we present, our members’ top tips for parents working at home. 

Establish a routine with break times

Setting a consistent routine was perhaps the one tip that was suggested most frequently. In fact, this seemed to be common advice for many different scenarios: young toddlers, older children, single child or more.

Members wrote:

“Set a routine with school work, ideally in the mornings and early afternoon with breaks and enough time to play and rest. A balanced diet is key, as well as daily exercise.”

“Set up a timetable – it helps the children with structure but also allows you to schedule in set times when they will not need your assistance. I give them an hour lunch break followed by an hour quiet time, which gives me a good 1.5 hours when I can work on a specific task with my full focus.”

“Try and keep to a routine. If you have an important call, try and schedule it for when the kids are on a break. Loads of people are in the same situation so don’t sweat the small stuff like noisy children in the background.”

Organising your workspace

 Another key consideration is your physical workspace when you are working at home. Often, working at home means working at the dining table!

Wherever you are working, members suggest setting up your children with their own ‘workspaces’ too.

“My daughter has her own ‘workstation’ with an old unplugged phone, a notebook, a desk tidy fit her lens and pencils and in old unplugged keyboard. She works alongside me.”

“Stick to a routine and do it every day. I currently have my 10-year-old daughter working on her laptop next to me and I have told her we are work colleagues. Monday to Friday we have a routine: she does a few hours and has a break, a bit like being in an office. She feels grown up as she can work by herself but is next to me if she gets stuck. Into week two and it’s going well. She is a bit older so understands the importance of me being on the phone and knows, if I have a call, she has to tap me or put her hand up if she needs me rather than shouting out….Same rules as school.”

“Set them small tasks and work in the same room as them if possible.”

Your schedule

A few members suggested dividing your work day by waking up a bit earlier to get some work done before you need to do some parenting. And, likewise, doing a little bit more once they’ve gone to sleep. This is, perhaps, especially true for parents of babies and toddlers.

“Be realistic about what is achievable. Try to use the time before they get up and maybe after 3 o’clock for a productive work session.“

“With younger children spend some quality engaging time with them when you can throughout the day. It will pay off when you need to do a call and you want them to play on their own. It works with my 4 year old.“

“If there are two parents at home then it works for us that we swap every 2-3 hours to work/look after the children and teach them.“

The guilty pleasure

Throughout our members’ suggestions there were several, almost reluctant, references to the magical effect that TVs and computers can have on children. The consensus is perhaps best summed up by this comment:

“Allow yourself to park small children in front of the screen for a few hours each day without any guilt. Also, be realistic about what you can achieve work-wise in these extreme circumstances.” 

Rest when you can 

There was also more than a little dose of practical reality in our members’ advice. No one will be perfect and some days will be harder than others.

“Please be patient. It is really, really hard.” 

“This time will pass. Stay home and rest when you can.”

“Keeping our children safe is the most important thing. Our work is important too, but it must come second.”

Parenting is demanding enough at the best of times, and many members expressed frustration that they were being put in this difficult position. It is difficult to argue with the member who said that looking after a “five-year-old is already a full-time job.”

It is also perfectly natural and reasonable for parents to say that the safety and wellbeing of their children would always be paramount and that, during these difficult times, their work was taking a backseat. We would hope too that employers recognise these are exceptional circumstances.

Please see our support pages for more information and advice on COVID-19.