Working from home can be a struggle for anyone, but working from home with toddlers? Absolute madness. Here are several practical tips to help you survive working from home with toddlers.
This a guest post from Kalyn Franke who writes about productivity, relationships, and making the most out of life at Goodbye, Self Help. As an American expat in the UK, she’s always interested in learning more about resiliency, cross-cultural experiences, and what makes the “perfect” cup of tea.
Working from Home with Toddlers: 7 Must-Read Tips
Whether you’ve found yourself in a position where you have no choice but to work from home with your little ones, or you love working from home but just need some extra support on how to do it efficiently with toddlers around, these tips are for you!
Communicate with Your Boss
Whether you have a direct line manager or maybe you have freelancing clients, communicate with them about the situation if you’re having a particularly tough time.
It could be just an off hand remark included in an e-mail to remind them that you’re working from home with toddlers, or you could have a more serious conversation with your boss where you explain the situation and ask for extensions to deadlines or ask for feedback on how they feel your work has been lately.
Communication is key, and when you’re working from home, you won’t necessarily have it in the ways people do when they’re in an office and can see what distractions someone is dealing with. At the end of the day, the goal is to find a way to effectively work from home with toddlers, not make excuses to your boss, but we’re all human and understanding your situation will help your boss support you appropriately.
Try to Work around the Toddler’s Schedule
If you’re working from home with no help in looking after your toddlers, you’re going to have to come to terms with your second boss: your kid!
There will be some instances where you have to change the schedule for the day and jump on a call at a certain time with no flexibility, but often there are ways to move your schedule around so that you can work around what your toddler is normally up to.
This includes getting work done before they wake up so that you can then have time with them in the morning, it could mean trying to schedule meetings for when they always go down for a nap, or it could mean that you try and accomplish most of your work at night after they’ve gone to sleep (and make sure to tire them out in the day so they go down easier!)
If your toddler has a natural schedule they are used to, try planning your day around that because the more comfortable they are and the more routine they have, the easier it will be overall.
If You Have Help, Work behind Closed Doors
If you have help in looking after your toddler while you’re trying to work from home, whether that’s the other parent or a babysitter or someone else, try and work behind closed doors and the furthest point of the house possible from where they are.
Older kids can understand that you are working and just because you are in their line of sight doesn’t mean you are free to play, but a 3 year old won’t get that. You should try and keep yourself as out of sight as possible, and not try and work from the kitchen table when they’re eating lunch or watching television in the adjacent room.
Get Them Involved
Okay, so your 2 year old isn’t exactly going to be managing your spreadsheets and there are times when it’s absolutely not appropriate to have your child around, but if you’re really struggling to keep them occupied while you’re working, sometimes it can be fun for them to feel like they’re getting involved with what you’re doing.
For instance, buy an educational laptop for kids that has age appropriate games on it and just a few simple buttons, and let them “work” alongside you while you’re doing a task that doesn’t need as much concentration.
Or maybe you’re doing some filing and writing on papers – set them up with colorful paper and some crayons and have them draw while you’re organizing your office.
If you’ve ever seen a younger sibling be perfectly content playing with the “fake” video game controller that they don’t realize isn’t controlling the game, you’ll understand why this works. We just want to be involved in what the people we look up to are doing.
Embrace the Screen Time
At no point should you feel guilty for embracing screen time for your toddler while you’re working. You don’t have to be the Pinterest Mom or Dad all of the time (or any of the time) that has handcut crafts and individualized attention 24/7.
Setting your toddler up in front of their favorite shows can keep them engaged for longer stretches of time, and if you don’t have help looking after them, it’s easy enough to set them up in front of the TV while you work in the same room with your headphones in.
Work in Short Blocks
The nature of having a toddler mean interruptions are going to be more common than they are if you’re working from home with a, say, 13 year old. Adapt your work schedule to this, and plan to work in short blocks rather than long stretches of time. For instance, plan to spend 20 minutes answering e-mails and then another block could be 30 minutes to update a spreadsheet, instead of planning 2 hours of uninterrupted time.
That way, when the inevitable happens and you do need to tend to a hurt knee or a hungry kid or the whims of toddler life, it’s easier to get back to your work and feel like you left space in your schedule for those moments.
Give Yourself Grace
Okay, it’s not a practical tip, but it has to be said: working from home with kids of any age is hard, but with toddlers who are old enough to run into your Zoom call but not old enough to really understand why they shouldn’t, it can be extra challenging.
You have to give yourself a certain amount of grace and understanding and not get too frustrated when the day doesn’t go your way. It can be incredibly disheartening when you feel like you’re not succeeding in your work and you’re not giving your all as a parent but take a moment every day to breathe and remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can.
Final Thoughts
Working from home is hard. It’s even harder with little ones. Let this guide help you survive working at home with toddlers!
This a guest post from Kalyn Franke who writes about productivity, relationships, and making the most out of life at Goodbye, Self Help. As an American expat in the UK, she’s always interested in learning more about resiliency, cross-cultural experiences, and what makes the “perfect” cup of tea.
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