Tips to help you maintain your sanity and have a productive workday whilst your kids are at home.
The Covid-19 nightmare continues to unfold here in South Africa. We are slap-bang in the middle of our third, and what may be, our most brutal wave of Covid infections yet. Unfortunately, unlike many countries in the Northern hemisphere, our vaccine rollout has been slow, and due to the rapid increase in positive cases nationally, we are staring down the barrel of more stringent lockdown restrictions.
Countless parents - present company included - have opted to keep our children at home as a precautionary measure against this dreaded virus. The latter being the perfect storm for conflicting priorities.
Our homes (previously private sanctuaries) now moonlight as office spaces, and as a result, we invite our colleagues into our homes via platforms like Teams. The show must inevitably go on, right?
Keeping the proverbial show going with screaming children in the background who need to be fed, clothed, entertained, put down for naps and well, kept alive whilst in back-to-back meetings is a nervous breakdown in the making.
“Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories.”
~John Wilmot~
In my humble opinion (and please note it is my opinion only), there are degrees of comparison when working from home. First, there’s working from home, then there is working from home whilst your children are home as well, and then dear reader, there is working from home with your children - all under the age of six - at home.
Please indulge me as I share a personal experience. I attended a meeting with the Managing Director of an organisation. During the meeting, the MD addressed me directly and asked for my input on a deliverable, and as fate would have it, this was the very moment my 17 month-old chose to have a meltdown about a toy his brother forcibly took from him. I abandoned the meeting right there and then and lept from my chair to salvage the situation. Amidst my toddler's frantic screaming, I had to excuse myself from the meeting and deal with the fallout. I was utterly embarrassed, and though fellow attendees reassured me that all is well, I still cringe when I think about it.
You are likely here - reading this blog - because you've fallen victim to a similar incident. So here's my survival guide.
Tip 1: Make planning your best friend
As far as possible, schedule important meetings around your children's nap and meal times. It may not always be possible, but where possible, flex diaries accordingly to allow you space to engage in the meeting fully. If you have no choice but to attend a meeting whilst your little one is awake, prepare snacks, toys and activities in advance, so they have what they need for the duration of the meeting, reducing the number of times they need your attention.
Tip 2: Be flexible
Constant interruptions are at the order of the day when you have young children. Unfortunately, constant interruptions can make deep, meaningful work near impossible. To work around this, wake up as early as possible (whilst your little ones are still fast asleep) and do the work that needs your undivided attention during this time. If you are a night owl, do your deep work after you put your little ones to bed and keep the simple, mundane tasks for their awake window.
Tip 3: Manage your colleagues proactively
The truth is that not all your colleagues and clients will be equally understanding of your circumstances. So manage their expectations proactively. Send a note to the meeting chair/organiser and key attendees in advance, informing them that you have your children at home and will therefore keep your camera and microphone off to avoid distracting other meeting attendees. Most online meeting platforms offer a chat functionality so you can also send a message to attendees when the meeting starts, informing them why your camera and microphone is off.
Tip 4: Use technology to your advantage
Being mindful of your local privacy and personal information legislation, ask fellow attendees whether you can record the meeting. I cannot tell you how many times this simple tactic has saved me from missing an action assigned to me, or an important decision that was made. I have personally found the Notability application absolutely indispensable. It not only records the meeting but also keeps track of the recording in relation to the notes made.
Tip 5: Create a tag-team
A well known African proverb says, "It takes a village to raise a child". So what must we do if we are not allowed to be in contact with “the village” due to a global pandemic? If you are blessed to have a partner, a flatmate, or a neighbour that you trust - create a babysitting tag-team for those times when you absolutely cannot afford to have the children with you whilst working. We may be deprived of our freedom to move around, but it does not have to mean that we are entirely devoid of support.
Tip 6: Know that this, too, shall pass
So much of my stress is self-inflicted. I overthink and overstress just about everything. I feel guilty because my kids spend far more time in front of a screen than they should, whilst being equally pressured to earn an income. These conflicting priorities can cause a lot of stress. The truth is, however, that a shift in mindset can often be the difference between a productive working day - juggling both work and family - or a complete fail of a day. So dear reader, I will remind you of the very thing I remind myself of every single day. This, too, shall pass... Our children will return to school and daycare, and we will once again enjoy the gift of working in silence. Shift your thinking, and you will shift your reality.
Do you have any pearls of wisdom to share? Please feel free to leave a comment.
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