I have been asked lately a few times, ‘how did and do you work with a child by
your side?’
Great question!
Here are my tips to help get you through the next few weeks with working from home while having the littles around.
In my job, everything is done on time. 30mins for a client here, 45mins there, my first tip is to let your child know what you need to do. They know you work but they don’t really understand it and they are unsure of how important work is. I would explain to my kids, l have a client or l have work that needs to be done in what kind of time frame. I still to this day explain it to my 12-year-old and know she asks.
I know l was accepting my kids to know what l need to do without communicating to them. I would often end up saying ‘do you know l need to….’ Well, they didn’t. Kids think in the moment, they follow the excitement.
My next tip is, whatever you plan for the child to do be prepared they will do the exact opposite. No matter how many colouring pencils or books you bring, toys, and so on. The child will still want to be around you when, to them the excitement starts, or something new starts.
When something new is going on, for example, a video call, they are trying to figure out what this video call thing is to them. They may have not seen it before, they made me a little nervous, they may love seeing their faces on the screen, embrace it, don’t fight it.
The more you fight what the child is doing, the more you will just get upset yourself. You can always mute the video call, or ask the person on the other end of the phone to hold and take the time to talk to your child about what you need to do.
Communicating with my kids while l have been working has had its ups and downs. Asking my little one to be quite, means to her to keep talking but in a lower voice. She will start whispering to me what she needs to tell me, normally she forgets, and it ends up with ‘l love you mum’ and runs off.
Be prepared that your kids may not speak to you for 3hours and then the minute the phone rings, they have to fit their words in for the day to you. When this would happen and still does, l would leave the room to continue on with the conversation. If they follow, l would sit and hug them, and let the person know on the other end whats going on.
I am a HUGE fan of boundaries, l love them, my kids love them. I often talk to them about what their role is when l am with a client, or if l have to work on the computer. I love to work in silence if there is a lot of noise going on in the background, l can’t focus or get anything done. Then l hear ‘Mum, Mum…’ The first thing l do is take a deep breath and explain - l just need 5mins to get this done.
If your child is climbing over you in a video call, try not to get too upset, l know it isn’t easy. My kids aren’t perfect, but if you are worried about other people judging you then that’s their problem, not yours. People will always have something to say about the way you do anything, if they are mean to you about your parenting ways, imagine how they treat themselves?
You can’t be in two places at once, you can only wear one hat a time. Embrace this time together, the little person has chosen you out of all the people in the world to be their mother. Being a mum is one of the greatest rewards but also one of the hardest jobs in the world.
All we can do is go day by day, learn, and move forward. And don’t get wrapped up in the socials. I am still going through working from home with the girls, there isn’t a secret recipe to follow, do what works for you.
This was great to read