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Balancing your roles as parent and professional is no simple trick, but it can be done with creativity and patience. If you work from home, you already face special challenges like projecting a corporate image or isolation from your peers. If you work at home with the kids there, your challenges may be compounded by jelly-smeared monitors and background arguments over the remote.
How do you get work done when the kids want to touch the pretty buttons o-n your computer while you type, try to talk to you while you're o-n a business call, or need you to pick them up from the mall o-n the day your project is due?
Balancing your roles as parent and professional is no simple trick, but it can be done with creativity and patience. The 9-to-5 corporate style is not going to work here. You have to invent your own routine that fits in both parenting duties and business obligations, sometimes simultaneously. Here are some things the work-at-home parent should think about for creating a routine that works.
1. If you have young children, prepare your office for kids. First, childproof your office so your children can't hurt themselves and they can't destroy your business items. Then, set aside a spot for your child. Make it his or her own by furnishing it with a small table or desk, chair, and container for toys or activities.
2. Although you will work while the kids are asleep, this isn't always enough. When you work while the kids are up and active, accept that you will be interrupted often. Try to schedule work in short blocks of time ¨C this makes stopping and restarting easier. Also, work o-n lighter tasks that do not require concentration. Include the kids in your work routine by planning breaks where you give the kids your attention and setting up activities the kids can do alongside you.
3. Working o-n a schedule not o-nly keeps you o-n track, but it gives the kids stability. Even babies function well when in a routine. Be sure to balance both business time and kid time in the schedule. You don't have to schedule every minute ¨C things do come up. Use it as your daily guideline so everyone around you¡ªkids, neighbors, in-laws, etc.¡ªknows what to expect from you and when. You'll get less complaints and interruptions this way.
4. Recognize your limits. Don't try to be supermom or superdad. (Besides, even superheroes have sidekicks.) There may be days that the housework piles up or fast food is dinner three nights in a row. There may be days you don't get as much work done as you planned. Prioritize your to-do list each day, including your parenting activities, and make sure you at least get to the most important activities.
5. Ask for help. It is extremely difficult, if not a threat to your sanity, to attempt to work a business full time and care for your kids full time (in addition to maintaining a house and getting any sleep at all). Well, what's the point of this article? To help you work productively¡ªnot constantly¡ªwith the kids around. Enlist occasional help with the kids or with the business if you need it. For your business, you might delegate some of your work to outside services such as a delivery service for package pick-up or a bookkeeper to mind your finances. Where the kids are concerned, you might swap baby-sitting with other parents in order to get an afternoon or two each week of uninterrupted work time.
Be clear o-n your priorities, and stay true to them. If you are staying home for the kids, sometimes you need to put down the work when they need you. You don't get these years back.
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