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One of the things I struggled with when I first started working from home was whenever my nieces and nephews would come over. I mean looking after kids is tough at the best of times but throw in working from home into the mix it can seem impossible. Are there any tips to help work from home with kids?
Ensuring you constantly communicate with your children, work in the times that you are most productive, have a schedule you can stick to, and involve your kids in your workday are amongst the best things to do when you are working from home with kids. Doing so will entail fewer disruptions and distractions when working from home
So why do these tips work? And are there any other things you can do to help to work from home when taking care of kids? Keep reading to find out more!
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
Communicate constantly
One of the things that people can always get better at is communicating more effectively.
Whilst most of us feel as though we are pretty good at speaking to each other, the truth of the matter is that people are notoriously bad at communicating and can very easily cause a misunderstanding. According to some studies, it’s the number one reason people quit their roles.
Now throw in kids to the mix and it can be even more difficult.
Not communicating effectively with kids can result in major issues and even dreaded temper tantrums in younger kids.
The best way to manage this then when working from home is by constantly communicating with your kids.
You can do this is the following ways:
- Take note of your kid’s non-verbal communication – it’s likely they are trying to tell you something even if they do not show it.
- Change your tone for how you want to come across – kids pick up on tone better than most of us and so if you need to get a serious point across to them ensure that they understand this through the tone in your voice.
- Make sure you are present – Sometimes even when kids don’t want to speak they want to be near your present, as such, if you are the only one at your home, ensure that they are sitting nearby where you can keep an eye on them.
Make sure your kids sleep
Whilst it might seem like your kids are always awake they actually need a lot more sleep than most grown adults.
If you feel as though your kids are being more disruptive than usual it could be because they have not had enough sleep.
Hopefully, the table below should help give you an idea of how much sleep kids need taken directly from the NHS.
|
Age |
Hours of sleep |
| 4 to 12 months | 12 to 16 hours including naps |
| Toddlers 1 to 2 years old | 11 to 14 hours including naps |
| Children 3 to 5 years old | 10 to 13 hours including naps |
| Children 6 to 12 years old | 9 to 12 hours |
| Teenagers 13 to 18 years old | 8 to 10 hours |
Now sleep can also be used as a great tool to keep your kids busy during the difficult periods when you work. For example, if you know you have a super important meeting taking place, try to put your kids down for a nap, especially if they are on the younger side which gives you enough time to crack on with your job.
Whilst you might feel like some kind of superhero balancing both work and kids at the same time it’s also important that you don’t neglect yourself either.
Adults need at least 6-9 hours of quality sleep per day and parents are more guilty than most of us for not getting enough downtime.
Get a good night’s sleep constantly and you just might find that working from home with kids isn’t as difficult as it first seemed.
Make a game out of keeping your kids quiet
Ever play a game with your parents when you were younger only to realize when you grew up you got schooled into doing your homework, doing your chores or brushing your teeth?
Same here!
Younger children love playing games so if you have a super-stacked day in front of you, consider playing a game where your kids stay quiet for one hour.
At the end of the hour, if they manage to keep quiet, they get a surprise ( chocolate usually works a treat!)
This way they can keep quiet for just the amount of time you need to get your important job done.
Word to the wise, don’t overuse this one. Kids are super fast learners and sooner or later they will suss out the game so only do this when you need to.
Also using the quiet game usually works best for shorter periods so doing this for more than an hour might not work out.
Have a designated workspace
Single-handedly the best thing you can do to ensure to stay focused when working from home with kids and my own personal favorite is setting up a designated office to work from.
Employees who work from home who have a designated office to work from are more productive, than those who work from a communal or living area.
Having a collective workspace means that you can focus on the task at hand whilst also having a designated area for your kids so that you can keep them nearby. If your kids are older and can look after themselves you can also consider soundproofing your home office to get rid of any unwanted arguments (goodbye arguments around the TV remote)
So where is the best room to put your home office in? The best option would be a loft so that it does not eat into any of your bedrooms. You can read up more about it here or check out the infographic below.
Considering a blue office is also much more likely to be beneficial in keeping you focused for longer periods of time which is great if your kids have a ton of homework to do and need a space to work from as well.
So what should your home office consist of?
In my opinion, every home office needs the following:
- Sit/stand desk
- A comfortable chair
- Monitor
- Laptop
- Good lighting
- Noise-reducing headphones ( especially if you have loud kids)
Having a designated workspace can make the difference between achieving what you need to at work and getting left behind getting distracted by your kids when working from home.
Give your kids a workspace too
Whilst setting up a home office is a fantastic option to get you to stay focused when working from home.
It’s important that you also set up a designated home office for your kids too.
While most of you will give them a corner of your home office, if you can afford it and have the room for it in your home, you can set up their own bespoke workspace.
Children can get distracted by even the smallest of things and so whilst you’re busy typing away in your office, your kids might use that opportunity to find a way to catch up on what really counts to them … watching toy unboxing videos on YouTube.
Setting up a designated workspace for kids allows your kids to keep both entertained and quiet as you get on with your workday.
So how do you set up a home office for kids?
Luckily I’ve written an entire blog post about it you can check out here: How to make a home office for kids fast
But to summarize I would so the following:
- Set yourself an end date: kids can take up a lot of your time and it can be very easy for a project this big to take a while to complete so set a realistic timeframe to have the kids office completed by
- Have a consistent schedule you can work on your kid’s office for: doing an hour a day is good enough if that is the only time you have free to work on the project
- Create a list of your items: find out what is essential for your kids schoolwork/hobbies and go from there
- Involve your kids in the process: Unfortunately, any design ideas can’t come from you, involve your kids in the process and they will use the space a lot more than you might have anticipated.
- Set a budget: You can’t buy your items without setting a budget first. It’s super easy to overspend when it comes to designing kids’ home offices so be sure to tally up the price of the items you need before purchasing them.
- Look for inspiration: Pinterest and Instagram are great ideas, however, don’t be afraid to think outside the box, kids tv is a great place to get an idea of what children are into design wise
- Come up with a blueprint – Finally before you buy your items, blueprint the exact layout of your office and the equipment you want in there. Using an online home office decorator can be a great option if you are not artistically inclined. You can find my choices on interior design tools here.
That being said this will work more for older kids or kids that are of school age as it’s unlikely that you will find your baby typing on a laptop anytime soon.
Find out what your kids are interested in and distract them with it
Kids are passionate little people and likely have a few things they cherish above all else. ( heck when I was little if anyone took my Pokemon cards I would have a temper tantrum like you’d never seen!)
Find out what your kids are passionate about and distract them with it. If they are super into pets, get them a pet like a goldfish that is easy to manage.
If they are into dancing, task them when coming up for a routine to show you at the end of the day.
If you are unsure about any major interests your kids are into ( let’s face it, kids hobbies change what seems like every 5 minutes) consider getting them involved in one of the following activities which according to Outoftrouble.com are the most popular kids activities:
- Ballet
- Football
- Swimming
- Karate
- Cycling
- Rugby
- Painting
- Bowling
- Horseback Riding
- Creative Writing
- Hiking
- Skiing
- Cooking
- Volunteer Work
- Reading Tennis
- Golf Theater
- Camping
- Boating
- Crafts
What’s even better (if you have the budget) is to see if any of the above activities have day classes that you can drop your kids off during the periods of your day when your workload is at its busiest.
Split up parental responsibilities
Parenting is a difficult job, the old saying goes that it takes a village to raise a child.
If you have a significant other who also works from home try to split parenting responsibilities between each of you.
It’s unlikely that both parents will have a heavy workload on both days and so on the days when you are really struggling try to let your other half look after the kids.
This can definitely be an awkward conversation to have, especially if your partner works from home as well and yet you are still left holding the fort when it comes to managing your kids.
If this is the case, try to sit down with them when neither of you are busy and let them know how you feel as well as the days that you are super busy.
Hire a babysitter
One of the oldest ways to manage your kids when working from home is to simply hire a babysitter.
You can simply drop your kids off at close friends and family that you trust or alternatively use sites like Babysitting.co.uk to help find great qualified childcare experts that you can trust and have been vetted.
Babysitters typically cost between $10 (£7) to $13 (£10) an hour.
Use daycare services
If you are unhappy with hiring a bespoke babysitter a great option if you are unable to give your kids the attention they need if you are working from home with them is to enroll them in daycare.
Studies have found that kids who are set to nurseries and kindergartens earlier achieve better at schools than other kids.
Now keep in mind that whilst this will likely be the most popular option for a lot of you on this list, daycare can be expensive, even in countries where daycare has been subsidized by the government.
It’s not uncommon to spend over $1000 in childcare per month with the average cost being around $1230 per month per child.
Do your busiest tasks in the morning or when your kids are sleeping
For some parents, working with parents is nearly impossible with some children needing more attention than others, drastically reducing the amount of time you are productive for.
One solution that works whenever I’m babysitting is to do my most important work first thing in the morning, preferably before the kids wake up.
This is a great option to get a jump on your tasks for the day. Human beings only have a certain amount of willpower per day and so doing those tasks you need to do first will work best on any super important tasks that you need to complete.
Believe it or not, most people are only productive for about 2 hours and 53 minutes when working, so if you aim to wake up an hour earlier per day then you can use a fair bit of your productive time getting stuff done.
Speak to your manager
One of the challenges a lot of us who work remotely face is that we suffer in silence when the going gets tough.
For some reason, we think that if we tell our bosses that we are finding it difficult, somehow the privilege of working from home will be taken away from us.
The truth of the matter is that your managers likely know what it is that you’re going through and so be upfront with them, heck they might even be able to cover some of the costs of your childcare so be upfront if your kids are making your workforce home experience difficult.
Communicating with your boss when your working from home is one of the best things to get flecibilty in your work day when you need to manage your kids
Get your kids involved
It’s super tempting when working home with kids to just keep them in a different room where you can focus on work and stay productive.
The truth is you only really get one chance to build these memories with your kids as they grow up so try to get them involved in your workday.
If they are old enough you can get them to read through your emails to check for any typos, get them to do some of the admin work, or even summarize some books you’ve been meaning to read and can get them to summarize.
Prepare your food in advance
One of the biggest issues that parents who work from home face is lack of time.
Most couples only get a few minutes to themselves every week and with having to balance kids when working from home it might seem like you have even less than that.
One of the best things that parents can do to free up their time when working from home with kids is to meal prep their food in advance. Most people spend about 33 minutes per day preparing their food and doing this in advance ahead of schedule frees up time to focus on work and also building your relationship with your kids.
Set up food and drink spaces
Mom…. I’m hungry
Probably one of the most common things a lot of us here when working from home are the requests that your kids have for food and drink during the day.
To make things easier, prepare your kid’s food for the day or week in advance and set up a safe space for them to be able to get their food. Consider a table or chart that is the appropriate size for them and leave the food and drink outside.
To really save time, consider making food that doesn’t require any heating or problems that kids might run into.
Ensure you take the time to spend at least an hour per day doing what your kid wants wehn working from home
Get your kids to do the chores
If your kids are old enough why not hit two birds with one stone and get your kids to do some of the house chores?
Working from home when managing kids means that your time is likely going to be split and it’s not uncommon to feel that you are feeling a little burnout balancing the two aspects of your life.
Instead, consider getting them involved in some of the tasks that will not only keep your kids busy when you are busy with work but also come back to less to do when working from home.
Give them screens
This is one tip that is going to be very popular with your kids but might cause you concern, especially as kids spend more than 7 hours per day in front of screens and electronic devices.
Whilst we all try to think of the best ways to avoid giving our kids too much time in front of screens watching movies or playing video games, the truth of that matter is that they are fantastic too for keeping your kids busy when working from home.
The problem comes when kids decide to overdo it and do tasks like eating their food or staying awake at night when in front of the screen.
The perfect solution then is to allow your kids to have screen time during the busiest periods of the day at work. Most devices have a parental lock so you can schedule in your kid’s screen time when you are busy and turn it off when you need to connect with your kids.
Set your expectations
Another important step to take when managing your kids working from home is to set yourself the right expectations.
If you are new to working from home or haven’t had to deal with kids in your workplace before it’s perfectly fine.
Just understand that on the first day, It’s unlikely you’re going to make a lot of progress.
A better step would be to come up with a plan of how things will go. A good option would be a first-month plan split into 4 weeks.
At the end of every week try to increase the amount of work you get done and try to reduce the number of disruptions your kids lay at you.
By the end of the month, you should be able to see the significant progress you’ve made in being able to work with your kids at home.
Stick to a schedule
Kids can bring a lot of chaos and calamity when you start working from home with them.
Because of these, there are going to be a lot of things that are just out of your control.
Controlling the controllable then is going to be super important and I’ve found the best way to do this is to come up with a routine/schedule and stick to this.
Kids need routine in order to be disciplined so aim to break each of your days down into hourly segments (and breaks) and decide how you will keep your kids busy and entertained as they work.
Aim to get your kids up and put them to sleep around the same time too and you’ll find that because of your schedule, your kids are a lot more likely to be settled and a lot less disruptive.
Set the ground rules
Who doesn’t love a naughty step eh?
Kids need consequences for their actions and if they cross a line or go too far in pushing your limits you need to let them know that they will get into trouble if they cross the line.
Now that being said, you can’t blame your kids if they don’t understand what the ground rules are or interrupting you so come up with a list of 5-10 lists that are easy enough to follow.
You can make it fun by giving them stickers for every day they follow the rules and at the end of the week if they get enough gold stars, treat them to something they enjoy.
AIm to come up with these rules with your kids so they feel involved and display them somewhere (like on a chalkboard) where they are easy to remember and see.
Use visuals to communicate with them
If you really are tight on time, being able to communicate with your kids non verbally is just as important as you would in normal conversation.
Use tools like chalkboards, to get your message across, or make the process more fun and draw pictures and painting with your kids that explain what to do if something comes up.
I’ve seen some people stick these on doors as a way of getting their point across.
That being said, it’s always a good idea to communicate with your kids if possible and only stick to this visual, non-verbal communication as a last resort ( think important meetings)
Do activities with your kids
Often at times, if your kids are distracting you through your workday when you work from home. It’s because they miss you.
Whilst work takes priority for most of us, let’s make sure that we don’t miss out on the time that we have with our kids.
Aim for one hour during your workday if possible, that you can get away from your laptop, turn off your phone, and just spend time doing what your kids enjoy.
If you’re tight on time this doesn’t necessarily have to mean going outside, think of creative ways to spend time with them such as playing with their toys or doing small arts and crafts projects.
Communicate with your coworkers
While communicating with your managers is important, it’s also important that you communicate with your coworkers when working from home with your kids.
This means they won’t get as frustrated when you take longer to get back to them with tasks or if your kids make an impromptu appearance in one of your zoom calls.
Communication is more important than ever when working from home and so involving your colleagues in the process will make working from home a lot easier.
Finish at the same time each day
This is just good advice for working from home in general.
A lot of us have the habit of overworking when we work from home as we want to prove to our colleagues/management that we are responsible when it comes to work and want to overdeliver when working remotely.
The truth is most people can only focus and stay productive for around 3 hours or so per day and so working into the late hours of the evening doesn’t get a lot more done.
Doing this is also taking time away from uninterrupted time you can have with your kids which is incredibly important especially if they are towards the younger side of the spectrum.
Take breaks from your kids
While a lot of us wouldn’t admit this in open conversation, parenting, and looking after your kids is a hard word on a good day.
Working from home with your kids is definitely challenging and most people can only do a few weeks before they start feeling a little burnout.
One of the best things to do if you are starting to feel burnt out is to take a day for yourself, no kids, where you can just relax and regroup.
Tell your partner to look after your kids, drop them off to friends or family or hire a babysitter even for a few hours and come back feeling refreshed, recharged, and ready to go a few more rounds.
Be patient
Finally, don’t forget that this is a process and it takes some time to get used to,
Rome wasn’t built in a day and sometimes working from home with kids can feel a lot more challenging.
Make note of where you are week in week out and aim to do 1% better each day.
FAQs
So what are some FAQs’ that people have when it comes to working from home with kids?
The following are some quick tips to help your kids of different ages:
How to manage babies when working from home?
Babies ie, kids that are 12 months or younger need the most amount of attention and will place the largest burden on those of you who work remotely, as such the following tips would work best:
- Use any maternity/paternity leave you have – at this age, your baby really does come first so aim to spend as much time as possible with them
- Rely on your partner – If you live with your partner, use them to your advantage to s=plit parental duties so you don’t feel like a zombie all of the time.
- Make sure they get enough sleep – Kids this age need up to 16 hours of sleep per day so come up with a schedule and stick to it.
- Consider working part-time – At this age, your kids have priority over your career and so consider moving your role into a part time one for the first year.
How to manage toddlers when working from home?
Toddlers are between the ages of 1-2 years old and still require a fair amount of attention, the steps I would follow are:
- Aim to get up an hour early – Your kids should be sleeping through the night at this point and so you can aim to get up and hour earlier to get ahead with your most important tasks
- Hire a babysitter – Using a babysitter on the days when you are having a heavy workload, is also a good option
- Consider kindergarten – Kids who start kindergarten earlier perform better in school, so at this age, enrolling them would be a good idea.
How to manage children when working from home?
Elementary-aged kids can also be a challenge when you work from home and so the following tops would work
- Use screentime to your advantage – if you have super important meetings and your kid is away from school, let them watch their favorite tv program or put on a few of their favorite movies which will help distract them for a few hours.
- Use the school day to keep them busy – The school day will take up around 6 hours per day for your kids so consider using the time they are at school to your advantage and get the most amount of stuff done.
- Consider after-school clubs – If your kids are interested in an activity, sign them up to a class after school and you will have another few hours where you can focus on busy work such as admin.
Teenagers
Teenagers, despite being older, also need to be managed, especially when working from home. The following tips I found to work:
- Hire a tutor – At this age, your kids will likely have big exams coming up so finding a local tutor to help will not only boost their education, it will keep them distracted.
- Let them hang out with their friends – A lot of us like to prevent our kids from going out because of unsubstantiated fears, let them have a social life by hanging out with their friends but set firm curfews on when they need to be back
- Set the rules – At this age, your kids are mature enough to understand when they are being distracted and so set the rules that are easy enough to follow and it should be pretty smooth sailing.
What are the biggest distractions caused by kids when working from home?
Unwanted noise, attention, and interruptions for food and drink are the largest distractions caused by kids when working from home. Consider addressing these problems individually, invest in noise-canceling headphones for the nose, set up food or drink stations so your children are well-fed, and set up a regular schedule so you give your kids attention throughout the day.
How many people work from home with kids
Just under 50% of remote workers work from home and have kids. This is around 2 million employees in the US workforce set to grow to 5 million by 2030. Men are more likely to continue on in employment when they have children than women. Around 50% of employees in total have kids. Globally it’s estimated that around 89% of people become parents at some point in their lifetime.
Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.