Working from home with children

 I don't have children of my own yet, but nevertheless, I can relate to the working from home with children dilemmas. Sometimes, I'd see peers venting on social media about the struggle, the frustration of being the super parent, doing it all. I've experienced the lighter moments at a meeting when a child's voice is randomly heard, as well as the awkward silence when a parent is heard disciplining their child, while forgetting to mute their mic. The video below may look familiar if your weekday is filled with simultaneously wearing the employee and parent hats.

I recently attended a working-from-home with children seminar held by my employers in collaboration with a well-known Psychologist and Educator. Some advice that stood out to me, that you can apply if faced in a situation similar to above, is to firstly ensure your children have a dedicated device for their learning, rather than shared with you or their siblings. Each child should also have a dedicated, personalized learning space, and schedule for their day, to create a routine and stability.

If your child interrupts you during a meeting, your reaction to them shouldn't be like it's the end of the world, but rather, apologize and kindly request the meeting participants to be excused for a brief moment to attend to the child's needs.

While children should not be neglected as you work from home, it's also ok to teach them your boundaries. This can be identified by a known signal to the family, which indicates not to disturb you if displaying it (such as the stop sign), or they see you doing a certain activity (such as closing eyes). During this time is where you're provided with the opportunity for a break to be rejuvenated. To encourage young ones to cooperate, you can also apply the signal to mean the beginning of a fun activity for them to engage in, with the offer of a desirable reward. An example of such is "the quiet game".

You may not feel like it, but chances are, you're doing a great job at this. Don't be too hard on yourself. Remember to take a moment for yourself as well, and you're not in this alone.