Working from home with childern
6 tips for working parents

In this period, with schools closed, working from home with children around is a reality for many parents. What can working parents do to keep their children busy and happy, but also to do their own job satisfactorily? Are you working from home, without children? Then also we have useful tips.

Thuiswerken met kinderen | Tips voor thuiswerkende ouders - Hays.nl

At Hays, almost everyone currently works from home. We asked parents who work with us how they deal with this. Below they share their tips for working from home with children.

6 tips for working from home with children

1. Write a family schedule

A common advice is to make a family schedule.

Ideally your schedule will outline your full day from when you wake up to going to bed. Include your set office hours, mealtimes and breaks.

Try to line up your work plan with your children’s typical routines – for example, parents of young ones may find it easier to schedule calls during naptime or when older children are doing schoolwork.

If there are multiple working adults in the household, you might also want to allocate who will ‘own’ each chunk of time, thereby helping ensure everyone is able to have some distraction free work time.

2. Agree your working hours

Dependent on the age of your children, you may need to alter your hours slightly. Most leaders will want as much business continuity as possible whilst also setting an understanding tone, so should be accommodating of all reasonable requests.

3. Stick to your routine

Another tip often shared for working from home with childer is: try not to deviate from your schedule. You want your children to adjust to the circumstances quickly, and establishing a routine is vital to achieving this, as well as assuring their general wellbeing.

It will also be a good way to make them understand that there are set times where – if possible – they should try not to disturb any working adults.

4. Keep your children entertained

For working parents it can be helpful to preplan games and activities for the week ahead to ensure your children aren’t bored. Consider occupying them with things like art projects, learning and research tasks, gardening or exercise.

Give older kids some extra responsibilities, such as looking after their younger siblings or maybe ‘owning’ certain mealtimes. Of course, it’s important to reward them for this behaviour, so consider pushing their usual bedtime back, increasing their pocket money or whatever other perks you see fit.

5. Set your work zone

For many parents the thought of creating an ‘adult only’ zone in your home may be wishful thinking. However, if your kids are a bit older, try to carve out a space to work in that is free from children’s paraphernalia. This is so you can keep your work and parenting roles separate, giving each your full concentration for a set amount of time without feeling like you aren’t doing either well.

6. Expect the unexpected

From many parents we hear that things don’t go to plan. But try not to worry.

There is no point being too stressed about your child suddenly interrupting a conference call or needing to rearrange a pre-planned video-meeting at short notice because one of your toddlers has hurt themselves. These things happen, and under the circumstances, most of your colleagues, or customers should be understanding.

Children enjoy parents working from home

Working from home with children can be stressful for many people. However, try to enjoy this time together and make it fun. Chances are, your kids will be pretty excited to be spending so much time with you!