In the face of so many school and business closures and so many employees urged to work from home, professionals are whipping out laptops and logging kitchen counter hours like never before.
And if you’re doing it with sweet superheroes shooting Nerf bullets at your MacBook Pro, let’s just be honest.
This ain’t no easy ride.
As a mama who worked from home for a publishing company for 13 years, most of them while attempting to simultaneously entertain superheroes who believe adult interaction is a curse word, I’ve been in those shoes.
THIS is what I learned, 100 percent through frequent, flailing-around failure, about playing Mama and Professional in one house in one hour.
1. Before you tackle anything else, make an enrichment battle plan for your staying-at-home superheroes. Contrary to popular belief, they really don’t have to be banned to a television babysitter until Coronacation Ending Come. What age-appropriate activities can they enjoy without your supervision? Which activities can older kiddos lead for youngers? What can you even pay your older children who are now home from closing fast food restaurants to do for youngers? Tutor? Teach? Make Aunt Sally’s homemade cinnamon rolls?
Some activities kiddos of various ages can add to their daily schedules:
a. Language learning. Free apps like DuoLingo allow kiddos to learn a new language in a fun way. Have free or cheap access to a language learning system? Now’s the time to use that promo code for a free 30-day trial. Or check out your local library for millions of free resources to get those kiddos saying “Ni hao” in no time!
b. Instrument introduction. Have an old instrument that’s been sitting in your closet since high school band? Bust out the instrument and some YouTube tutorials. Everyone loves strumming a guitar, and older kiddos will get a kick out of reliving Mom’s marching band years. Have kiddos too little to hold one? Try a recorder and a YouTube tutorial. They’ll be playing like the Pied Piper in no time.
c. Math practice. Websites like Khan Academy offer countless free tutorials, lessons and practice opportunities for kiddos of every grade and age. What an opportunity for kiddos who need extra help in those areas to get it!
d. Online education. How many times have your teachers provided learning websites that you threw in the trash with the 17th spelling test of the week? Bust out those resources and actually use those sites your Teacher of the Year provided back when you were excited your kid got into her class.
e. Online art classes. Art Hub for Kids kept our superheroes busy drawing their favorite cartoons and characters for days, and Bob Ross tutorials are making a huge comeback! My sister, who is a trained atelier art instructor in New York City, will be offering professional-level classes online to kids in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more info!
f. Cooking. YouTube tutorials and online cooking lessons are your BFFs! And with you now working from home, you could use help in this department, anyway. Kiddos as young as 3 can make sandwiches, and by 8, the superheroes in our house were each assigned a night of the week to prepare and serve a full meal for the family. This is an awesome opportunity to put more life skills in their basket and more responsibility in their court! (And it’s a great chance for older kiddos to dust off those cooking books that have been sitting in your pantry since 1999.)
g. Exercising. Want to help your kiddos stay healthy while they’re banned to the house? For olders, bust out those old Beach Body videos you purchased back when you and Tony Horton were P90X BFFs. For youngers, try Cosmic Kids Yoga for free on YouTube. If you have land, go blaze a new trail on your property. It will be a physical adventure to build it AND to run it.
h. Board gaming. If you have more than one superhero at home, Candy Land, checkers and Monopoly can be your work-from-home BFFs.
i. Crafting. The Dollar Tree has everything you need for projects to last kids from one to five hours for only a buck.
j. Hobbying. What hobby does your child love but never have enough time to enjoy? What hobby or activity has he or she always wanted to learn? Now is the time to find online tutorials or classes to use this time as a blessing instead of a burden.
k. Puzzle assembling. Break out those puzzles that have been sitting at the back of the game closet, or grab one from the Dollar Tree that all your superheroes can assemble together. It’s not only great spatial awareness practice; it makes for great sibling teamwork.
l. Chores tackling. Have teens dying to make money now that they can’t go to work for weeks on end? Make a list of all the projects you had intended to tackle around the house (that go above and beyond the normal chores expected of a family member) and assign a value to each. If Odyssey has taught me anything, it’s taught me that kids are way more capable and resourceful than we give them credit for. You could have the best landscaped yard and reorganized garage in town! Have younger kiddos? How about that Lonely Socks Box with the 300 pairs of mismatching socks from laundry loads gone bad over the years?
m. Repairing. Make a list of all the broken things in your house you had intended to fix someday. Assign kiddos to research what might be needed to fix those items, and, if they’re capable, allow them to attempt the repairs themselves. Tech-savvy kids follow YouTube tutorials better than most adults, and this could be both a boost to their confidence and a blessing to the irrigation system that hasn’t watered your now-dead flowers in 13 years.
2. Using every activity you can, set a schedule, and then stick to it. Post the schedule in a place that both you and the kiddos can see it. Have littles one who aren’t yet literate? Make a picture chart that shows breakfast food, lunch food and dinner food and what will be happening during each of those periods of the day. Routines provide security and expectation management for little hearts who feel safe in the arms of repetition.
3. If it’s an option, try to work in smaller intervals. A straight 8-5 day is a killer on tiny people who have no concept of time or self-entertainment. Evaluate the attention span of your superheroes, and attempt to create a schedule that will not stretch them beyond their capacities. Interweave active activity hours with sedentary ones. For littles, set up their play areas right beside you and your computer.
4. Maximize superhero sleeping hours. Have kiddos who will sleep until 8 if they now don’t have to report to school? Consider biting the bullet and setting your alarm for 4. You can log four solid hours before those little breakfast mongerers even drag their famished bellies out of bed and demand breakfasts 1, 2, 3 and 4.
5. Institute an afternoon quiet time. Littles can nap and olders can enjoy quiet reading time. This buys one to two hours and provides undistracted opportunity for kiddos to get a head start on those summer reading lists. Create a special reading corner or a fun location (like a tree house, a rocking chair, etc.) for reading time, or sweeten the deal with a special “reading” drink (like hot tea, lemonade or whatever your much-healthier-than-our-house allows).
6. Discipline yourself. Give 100 percent to work during work time (that means NO social media or news scrolling during work hours) and 100 percent to kids during family time. Keep the business hours you promise your kids you will keep. If these sweet superheroes know they will get 100 percent of your eyes, brain and heart when it’s their turn, they are more likely to allow your eyes, brain and heart to focus on work when it’s your employer’s turn. (Alert! Alert! This means the phone and computer might need to turn completely OFF during kiddo hours to not be a temptation or distraction. Your eyes speak volumes to kiddos wondering if they matter when you have so much else on your plate. Be willing to turn off every outside distraction when it’s their turn for Mom or Dad.)
7. Pray and drop-ship coffee. Because only caffeine and Jesus can help you now. 😊
May the Force be with you as you enjoy the beauty, benefits and sometimes bedlam of working from home.
(Photo by Mikayla Mallek on Unsplash)