Being confined to home under quarantine can be overwhelming. It requires us all to adjust to a new normal for an unknown period.
The most significant adjustment for most of us with children is teleworking while homeschooling.
Tips for Working from Home and Homeschooling:
Dreams do happen
For years I toyed with the idea of homeschooling, but it was never the right time. At one point, Our family was under major distress going through a divorce. After the divorce, there was about a two year period of me settling in a corporate career after being on maternity leave for several years. Then we moved. And it took another year or so to settle into a new everything (school, home, neighborhood, etc.) So adding homeschooling to this mix was not an option if I wanted to keep my sanity and be a good fun mom.
Well, now we all get to homeschool! Forced teleworking and virtual learning is the perfect time to execute virtual schooling and work if you have been considering it.
Since I work my corporate job remotely, I have a good work routine, managing meetings, and my deliverables. Once Fadzwa was sent packing with her remote learning agenda, that is when our plans to share our working space at home became REAL.
We were slowly thinking through all the nuances with being in the same space all day, but we were so far from being ready. With a few weeks of trial and error, here’s how we are doing it.
Create a weekday schedule
Everyone knows This, right? Well, I should have known this. It is CRAZY without establishing when to eat, break, entertainment, and even tidying. I got a clue that a fixed schedule was not an option when Fadzwa through a tantrum about lunch in the middle of a crisis at work. I wish I could describe that moment of tension on the phone working intensely with my team interjected by an 11-year-old crying she is hungry for what she wants to eat. INTENSE!
So we agreed on a time for lunch and a menu. Just in case I am not able to join her, due to prioritized work responsibilities.
Overall, we now have a schedule in place that syncs both of our busy calendars.
Don’t parent while working from home
If you are working, you should not be parenting. Simple! I made that mistake and arrived late to important meetings or missed information I needed. All because I was correcting Fadzwa and trying to work at the same time. Make the rules clear and leave. When you have a break or after work, follow through with the appropriate consequences if the rules were not followed while you were busy with work.
Double Mute!
If you are not presenting in a meeting, make it a habit of not only hitting that mute button on your phone but also double mute *6. This is simple teleworking etiquette and being polite to your co-workers.
I remember a time during one major call, the facilitator announced, “could the person in the background with the young kids please go on mute or I will have to mute you.” Guess what? It was me.
The good thing is, there were lots of participants on the call, and no one recognized my voice (maybe two people and we are friends). The thing is, I muted myself before coming downstairs to check my daughter’s progress, but somehow, I unmuted myself and did not know it. Not only that, but I was also speaking in my bossy mommy voice. Co-workers are used to hearing our professional tone of voice. So no matter what, if you are not speaking, mute then double mute *6.
Set classroom rules for your child
On the first day of her online class, my daughter got up on her own, did her prayer devotion, and started to head downstairs straight out of bed. I put the breaks on and asked, “are you going to wash your face? What about brushing your teeth? Now do your hair? Can you put on some decent comfy clothes?
In her mind, she was home, and no one could smell her morning breath or notice up close, she had crusty eyes. So to her, it was ok to start classwork without basic morning hygiene.
To that end, I establish some rules for her virtual classroom.
- Keep your morning routine minus the uniform
- No eating during your class time
- No doing chores during class time. Take your seat and give your undivided attention.
- No yelling upstairs to get my attention. I may be in a meeting; speaking, or focusing on what’s happening on the call. If you need me, calmly approach and without a sound, ask, “are you in a meeting?”
Enforce office etiquette when working from home
Kids are the purest and most honest around their parents. They don’t pretend well and they don’t know how to speak the corporate language yet. So, I taught my daughter how to get my attention at all times during working hours.
- No yelling upstairs to ask a question. I may be in a meeting, speaking, or focusing on what’s happening on the call.
- If you need me, calmly approach and without a sound, ask, “are you on a call?”
To your child, you are just mom and or dad, and no one all that important. But we wear many hats, including professional ones. I love being a mom and parenting my daughter, but when we are sharing our home space for virtual work and school, rules do apply for our lives to run smoothly during this new worldwide normal.