Home office with kids: 3 easy tips

Parents are superheroes – especially in times of Corona. Because especially for parents with younger school children and single parents, the current situation is a huge challenge. In the home office with children, many are now more or less successfully juggling online meetings, homework, household chores and the 24-hour care of their children. In many cases, what remains in the evening is total exhaustion and the uneasy feeling of not having achieved enough. 

 Unfortunately, we don’t have a patent remedy for this situation, but we do have a few tips on how you can get a much better grip on it: 

1. Create structures in the home office

A jointly created daily schedule provides orientation for the whole family and eliminates potential chaos. When do the children’s schoolwork, the parents’ concentrated work, lunch together and playtime take place? This should ideally be planned through for the entire week on the evening before or, at best, already on Sunday evening. Marking and assigning the rooms where these activities take place creates additional clarity and calm. 

2. Make clear agreements

Who is responsible for the children, household, cooking, shopping, etc., when and in what way? It has proven useful to make clear agreements and to distribute tasks and responsibilities fairly. The children can also be given tasks – depending on their age and abilities. A weekly schedule helps to keep an overview and avoid conflicts in the family. 

3. Stay realistic

Yes, we parents are often superheroes. But most of the time we are only people with limited energy. Therefore, we should admit to ourselves that it will hardly be possible to work at full capacity with children in the home office over a longer period of time. This should be communicated openly and clearly to the team and the boss and realistic work packages and goals should be defined together. 

We hope that our tips will help you to stay productive, relaxed and above all positive with children in the home office. Feel free to write us your personal thoughts on this topic to info@workingwell.com.