Tips for balancing childcare and working from home

With the announcement of the Department for Education that all pupils in England will be expected to return to class full-time in September, there have been a lot of mixed responses. We carried out a poll on Twitter to find out how many parents are actually planning to send their child back to school in September, and 63% of respondents answered ‘No’. So far during 2020 it has been pretty much impossible to predict the future and plan adequately, so who knows when your children will return to school and you will be able to devote yourself fully to working from home? In the event that this isn’t for quite a while, we’ve put together a few tips to help balance work and childcare.

Routines and timetables

Routines are important for everyone, but perhaps especially for children, as according to research they provide an emotional climate that supports early development. A clear routine can create the illusion of being at school, where days are very structured. Beata, a parent we spoke to, suggested playing with your children in the morning, creating a specific window of time at the start of the day where they have your full attention. Then direct them to do something on their own after having that adult interaction so that you can get some work done. This is the perfect time for some kind of school work. If they start to get bored, you may have to give in and let them watch a film to keep them occupied, but don’t feel bad about this! Children lose interest in things quickly and it’s pretty much impossible to make sure they’re doing schoolwork all day every day. If they’ve managed to do a bit and you need to distract them with the TV or iPad for a little while to squeeze in some work of your own, don’t worry, pretty much everyone else is doing this too. It’s all about balance.

Set them up a workspace next to you

If your child is prone to boredom and wants your attention, you could set them up a little workspace next to yours and give them an activity to work on independently while you get on with work. It will make them feel like you are more involved, and might make them feel grown up sitting with an adult doing important work. This is a risky move and will depend on your child, and it may not be ideal if your job involves taking lots of calls, as you never know when your child will decide that now’s a good time to start trying to play with you. But it could be a good way to be present in your child’s ‘school day’ whilst doing your own thing. The only way to know is by trying it!

Stay one step ahead

It’s easy to forget other errands when you’re busy trying to balance children and work, and if you’re not careful the dishes will pile up by the sink all too quickly. Your children will naturally be a handful and you may be tempted to spend every free moment they deign to bless you with cramming your work in. Stay one step ahead of them by getting up early to set the house chores in motion before having to deal with the children, such as washing up or shopping. That way you can devote your time fully to the delicate balancing act you are having to maintain throughout the day.

Research, research, research

By now, you’re probably aware of lots of online resources that having been going round, both educational and entertaining. But being ahead of the game and accounting for how quickly children lose interest in things is important, and it’s never a bad idea to keep doing research, being creative and finding new resources to occupy your children with for when they get bored of the ones they have. A good place to start is this list of free online resources and activities to support home schooling. And here is a list of YouTube channels to entertain your children with.

Join an online community

Home-schooling can be lonely for both parents and children. We recommend joining an online community of parents in the same situation so you can share tips and ask for advice. That way you can be part of a support network helping each other get through this together. Likewise, try and find some kind of sense of online community for your children. This may not be joining a Facebook group in their case, but maybe means organising Zoom calls with some of their school friends so they feel less alone.

Share the responsibilities

If you live with a partner who is also working from home, make sure you are sharing the responsibilities somehow. This may not look like a 50/50 split. Communicate with one another to make sure that you are sharing the responsibilities in a way that works with your respective work responsibilities. It may be that one of you does the housework and one of you does the childcare. Or maybe you know that you have a busy day coming up, so for that day your partner is the one giving the kids attention, and the next day you pick up the slack and let your partner get more work done. It will look different in every family, but just make sure it isn’t all falling onto one parent!

Hopefully, these tips have been helpful and made the prospect of another month of working from home and trying to home-school your children a little less daunting. Remember, you’ve come this far! You can definitely do it, and your children may seem to hate you for making them do maths now, but in 10 years they’ll look back and thank you for it.