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Tips for Working at Home With Small Children

If you thought working at home with small children would be easy, you were living in a fantasy world.  Working at home when you have small children is wonderful.  It’s a gift and a rare privilege.  But it ain’t easy. 

How do you make it work?  It all comes down to having  a great plan.

Plan and Prioritize

Plan.  Of course you have a plan.  You have a plan for work, and you have a plan for home, and you hope they will work together.  Trust me, they won’t.  Work will get in the way of your family plans, and family will get in the way of your work plans.

You have to think ahead constantly and plan every aspect of your day AND have contingency plans in the back of your mind for when things go awry.  Will you have a client call at 3:30?  You’ll need to plan for someone else to pick up your 3^rd grader from school, and you’d better start dinner while you’re fixing breakfast.

Plan for all those emergencies and contingencies.  Who will pick up your child from school if he gets sick?  How will you talk to clients if your baby has an ear infection?  

Prioritize. No matter how much you plan, and no matter how much you prepare, you cannot do everything that needs to be done.  You cannot anticipate every emergency.  When you can’t get ahead of the game, you have to prioritize.  You have to decide what must get done, and what will not get done.

Listen and Learn

Listen. You’ll be surprised to discover that multitasking isn’t all that helpful when you are working at home.  Sure, it’s handy to be able to talk on the phone while you’re nursing the baby.  You’ll quickly discover, however, that it’s not effective.  Both the baby and your client need your full attention.

When you listen attentively, you will accomplish more in less time.  In your work, you’ll have fewer misunderstandings and spend less time getting things right and/or correcting your mistakes. 

You’ll accomplish more in less time with your kids, too.  A small child is more satisfied with ten minutes of focused attention than she is with thirty minutes of distracted conversation. 

Learn.  Learn everything you can about your job.  Learn to do it well.  Learn everything you can about how to work efficiently, and how to run a household efficiently.

More importantly, learn everything you can about your children.  Learn about normal development.  Learn about their quirks, likes and dislikes.  Learn what stresses them out and what makes them feel secure.  The whole point of working at home is to be there with your kids while they are small.  Make them your focus, and learn what works for them

Arrange and Accept

Arrange.  Arrange your work area so that you can work there, and so that it’s safe for your children. 

Arrange for childcare when you need it. 

Arrange your schedule to include regular breaks for focused time with your kids…and for focused time for yourself.

Arrange your schedule so that you have definite work hours, and stick to it when you can.

Accept.  Accept reality.  You can’t do everything.  Kids get cranky and sick.  You get cranky and sick.  Do not believe in the myth of superwoman.

Accept help.  Ask for it.  If you need someone to watch the kids for a few hours so you can get some focused work done, ask a friend to help you.  If you need your partner to pick up dinner on the way home, ask.  If someone offers to bring a meal to you, take them up on it and be thankful.  If your mom wants to come over and do some laundry for you, let her.  We all need help so accept it.

Accept yourself.  You are doing a great job, and it’s a hard one.  Sure, you have limits.  That’s part of being human.  Accept yourself for who you are, and don’t try to meet somebody else’s expectations (or your own) for what you should be.

Network and Nest

Network.  That’s certainly easier said than done when you are a work-at-home mom.  It seems like every minute of every day is already taken up, and you don’t have time to “network,” right?

You don’t have time not to network.  You need work contacts, and you need mom contacts.  In fact, your mom contacts could be your most valuable network.  Those are the people you can trade childcare and meals with.  Even better, some of them may also be work-at-home moms, and you can all help each other in a lot of ways. 

Nest.  If you are a work-at-home mom, you probably like being at home.  Enjoy that about yourself, and “nest.”  You will feel more fulfilled and happier if your home is a place that you and your family enjoy. 

Most of the time, your nest will be low on your priority list, and that’s okay.  Beds don’t need to be made every day you can go a long time without washing windows.  Your home does need to be a place where you and your family can relax and be restored.  Don’t make yourself crazy with housework, but do make your home a place you enjoy.  After all, that’s one reason you decided to work at home.

 

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