Working From Home With Children

Top Tips To Keep Children Occupied So You Can Work Productively

Working from home is becoming more and more popular. Especially thanks to covid!

Whilst it sounds appealing, working from home with children can be very challenging. There are constant interruptions and you feel pulled in many directions as work and children vie for your attention.

So how do you keep your kids occupied when working from home?

Schedule work around your children.

One of the benefits of being a work at home parent is being able to create a flexible working schedule.

Ideally, I start my day at 5:15am. I get up and go for a walk or exercise. By 6am I am in the shower and getting ready for the day. I can be at my desk by 6:30 to smash out some work before my two young children need my attention.

My husband has just started a new job where he doesn’t have to leave the house until 7:30am. He unstacks the dishwasher, gives the kids breakfast and gets them dressed for the day. I cannot tell you how much this helps me fit more work into the day.

It means I can work from 6:30am till 7:30am when he leaves the house. It is only an hour, but that hour sets me up for the day. Already I feel like I have accomplished something, and gives me a boost to get through. I call it my “power hour”.

I have a strict “quiet” time in our house. After lunch my children head to their rooms for quiet alone time. They read, do puzzles, or play with their toys. My daughter still naps on occasion. I aim for an hour of quiet time, sometimes I am sneaky and extend it longer!

This quiet time provides me another power hour to get work done.

My next power hour is once they have both gone to sleep at night. The time varies, as any parent will know. Sometimes they are asleep before 7:30pm, other times not until 8:30pm. This makes evenings challenging and why I now get up early.

Start your working day later

If you do not have the luxury of a “power hour” or are not an early bird then consider starting your “work” day later.

When we are all dressed and ready for the day we try to head out straight away. This is the time to go for a ride/walk and a play in the park…weather permitting of course. Now my eldest has started school, we walk to school.

I have found by starting our days with some exercise and quality time together, my children run off some energy and cope better when I need to work during the day.

We usually get home about 9:30am from school drop off. I set my daughter up with a snack and get stuck into some work.

The special “working” box

I have a special “working” box which only comes down when I need to work whilst the children are around.

My daughter calls it the rainbow box, because she loves rainbows!

This working box has toys, activities, arts and crafts and some other goodies. The Dollar Shop, Reject Shop or my personal favourite, Kmart, are great places to shop to fill this box.

The children love it. They feel like they are being rewarded with something special, and for a short while they are completely distracted…meaning I can get some work done without interruption.

Set up their own working area

Good old Kmart came to the rescue again for this one! I managed to get my hands on this cute wooden office set up with a computer, mouse, stapler, coffee cup, notebook and lanyard.

I set this up next to me and my children love to play “office”.

This is one of those activities I only get out when I need to work from home.

You don’t have to spend any money. You can make a computer with cardboard, or even use an old broken laptop.

Set up activities that don’t require supervision.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking they can paint unsupervised! Yes, I did. Once. Never again.

However, there are plenty of other fun activities they can do that don’t require you to keep a constant eye on them (age dependent)

• Painting with water
• Special “paint with water” books
• Brush and water and they can paint outside (pavers, bricks, fence)
• Playdough
• Drawing
• Threading macaroni onto string
• Sandpit — I sit outside with them, but the brilliant thing about laptops is you can work anywhere!
• Kinetic Sand
• Coloured Rice
• Puzzles
• Dress Ups/Role Playing

And if all else fails, TV. Netflix and Disney have to be two of the best investments I have ever made for my business!

I have found some great toddler friendly activities in the Toddlers Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. Whenever I need inspiration I browse through this book and jot down ideas.

Plan! Plan! Plan!

I love to plan. I plan everything. My husband likes to tell people I have a plan to plan. (I totally do!)

When planning I create time blocks for batching. I batch tasks for everything, including when I have down time and family time. I find it helps maintain those boundaries between work and home life and ensures a healthy balance.

Part of planning is to make sure I have an activity planned for each day to keep my children occupied whilst I work. I also have contingency plans for when they decide they don’t want to do a particular activity….which happens all the time.

Every Sunday my husband and I sit down to look at the week ahead, what our schedules look like and to ensure we have downtime together, not just with the kids but also as a couple. This has been quite difficult during covid, but we have found creative ways to have date nights without leaving the house. The point is to plan!

How to successfully work from home with young children.

Working around your children can be quite challenging. You end up juggling quite a bit, but with some careful planning and support you can do it!

• Schedule work around your children.
• Start your working day later
• Create a special working box full of toys and arts/crafts.
• Set up their own little office.
• Use activities that don’t require a lot of supervision.
• Plan! Plan! Plan!

Rachel Maree is a writer, mum and registered nurse. Bringing you the real truth to parenting, nursing and writing (even when it is downright ugly). You can read more articles or hire her to write amazing content for you — Rachel Maree.

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