HOW TO WORK

Usually, when you’re at home with your kids, it’s not for work. It is therefore normal that your children, especially if they are very young, do not immediately understand your need for concentration to complete your telework.
There is no miracle recipe to have time of your own.
But we were able to put together a series of tips and tricks to help you make sure everyone in the house can find their account in this special context…

Teleworking with children at home: explaining the situation

The situation is clearly unusual. You have modified the layout of the house to install your telecommuting space. A bunch of strangers invade your interior space by interposed screen at each video conference.

If your children are over 13 years old and have a space of their own, it is very likely that they will show up little It is you who will have to initiate contact to verify that the homework is done.

For the youngest, however, you will have to give them a place in your day.

For all, however, dialogue with your children is very important in this time of anxiety and uncertainty. You can’t go out, you can’t see your friends and mom and dad work at home. It’s hard for everyone to live…

So you have to choose rituals together to organize this shared time. And agree to talk about it and talk about it again because telework days are not the same, children’s needs are not the same every day. And neither do our desires!

Teleworking with children at home: integrating them into your schedule

We shared it in our previous articles,your telework day is organized on the basis of a specific schedule:

  • Moments of concentration
  • Moments: breaks with colleagues, meals shared
  • Group moments: video-conference meetings

The idea is that in parallel with your telework schedule, you can establish a connecting program to make room for your children.

ENJOYING CHILDREN’S SLEEP HOURS

For example, it’s best to schedule a file analysis or strategic negotiation over the phone during your children’s nap times.

Risking your children landing in the image at a team cohesion meeting will not be a consequence. And will even give the meeting a little personal touch that can do good to everyone.

On the other hand, considering a task requiring a high concentration at snack time is unrealistic. The hungry will be able to call you back to order!

SET UP QUIET ACTIVITIES THAT THEY CAN DO NEAR YOU

Apart from moments of extreme concentration and phases where you must be 100% available to your interlocutor, it is possible to fulfill your telework mission with your children nearby.

For example, it is an opportunity or never to make them appreciate reading. Pull out your pink library collection. You know them by heart and you will be able to pique their curiosity to make them make history!

Toys can also find a previously forbidden place in the house. You can sing part of the living room to engage in this mysterious activity that is telecommuting: also allow your children to install the Playmobil city for once around the sofa or to build the Lego castle on the buffet.

The puzzle that we start with the children and let them finish, the playdough to prepare lunch, drawing, coloring or the domino track are also resources to exploit.

TELEWORKING WITH CHILDREN AT HOME: USING ONLINE RESOURCES

The essential, which connects the useful to your tranquillity, is the school program on television (with a helmet).

You can find your choice:

  • The official programme, by age group, on France 4
  • More freely inspired educational content, with a playful touch and special effects
  • Cartoons in a foreign language

A wide variety of podcasts will fill the same office by limiting screens.

In conclusion, a day’s work, anyway, it organizes.

Just as you have to be on time for video appointments and follow protocols to carry out the missions you are responsible for, you cannot ignore that your children are nearby and that they need you.

This is an opportunity to invent a work-life balance with them, for them and for you. When everyone has found their place and agrees to play the game, every moment is serene and lived to the fullest. You can also see this as accelerated training for autonomy!

Finally, let us be kind to each other when one of us has to prematurely get out of a conversation. For those who have children at home, we are all in the same situation and there are necessarily times when it is less easy!