8 Strategies For Maintaining Sanity While Working At Home With Children

When schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic more than two months ago, many families found it very difficult to find the help they needed to care for their children.

The more fortunate ones, with jobs that allowed them to do so, began to do so from home, and so many found themselves with an almost impossible challenge: working with the children around them.

More than sixty days later, and with the uncertainty of how and when the schools will reopen, many people are still teleworking, with the complexity of sustaining for so long, and at the same time, the role of employee, teacher, caregiver, and homemaker.

Somehow we manage to do it all, but at the cost of great physical and emotional strain. How do we keep our sanity and family harmony within reach?

8 simple ideas to resist isolation

At this point almost everyone has found one or two strategies that work for them, but we are also all much more tired and it is easy to forget our good intentions.

Here are eight simple ideas to help you cope with what's still ahead of you:

1. Set a schedule, for you and for them

Also with our partner, if we have one. We have read it many times: having an agenda is fundamental.

If the children are old enough, they can even collaborate by putting it together (coloring, stickers: creativity to power!). If it is possible, let's share our schedule with our bosses and colleagues.

Knowing when we are available and when we are not will help us to organize our tasks and be more relaxed.

At home it will be very useful to know that there are shared moments: breakfast, lunch, breaks for exercise or walks, and others in which everyone is dedicated to their tasks.

2. Managing your own and others' expectations

Even though we have just hung our precious schedule on the cork on the wall, it is important to know how to adapt our expectations to reality.

We live in exceptional times, and this is not the time to be too perfectionist.

We can't pretend to work the same schedule as we did at the office, because circumstances are very different and, depending on the age of the children, absolute concentration times can be limited.

It may be better to organize the work into blocks, and talk to our co-workers and boss about it.

Remember: being more productive is not related to the hours we spend working, but to the quality of our work and the achievement of our goals.

3. Don't overdo with multitasking

Although there will be times when it will be necessary to attend to more than one thing at a time we must find, as far as possible, enough moments dedicated to one task.

Our list of things to do during isolation has only increased, and sometimes it is inevitable to be in several places at once: supervising the online work of the kids' school while trying to answer an email and worrying about a family member or missing something in the kitchen is common these days, but it is important to know that multitasking reduces concentration, stress, and decreases productivity.

One option may be to take turns with our partner, when possible, to create windows of productivity.

4. Take advantage of naps

If our children are still napping, it's the perfect time to perform those tasks that require maximum concentration.

If they get up late, let's take advantage of those moments to do what we know it costs us the most.

Let's keep in mind that as soon as they wake up, it will be much easier for them to interrupt us at every moment, especially if they are very young.

5. Separate spaces

In order to mentally separate our role as a parent from that of an employee, it is interesting to have a physical space dedicated only to work, even if we want or need to change places from time to time.

If this is not possible, we can always establish a ritual at the beginning and end of the day to help us establish this difference, such as: cleaning the table, making a list of tasks and serving ourselves an infusion at the beginning; or putting the table away, going over the list and tidying up the desk supplies when we finish.

If we don't do this we run the risk of walking around stressed out all day with the feeling that the day is never completely over.

6. Take care of ourselves

Finding the time may seem difficult, but self-care is more necessary than ever at this time.

Children are very easily infected by our state of mind and make it their own, so it is essential that if we want to be present with them, and with a calm and serene mood, we find the spaces to recharge and take care of ourselves.

In this way we can continue to care for them with the best possible spirit and without anguish.

With so many people losing their jobs or living in precarious situations we may tend to add even more pressure on ourselves, and feel that we must work even longer hours to prove that "we are there", especially when the kids go to bed.

But let's not forget that we are running a marathon and not a sprint, and that we need to respect our rest and take regular breaks to get to the finish line.

One idea could be to use the time we used to get to work by car or bus to take care of ourselves: reading, doing yoga, practicing a bit of meditation, etc.

Another idea could be to bring forward a few days of the vacation and take advantage of it to spend time away from the screen with our children.

7. Remembering to enjoy

When all this happens, what memory do we want our children to have? That of a parent constantly glued to the screen, tired or angry and pushing them to finish their homework and be quiet all the time?

Or that of a few special days when we lived a great challenge but got closer than ever?

If we get stressed out and push ourselves too hard, or do it with the kids, it can be easy to forget the most important thing.

Taking a break to join a children's yoga class or taking a mid-morning break to read aloud together, without thinking about the unfinished homework list or meeting with the boss later, can be simple ways to keep our relationship healthy and enjoy the closeness of our children.

8. Remember that everything is temporary

The state of alarm is getting longer, yes, but just as we reminded our children that they might soon see their friends or their grandparents and family again, let us remind ourselves as often as necessary that this situation will have an end, just as it began.

And surely then we will miss some things from these extraordinary days.