Working Remotely With Kids: Yes, It’s Possible

A collective several decades worth of experience in parenting while working remotely.

How do you work from home with kids?

• Working in bursts: When working from home, especially for the first time, your child may expect that you are always available to them. We recommend working in bursts; for example, do 30 minutes of active work and then spend 30 minutes with your kiddo(s).
• Time blocking: This ties directly into working in bursts; handle high-priority items at the beginning of your workday, and ensure you’re setting times for your personal life and family life.
• Scheduled and canned emails: If your workflow allows and you want to get ahead of your workday, start work before your team is online to get ahead of emails and schedule them to go out. Choose sporadic times throughout the morning, so they don’t look scheduled. Create canned responses or email templates for frequent responses/emails you send out (i.e., daily updates, weekly reports, or regular email updates).
• Scheduling calls and meetings around your kiddo’s schedules: You know your child’s schedule better than anyone else, so use that to your advantage. Schedule your meetings and calls for quiet time, nap time, or any other period during the day when they may otherwise be occuiped.
• Respectfully ask to reschedule calls if needed: If you are on a call and your kiddos are, “swinging from the ceiling fan” as our CEO, Michelle, would say, then it is perfectly acceptable to respectfully request to reschedule your call with the individual you are meeting with.
• Get out of your house: Get a change of scenery at least once a week; take your lunch break to go for a walk, grab a coffee with a friend, or take a drive with your favorite music. Working in a remote capacity means we have the freedom not to be restricted to where we work and how we spend our downtime.
• Transitioning to offline time: The transition from working at home to being offline for the day helps set you up for an enjoyable evening. Since remote workers aren’t commuting, placing a hobby, physical activity, or meditation moment between your remote work time and personal time will create that reset.
• Offline time: Once you are offline for the day, snooze your phone, email, and Slack notifications. If you can opt for a Google Voice or other phone number for your work, so your personal and work life are not bleeding together. Your boundaries are vital at this point in the day; shut your office door, put your laptop away, “hide” your Slack/email/Google Voice notifications and focus on your personal life.
• Time blocking with your Partner: We have also seen effective workflows from partners switching off for half of their workday (example: partner 1 takes the morning shift with the kids, and partner 2 takes the afternoon shift with the kids, the partner who is not with the kids is focused on working). This allows for deep work and generally uninterrupted meetings. As military spouses, we generally don’t have this option, but we can definitely recommend this to anyone working remotely with their partner!

First-hand Recommendations From Our Team

We asked our team, “If you could give advice to a fellow working parent (or anything you wish you knew before you started working remotely with your kiddo(s)), what would it be? How do you manage to work remotely with kiddos?”

Jessica H. shares how she meal preps, uses different workstations and sensory activities to help her balance, “Every day is a different roller coaster. Give yourself some grace but also set yourself up for success. Meal prepping breakfast, snacks, and lunches and saved me more than once! I have three workstations/desks, one upstairs, one downstairs, and one outside. Nothing fancy, just regular spots I can set my laptop while watching my kiddo. I schedule all zooms (or try to) during nap time and do sensory activities for her if she is awake.”

Christine S. discusses the importance of flexibility:

• “Flexibility, every day is different.”
• “You have to do what works for you.”
• “Giving kiddos distraction-free time helps fill them, so they stay occupied when you have to get down to work.”
• “Time blocking/timers!”

Kayla C. recommends scheduling and routines and how she finds her kiddos enjoy feeling included, “Follow a schedule/ routine! Time block. It’s ok to take a minute if you need a break or they need a few moments of your time. Take advantage of nap time! Work in different locations (I work upstairs and downstairs, even outside), so my kids can switch up their activities! Also, let them feel “included.” My daughter loves getting out her play laptop and grabbing her play glasses and being just like me.”

Cancade L. shares how taking a few minutes to play with your kiddos can help you have longer spurts of work, “Understanding that the children are under a form of stress as well as the parents. If they’re extra clingy or noisy, maybe they need a small break of your time to spend with them. Taking a few minutes to play a quick game with them or scheduling “hug breaks” can be quite beneficial for the child and you.”

Corinne H. on screen time, “Screen time isn’t bad. Sometimes it is a necessity!”

Michelle S.A. has found time blocking, short breaks, and being mindful when scheduling calls helps her balance,

• “Before working, I hope someone told me how fulfilling it will be to work at home with your child. All I’m hearing is it’s hard, and only a few can do it, so I put my happiness on hold. I’m just so glad that I took the leap!”
• “Time blocking helps me a ton! I do block time for breakfast, lunch, and nap time. Since we live in AK, we can’t go out most of the time (snow in winter and big mosquitoes in summer), so I make sure that during personal time blocks, my focus will be 100% on my kiddo no phones, no laptops. Also, short breaks from work are equals to quick dances with him with his favorite nursery rhymes.”
• “As much as possible, I put all calls in the morning, so he was still sleeping. He also has a mini laptop and a desk, and he imitates me. I also do meal preps during weekends, so I don’t have to deal with it during weekdays.”

The bottom line: Kids are resilient and they will follow your lead.

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