Attending to Work and Children with Less Fuss

Working from home, whether online or offline, has become a widespread trend in earning money nowadays. This is in part due to our bout with recession. Recession, for one thing, happens when companies cut costs by laying off people and employing others on a contractual or a freelance basis.

The perks about working from home are the flexibility of work time and the absence of long travels, office politics, and extravagant spending. On the other hand, the challenge about working from home is the constant struggle of juggling your work with taking care of your children, almost to the point of exhaustion and giving up.

Fret not, for working from home can be more of a breeze and less of a frizz if you bear these points in mind:

Attending to work

• Have a space in your home solely for work. Make sure you can lock it up and you can put up a “do not disturb” sign to have a feel of your secure “office space”. This way, your children can keep away from this area. Also, make sure you have a regular and uninterrupted time at work. You may pay someone to care for your children at the time being.

• Have a separate telephone line for taking important business calls. That way, you will never get embarrassed, unlike before when your kid answers a call from your boss.

• Never turn on the TV during your break for you may get hooked and not realize that you need to go back to work. Go outside for a walk and get some fresh air instead.

• In case of emergencies that immediately need your attention, make sure you set an alarm to remind you to file and catch up on your work or, better yet, try to finish your work way ahead of deadlines so that you can give undivided attention.

• Make sure you do not become isolated from your organization. Even though you are working from home you may set a regular time to visit the office or meet with work associates or colleagues for lunch or an afternoon snack.

• If you really are a home-bound worker, keep yourself up on a professional level. Take courses or subscribe to publications that are available in your office so you can catch up with work updates while you work from home.

Attending to home or children

• Wake up about an hour earlier to do household chores before you begin work.

• Since you are contributing to the family’s earnings, learn to impose some rules. Make housework assignment rounds and make sure everybody follows them.

• Learn to say no. Never be disturbed by work when you are using your time for home, and vice versa.

• For childcare, try a part-time place at day nursery or do nanny shares. Do casual child-minding yourself or do reciprocal babysitting with your friends. They are both inexpensive and enjoyable.

• If you choose to hire somebody to look after your children inside your home, make sure they can deal with things like tantrums, sibling fights and minor injuries.

• Relax and enjoy yourself in your quiet time.

Maintaining balance between working at home and tending your children is tough yet rewarding when you pull it off.