A Family Guide to Staying Sane While Working and Learning From Home

Guest Blog by Cherie Mclaughlin

This fall, many families are going to embark together on a grand experiment. The question: Can work and school exist from home without everyone completely losing their mind? Only time will tell, but we do have some tips for making this transition as seamless and stress-free as possible. This isn’t going to be a normal semester, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a nightmare. The right plan (and a good attitude) can go a long way toward making remote work and school a success. 

Gear Up 

The first thing you need to address is the practicalities. You cannot have kids logging in to class and parents joining virtual meetings all at once without a sufficient internet connection. This is doubly true if your child’s at-home schooling plans include any form of gamified learning. Educational games can take up a fair amount of bandwidth - make sure you have the WiFi connection to back it up. 

Moreover, you’ll need to ensure your family has the actual tech they’ll need to get their respective jobs done. This might mean looking into getting a computer for your child - or multiple, if you have kids in different grades or classes. If you have a teenager, a full-fledged laptop can be a great fit. For younger children, however, look into devices designed for kids - you want something with minimal capabilities and strong parental controls. 

Finally, make sure your and your child’s workspaces are well organized. If you need a hand getting things in order, reach out to Nest Home Organizing. Their virtual organizing service allows you to get the help you need without risk. 

Create a Routine 

Consistency is an absolute necessity for kids. Think back to March or April, when your children first started remote learning. For many families, routine went right out the window, and productivity and effectively learning went with it. Major changes are tough on kids, but now that we’re here, we can create a new vision of normalcy. 

Help your children create their new daily schedule. Build it around their virtual class times, but also include plenty of breaks. Take a leaf out of homeschoolers books - school at home doesn’t (and can’t) look like it does in person. Kids need time to get outdoors, burn off energy, and be creative. Make sure those times happen consistently, and they’ll be able to get themselves into productive mode during the day. 

A routine is useful for you, too. It gives you a chance to be direct with your employers, for a start. If you know that your child needs to be supervised during homework time, and you have homework time scheduled, you can block that time off at work. It allows you to find time for yourself as well. For example, you can make a point to wake up before your children to build some quiet time into your day. A low-stress morning routine can help you get your day off to the right start before you have to switch into “parent” mode. 

Give Your Kids (and Yourself) Grace 

Let’s be frank: For most families, this is going to be a difficult process, at least at first. Although you and your kids might eventually thrive in this set up, the early obstacles might be fairly major. Unfortunately, this is going to be a learn-as-you-go process, so there’s not much you can do to stop those obstacles from arising. 

What you can do is control how you react to them. Give yourself and your family permission to be bad at this for a while. Go easy on them if their grades aren’t up to their usual standards, and if they’re a perfectionist, encourage them to go easy on themselves, too. Be candid with your employers if you’re struggling to focus or find balance, and be open to options such as flexible scheduling. Your family needs room to figure this out, and rigidity will only make things harder. 

This is uncharted territory, but working and learning remotely will keep your family and your community safer over the coming months. Encourage your family to do their best and treat one another kindly, and you’ll find your rhythm. Make this time one you can look back on with pride. 

Photo Credit: Unsplash