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Juggling work and children has never been more challenging. Speaker and author Nikki Bush spoke to Discovery to share expert advice on working from home with children.
Create a routine
Award-winning speaker, author and parenting expert Nikki Bush says while we’re all staying home to contain COVID-19, a good routine is more important than ever, especially if you have children.
“To keep things relatively normal, we need a daily schedule and give kids the same wake-up and bedtime every day. That holds the day together like two bookends,” she explains. “In between we have breakfast, lunch, and supper. And if you’ve got kids, they’re used to break times, they’re going to need a snack time, an afternoon break … children get hungry.”
Children are feeling unsafe
“Part of the reason children come to you and tell you they’re hungry right now is because they need your attention because they feel unsafe and insecure. We have to make them feel safe.”
“There’s no roadmap, and we’re all making it up as we go,” she adds. “While you’re working, children need to be doing something that they don’t need your help with.” Nikki suggests stockpiling games and activities so that children have things to do during the day.
Cope with work and family
Everyone is under pressure right now. “It’s work and family all day, every day, and many people don’t have a home office. We have to show resourcefulness and resilience.”
What if you’re managing a team? “Be very aware of your individual team members,” she says. “How many children do they have? What ages are those children? Do they have a partner in the house who can help? That will determine whether that person can be productive.”
“We need to be sensitive and empathetic if we’re managing a team. We have to be gentle with ourselves as well,” she adds. “It’s going to take three or four weeks before people bed down into this new routine.”
Cope with work
Parents who are working from home can use ‘chunking’. Nikki explains: “If you have serious work to do, do it before your kids wake up in the morning and after they have gone to bed. Get 90 minutes of deep work done at least once a day because you will feel better.”
Keep screen time for when you have online meetings. “If you have a Zoom meeting, immediate interview, or a strategy meeting, that’s when you need to say to your kids, ‘I have a meeting, that is when you can watch your movie’. Limit screen time to when you absolutely need it. When they’re in front of a screen, they’ll sit still, they won’t make a mess, and they won’t come to you and ask for anything. That’s your best chance of being uninterrupted.”
Make time for yourself
Find time to take care of your mental wellbeing. If you have another adult in the house, you can take turns watching the children while the other one takes a break.
What to do in your me time? “I would say, because we have to be so productive all the time, try and do nothing. Try and meditate or listen to a nice piece of music. But try not to be doing anything, because there’s so much doing right now.
And that’s the exhausting part: we’re under constant pressure to do, because we’re keeping our businesses alive if we’re self-employed, and we’re helping to keep our companies going if we’re employed, and we’ve got our children to manage as well.”
Nikki says taking care of your own mental wellbeing is good for you and everyone around you. “Use playtime with your children as a pause in your day to slow down, switch the energy, and switch into a different mindset.”
Vitality members can now get rewarded for taking care of their mental wellbeing. Soon, you’ll be able to earn 500 Vitality points for completing mental wellbeing assessments. What’s more, with the new Vitality Mental-Wellbeing Channel, you’ll get access to videos of guided meditation, yoga, and more breathing techniques, and podcasts from our mental wellbeing experts.
This post and content is sponsored, written and provided by Discovery.
