Work-at-Home Strategies
How to Work from Home with Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers
It's hard to get work done with a house full of little ones. Here are some strategies for balancing work and parenting.
Being a stay-at-home parent often means being a work-at-home parent. With the rise in telecommuting jobs, consulting work and outside contractors, flexible work-from-home jobs may be the perfect fit for parents who want to spend more time at home with their children, but still work.
Working with infants, toddlers and preschoolers at home, however, can be a challenge.
If you’ve decided to become a work-at-home parent, here are some simple strategies for juggling work and children under one roof.
- Choose a job you can realistically do. Picking the right work-at-home job is the first step. Don’t set your sights too high by taking on a job that involves strict deadlines, phone work during times your children are awake and with you, or specific time demands.
- Be wary of work-at-home scams. Some work-at-home employment companies claim you can make thousands of dollars a week just by putting in a few hours while your kids are napping. At some of these sites, you’re required to pay for a list of companies that employ people from home. Other get-rich-quick offers require more money upfront than you’ll be collecting in checks. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Put your skills to work. In almost all fields there are work-from-home opportunities. More companies are looking for outside contractors and letting their employees work outside the office. If you have a computer with internet access, a phone and a fax machine, you can do many office jobs. Most importantly, use your education, skills and experience to find the right work-at-home job.
- Be a strict scheduler. If you’re the free and easy type, you’ll probably want to become more structured. The only way you’re going to be able to be successful at both parenting and working is if you work on a schedule. At the same time, you’ll want to be flexible enough to change that schedule when the baby gets fussy, one of the kids gets sick, or it’s a beautiful day and you all must get outside for a few hours. Keep a list of what you need to get done and move it around, but don’t cross anything off until it’s accomplished.
- Keep work and children physically separated. Childproof your work area so that there is no risk of either kids or work-related items being in danger.
- Learn to work when your children sleep. When you have a newborn, you’re told to sleep when the baby sleeps. As a work-at-home parent, you’ll need to work when the kids sleep. Don’t waste a single nap. These will be your most productive work hours.
- Multi-task and sequence. There are times when you can work while you tend to the children, and there are times when you’ll have to set one aside while you do the other. Learn which tasks can be done when and don’t try to overstep those boundaries.
The copyright of the article Work-at-Home Strategies in Stay-at-Home Parents is owned by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick. Permission to republish Work-at-Home Strategies must be granted by the author in writing.
