Work From Home: Working Mom Life
Being a working mom takes on a new meaning when both you and your little one have to adapt to working at home. Here’s what being a work from home mom looks like for me and a few tips on how to keep things together.
We’re a couple of weeks into a mandated work from home life and I’ve seen a ton of hilarious “pray for the parents” memes across social media. While funny, these memes do bring up a great point that many of us are new to juggling being an employee, parent, and (interim) teacher all in one space. The work from home mom life has posed its challenges for me, so I wanted to share with you how I’m making things work and hopefully you can use some of these tactics too!
Morning Routine
We’ve already discussed with you all just how vital a morning routine is, but my morning routine has shifted since working from home. What used to be wake up, shower, dress, quick breakfast, etc. while sprinting around the house has actually become my new favorite part of the day. Now that I no longer have to make my mornings all about prepping for a commute, I can use my time more intentionally. I’ve decided to skip sleeping in and wake up at my usual 5:30 so I can get a 30ish minute workout in before the sun and Madison are up. After my workout, I shower then change clothes and start preparing breakfast.
I also use the time before I officially start working to review the eLearning website Madison’s teachers set up to see what activities are planned for the day. There are usually a few things she can do independently, so I try to schedule those during any meetings I have for the day.
Starting the Work Day
By the time I start my work day, Madison has already had breakfast and is working on her fist activity of the day. I typically spend the first few minutes of my day going through emails, determining what requires actions from me and what doesn’t. This part of work from home mom life is pretty easy, as I can shift my attention back and forth as needed. While things are still slow, I make it a point to be as engaged as possible in whatever Madison is doing. Certain parts of my day are busier than others so its super important for me to be present and make it count with her when I can.
Managing Meetings
Okay, this part can get kind of tough. Madison is five, which means she’s pretty self sufficient but still in the “Mommy look!” phase (comment below if you’ve heard this over 1,000 times int he past week) and she doesn’t always care that I’m on the phone. This is why I try to plan some of the more engaging activities that she can do on her own while I’m on calls. Most of my meetings are only half an hour, but if I do have a longer or more important meeting, I’ll pull out my secret weapon — nap time! Nap time is every work from home mom’s saving grace. Schedule it strategically when you need to and use it to your advantage. This is the best way to make sure you can be on point for your meeting without interruptions.
Pro tip: Keep your phone on mute when you aren’t talking during meetings. If you get an unexpected wake up or if your child is playing in the background, you don’t want to get caught slipping.
Activities and Quality Time
Madison’s teachers have done a great job sending the parents educational activities for her to do throughout the day. Since she doesn’t have her school friends around though, there are still gaps that I have to fill in. Art is one of Madison’s favorite things to do so coloring, painting and drawing are almost always on the agenda. From there, I like to add in fun learning games like matching games, reading and math puzzles. Whenever I have downtime in my day I like to do these activities with her so we get some quality time and I’m helping her learn. I know every parent is different but I do incorporate tablet time in our routine almost daily. Madison has an Amazon Fire for Kids so she has a kid-friendly profile of her own. We use the tablet for both learning and free-time and I’m able to set a time limit on her weekday screen time with parental settings.
One positive to being home is that when I’m done working, we can pretty much make an immediate shift to family time. We may unwind by watching one of her favorite TV shows or having play time. Overall, we have a lot more free time in the evenings and I’m doing less rushing to get dinner on the table and her ready for bedtime. We still keep a routine in place but it’s a lot more relaxed.
I hope all my working moms out there found these tips helpful! Wearing multiple hats is not easy so if you have any tips to add to this list please leave a comment below. We can all use a little help from each other!
