In a normal week, I work from home every Monday. It’s my way of easing back into the work week after a busy, noise-filled weekend. I enjoy having a quiet day at home alone to allow me to catch up on emails and tasks leftover from the week prior. My WFH days are what keeps me sane.
Now, my WFH days look very different. Thanks to COVID-19, I work from home every day. I have two “coworkers” (i.e. kids) who are very high-maintenance and demand my attention throughout the day. I find it hard to complete high-focus tasks due to being constantly interrupted. Several times, my real, adult coworkers have had to follow up with me to hold me accountable for getting tasks completed. I am slowly losing the plot.
Some days are good.
I get up early to start work before my two kids (ages 5 and 1.5) wake up. By 10, I feel super productive and able to take a break to help my kids with whatever they need. I get a long stretch of work time while the toddler naps and the big kid either watches a movie or does art. I finish up by 3:30 or 4 and we go for a walk.
Then there are the days where I seriously don’t know how we will make it through this. The days where I feel like I achieved absolutely nothing all day. Where I feel like I am a subpar employee and a mediocre parent. I can’t give my full attention to my job or my kids. The toddler cries when I put him down and the big kid complains that I won’t play Mouse Trap with her.
A friend sent me a post on Instagram the other day that said:
“You are not working from home; you are at your home during a crisis trying to work.”
Throw kids in there, on top of the daily stress and panic in the news, and it’s no surprise us mamas are struggling to keep it together.
If you’re trying to work from home while taking care of your kids, you are not alone. Give yourself some grace. It’s OK for your kid to watch more TV than usual or to not get through all their assigned school work. You cannot be fully focused on two things at once, which is essentially what we are trying to do right now. This is an extremely unprecedented situation that we couldn’t have imagined even a month or two ago.
Hang in there; this too will pass. And once it does, go out with your mama friends and celebrate being kid-free and the fact that you made it.
