Social Distancing and Working From Home

Many Americans are still under shelter in place orders, or quarantine, or social distancing, whatever you’re calling it. This is making many people work from home for the first time ever. This is making many of us home schooling parents (whether we like it or not). It’s also making my “office” (home) really crowded and chaotic, and I know I’m not the only one. I don’t know how everyone else is handling this, but it’s definitely more complicated.

I’m not sure when these stay home orders will be lifted, although I’m not hating them for the most part. I hate having to get out and do stuff when I don’t want to. It’s the not being able to do things, make plans, or find what we need from the grocery store that I don’t like. I really appreciate everyone staying home and doing their best to flatten the curve until a cure or preventative measures can be found. Thank you all for that! Thank you for helping me keep my family safe, and we will do our best to try to keep you all safe.

Many schools are closing the buildings throughout the end of the year, making distance learning the new normal. I don’t typically home school my kids; nor do I want to. (Neither does my husband, who is actually qualified; it’s challenging to teach your own kids.) I go through phases where I think I can and want to home school my oldest (my oldest is 6, so he’s the only one that actually goes to school.) But then I start looking into all the things it takes, all the things they have to know, and the amount of effort it would take from myself, my husband, and my son. That’s when I realize that is just an extra thing added to our plates and so so so much added stress that none of us need or deserve. I need a break from two kids, to make sure that my 3 year old gets the one on one time and attention that she needs. And my son needs a break from me (his sometimes too strict mom), and his little sister. He needs structure that school is perfect for providing for him. He needs to learn all sorts of things that I don’t know. Yes, I want my kids to be smarter than me. (lots smarter than me) He needs to be around kids his own age. He needs to make friends and flourish and grow in those friendships. I want him to be a kid and because of our relationship (He’s incredibly smart, in my opinion. Yes, I know I’m his mother, I’m allowed to brag. He came out of the womb a tiny little adult.), I often forget that he’s just a little kid, and I admit that I expect a lot from my smart little man. I want him to get to enjoy being a kid, and in a lot of ways going to school does that for him.

But here we are, here we ALL are, home schooling our children for the remainder of the year, unexpectedly. I don’t feel I’m qualified to do this. I don’t feel like it’s fair to my son that he has to learn from me. I often get frustrated with the situation. The situation is: I’m a parent flying by the seat of her pants and hoping for the best, and he’s a little kid who doesn’t want to do his work (Who does? I don’t) and is easily distracted by me, my phone vibrating, his sister playing, his sister trying to color on his work, his sister asking me for 399 snacks while I’m trying to help him, or whatever I’m using to try and distract his sister while he rushes through his work the best he can. I’m not even going to talk about all my friends who are not only parents but teachers themselves, ladies and gentlemen my hat is off to you!

Working from home is not for everyone. It’s actually not easy to do, especially if there isn’t anyone keeping track of you and making you be accountable. It’s hard to stay motivated when you’re at home. Home is supposed to be where you come to relax and not work. It’s hard to change that idea mentally, that you now have to work here as well. Trust me, I know, I’m still working on tips and tricks to use myself, and I always work from home. I assume it’s a little easier when you have deadlines and online meetings or other things that keep you up to date and on task. But I feel like it is far too easy to fall into that old trap of senioritis, or spring fever. It’s sunnier and getting warmer, and in my area raining less. It’s starting to be pretty and more comfortable outside. It’s hard for me to not just go outside and do nothing but enjoy the sun. I feel like if I wasn’t used to working from home this would be even more of a temptation.

I’m “used” to working from home, but I am not used to this new normal. I’m not used to two kids, who have no breaks from me and from each other. And I miss my mornings with just my three year old, after we drop my son off at school. It was our time as just us girls. This was our special bonding time. And now we don’t get it in the way we are used to. I also have gotten out of the habit of making two kid lunches everyday. And they are on different lunch schedules, by the way. He’s used to getting his school lunch at 10:30 and she’s used to a 11:30 or 12:00 lunch. I’m used to my husband getting home from work in the mornings and being able to help me with things around the shop, or take the baby so I can get some things done. But now it’s a different ballgame. He’s getting home and we’re dividing and conquering so many things and in so many areas, that we haven’t gotten a good feel for this yet.

I have to admit it’s easy to get distracted. It’s really easy to just say “forget it” or “I’ll do it tomorrow” and put it off. The best things I have implemented so far is a to-do list for my son, and office hours for myself. They’re both pretty simple, but so far pretty effective. I printed out a weekly to-do list for my son to do every day. Every day he is able to mark off his chores as he does them. That being said, some of his “chores” are play activities to keep him off of electronics some. Some of his “chores” that are not really chores are playing with legos, read for 20 minutes, and play outside. The next thing I did was talk to my husband and ask him what times would be best for him, for me to “clock in” to work, meaning I work uninterrupted. Once we decided on a time I have done my best to make sure we’ve stuck to those. And I’ve done my best to try not to work much outside of those office hours, outside of a quick task or two. If I don’t finish everything I need to during those office hours, I either ask my husband for a little more time to finish, or just wait until after everyone has gone to bed and finish then.

One last thing that has helped me, has been to switch my mentality to summer break mode. This is how it will be for us during summer break for the most part. This is just bonus summer. I wish all you newly work from homers good luck, and parents “may the odds be ever in your favor.” Stay home, stay safe, and wash your dang hands!