Hellobee Boards

My kids are about the same age as yours and we also have a summer nanny at the house for 6 hours a day. I'm sure you are already doing this but you probably need to have many conversations with your kids about when they can and cannot come talk to you. Can you make a sign for your door that shows red for when you can't be disturbed and green for when they can come in for a quick chat? How about sticker charts for the days/times when they don't disturb you? Or maybe a pom pom jar? We have one of those that we don't use all of the time but they earn for certain things and when the jar is full, they earn a special treat. Lots of commiseration. I'm lucky as my kids don't tend to bother us too much and sometimes my oldest just wants to hang out in the room with me. Sometimes this is ok, and other times it's not. Our nanny is usually really good at trying to keep them downstairs and tells them not to bother us when our doors are closed.

My kids are same age and our sitter started last week. We only have childcare half days so it probably helps that they know they get 1:1 mommy time from 12:30-1:30, but we set expectation with them and sitter that mommy and daddy are not to be disturbed. Only issue I have had is the little one getting clingy when I do come out for water or something. We will see if it continues once novelty of the new sitter wears off. Good luck!

@Mommy Finger: I don’t have this particular problem but the Pom Pom jar idea is brilliant. We have a big bag of Pom Poms and now I know what I can do with them!!

@hitchhiker: hmm, this sounds VERY similar.... we are working from home with our 7 & 4 year olds as well. We have a sitter from 9-2 daily (our 4 yo still naps from 2-3:30 or 4) and at 2 my 7yo does an online lesson with his grandmother until 3 or 3:30. ANYWAY, I cannot figure out the boundaries thing. It's getting slightly better, but its been since March, and they are still constantly interrupting us... It was awkward being here with our sitter to start but that got better with time. We just try to say they're not allowed in our office at all during the day, but if we come down to get coffee or a snack or something the kids immediately stop what they're doing and swarm us, so we try to just get everything we need from downstairs before we go up to the office. You just have to make it a rule and stick with it with the sitter. My older son had a Respect Jar with cotton balls that depending on how he behaved, he lost various privileges (lose 2 cotton balls, no TV that evening)... It helped to empower the sitter a bit more for the kids to know there were consequences. Anyway, it's hard.