I'm finding myself strongly contemplating not having my babysitter come to the house anymore. So, I may have to be working from home full time, with two little girls underfoot. Sounds impossible to me. Please tell me who else is faced with this situation during COVID-19 crisis lockdown, and what are you planning to do about your own work? I'm pretty much close to having my mind blown over all of this.
-
@agold: our nanny came in last week, but it like of the looming lockdown, I assume we will be in this situation next week. I honestly have no idea - my husband and I are going to work in shifts I think and my 4 yo will particulate in some version of home school with my kindergartener to keep everyone in the same place.
-
We didn’t have to do this because my work shut down completely and I can’t work from home, but we were going to do half day shifts each: 7-12, 12-5. Our bosses are understanding though and weren’t expecting full time hours from us.
-
Our kids are ages 4.5, 21 months, and 4 months. We tried working from home without a sitter and it lasted all of one day. We need a sitter even when both of us our home. Might be able to do it with just the 4.5 yo or just the baby, but definitely not at all with the toddler at all.
-
My kids are 8 and 3. I've been working from home with the little one for the last two weeks and with both of them for the last week. It hasn't been too bad, my director is in the same position (she has two kids slightly older than mine) so she understands that I will probably work in pockets when I can.
-
My kids are 5 and almost 3 and I’m pleasantly surprised at how not-awful it’s been. I was able to get some solid stretches of work in each day. I’ll probably do a bit in the evening and over the weekend to make up, but overall work got done.
-
My kids are 7 and 4. We started Monday and it's been very hard. But it's hard for everyone, especially everyone with kids and my boss has been very understanding. The caveat is our business is very good right now and our personal workloads are actually light. That will change as things get crazier.
My husband has dropped to 30 hour weeks taking 10 hours of leave for childcare.
We anticipate getting a sitter/nanny at some point but we're self quarantined right now so that's not happening for a while.
-
I’ve been doing this this week with 7, 5 and almost 2 year old solo and it’s not going well. I probably get in 3-4 solid hours a day, during nap time and when DH gets home from work. I COULD stay up to do work after the kids are in bed but I’m just spent, so planning to get a lot of hours in over the weekend while he’s home. I’m considering using up my vacation time and exploring the new FMLA that starts April 1 which you can take to care for your kids if schools are closed, but the language I’ve seen on it is really confusing so I’m not sure I’d qualify. I’ve also considered just telling work I’m switching to part time, or seeing if I can take an unpaid leave of absence.
-
@agold: I did it this week and it was challenging. My kids are 8 and 4. There were two days that my DH was home and off work and then the other 3 I was trying to juggle both work and kids. Because I am a supervisor and our agency is trying to figure out how to change what we do in response to the pandemic my week has included lots of meetings that are video based and a lot of time and energy.
There were times when I was able to set up a schedule to shift between kids and work and it felt ok but other times when I had crying kids come up and need me when I was facilitating a team meeting over video. Everyone was understanding because of the school closures but I didn’t feel as available as I would like.
What we are planning moving forward is shifts with kids and shifts with work, so I will do something like 7-1 available for meetings then DH goes into work and I am on kid duty with intermittent email/phone availability as needed.
I think i would encourage you to think about your job responsibilities and how much is self paced and self scheduled and how much is interdependent with other people. The more self direction you have, the more likely that this may work.
Good luck either way—lots of hard decisions these days!
-
Since both my husband and I are home for a few weeks, we decided to not have our nanny come for a few weeks, then we will re-assess. Week 1 was challenging but we did it. We mapped out our day starting with our conference calls, then in between those and doing some work we juggled the kids. Luckily my little one still naps, and we have quiet time for my older son during that time so that's a good window to work. I will say my work suffered, but everyone understands and many are in the same boat....
-
It's been a disaster. 4yo and 22 month old. My 4yo is extremely intense, likely ADHD/on autism spectrum/learning disability (in the middle of testing which is indefinitely on hold now), and cannot stay focused on an activity for more than a couple minutes. He is very aggressive with his younger brother. I cannot leave him unattended for any amount of time unless he's watching TV... which makes his behavior 100x worse.
So we try to trade off watching them in the mornings to get a little work, but even then, it's hard to concentrate because one or both are crying, throwing toys, etc. I can send a few emails, but I can't do intensive work that requires focus. Nap time, I can get a little done.
And I can't really work at night because my 4yo doesn't sleep and usually wakes up at 4:30, so I have to go to bed.
Plus, you know... cooking, cleaning the house, laundry etc.!
We have strongly considered getting a part time babysitter, but we are really torn because it's a terrible idea with the virus. But at the same time, we cannot continue like this for weeks at a time! I don't know what to do.
-
I'm struggling with this big time. DH and I both work fulltime and are able to WFH no problem BUT FOR certain 2 and 5 year old co-workers. We had a very part-time nanny working for us to cover mornings and she lost her main job as a restaurant server because of COVID. As soon as we can get out of our preschool contract we're going to have her come in a few hours a day because we can't let her go income-less while we need help. We'll have a serious talk with her about social distancing, etc. but I think it's the best strategy right now and what we can do to put our $$ to the best use.
-
@Mrs. Pajamas: Glad I'm not the only one still considering using a nanny. I've talked to mine about social distancing, as well. So, we just have to trust. No need for her to lose her house though so I will always pay her if I can. And this will hopefully be over soon - one month, 4 months, whatever. I don't wand to lose her.
@MrsADS: You can probably find a high school senior for a couple hours a day. She will likely be very quarantined because kids aren't going anywhere these days.
@MamaCate: Thanks for your response. Yes, scheduling some time blocks is what I'm going to have to do. And I'm going to be working when my husband is home so that I can space out my hours and still try to get some legit hours in.
@HappyBaker: Yep. I'm spent by night time, too. Thanks for sharing how its going. I'm glad I'm not the only one right now dealing with this. Its tough and I'm finding that working at night just doesn't work for me anymore. I'll probably have to start waking up much earlier. Or, take my sparse exercise time off the table. Ugh. I really hope all of this passes soon.
-
It’s really hard! We aren’t allowed to have nannies here according to the shelter in place order so are going on week 2 of working from home with a 2 year old. A schedule helps and I think we need to do better at sticking to it. My DH gets stuck on calls and I am going to have to just tell him he has to hang up! Today has been rough and I find myself getting annoyed that my 2 year old won’t play alone and snapping at her and then I feel awful. So, honestly, it’s not easy!!! I’m already exhausted and don’t know how I’m going to do months of this but I just try to think of people that have it way worse than us.
-
I am an independent contractor with a 3.5 YO who is now staying at home. The good part is that her dad and I just separated (like, last week), so there are 3 days a week that she is with him and I can actually get work done. I've decided to just not even try to work while she is with me, aside from quick emails and phone calls. My work is really detail oriented (writing zoning code) so I would get nothing done. I guess I'm lucky that I don't have a boss to report to or expectations about a certain number of hours I have to work, but also I don't get paid if I don't have hours to bill to clients. So it's anxiety-provoking to reduce working time, but also the balance that I feel I need.
I figure some people are in a better situation than me, some are in a worse situation, and it doesn't even help to compare since it's not a suffering Olympics. We all have to do what we can right now for ourselves in our own realities. It's completely preposterous to think anyone can work from home effectively with kids, especially young kids under 5, at home. -
@Orange Lily: I’m sorry about your separation.
️
-
DW (professor) and I (lawyer) are both doing our best to work from home with our four year old and two dogs. It’s not easy. We’re both at about 40% of where we need to be but what can you do? I know we are fortunate to HAVE jobs but it’s totally ridiculous that my employer hasn’t said anything about a reduction in our goals for the year. Without it my salary will majority suffer. I guess that’s just what this pandemic will mean tho. At least we are all healthy and safe....
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
16 comments