How to Work When Your Kids Can’t Leave the House
Time management in the time of social distancing.
By Shaunta Grimes
My youngest daughter is fifteen. She just finished the ninth grade.
None of my close local friends or family members have young children anymore. Ruby is pretty close to the youngest in our extended family. But my Facebook feed is full of stories about what it’s like to try to manage the work-at-home situation necessitated by Coronavirus in tandem with the homeschool/no daycare moment that’s happening at the same time.
Just today I saw a long post about how home daycare centers are staying closed. Even with cities reopening, these business owners are opting, by choice or necessity, not to take other people kids into their homes anymore.
So parenting groups online are full of parents panicking, in search of someone to watch their kids while they work.
For some people, daycare is required. People who work outside their home and can’t shift to working at home are usually not able to juggle work and child care at the same time.
Those parents who are working at home now and who can’t find daycare, or don’t feel safe sending their children, are trying to do both.
On paper, it seems like a no-brainer. In fact, in mommy-circles for as long as I’ve been a mommy, being work-at-home mom (WAHM) so you can be home with your kids has been a thing. A big thing.