Working remotely: Tips for parents juggling life and a remote job

Hannah Angi

Trying to find a balance between life and a remote job is among the leading working parents conundrums.

Regardless of whether you have to work or want to work, a point will come when you will start to experience some form of guilt.

It’s the kind of guilt that comes about when you’re handling small business marketing, and end-up missing on a writing celebration.

On the other hand, this guilt can also arise when you find yourself spending time with your kids, but feel as though you should be at the office looking into customer communication.

Many working parents have often found themselves in the position that you’re in right now. For many, it’s not easy being a good parent and a good employee at the same time.

The reality is that striking a balance between dealing with customer experience at work and family life can be made a little bit easier. You just need to have access to the right tips.

Here are the Tips:

Be Present

Whether working from your home office or physical office, you will need to ensure your mind is in the same place as your body.

Simply put, if you’re working, this is where your mind will need to be.

Place all your focus on the tasks ahead, and ensure that you get to block off everything else that isn’t related to what you’re doing. This isn’t the time to worry about whether the kid’s uniform is clean or not.

The same case applies to when dealing with home life. You shouldn’t allow thoughts from your remote work to start creeping into your mind.

What’s even worse is to start checking emails and replying to them when in the middle of caring for your child.

You can use business text messaging tools to make sure that things will keep running, even when you’re caring for the young ones.

Regardless of where you find yourself, make sure your mind is there at all times.

Have a Mental Plan

In your attempt to balance both aspects of your life, you can rest assured that there’re instances when things will start to become confusing.

Whenever self-doubt rears its ugly head, ensure you’re fully prepared to guarantee that you won’t worry yourself sick.

When working and you start thinking that you ought to be spending more time with your kids, try to remind yourself why you work in the first place.

It could be because you want to earn some money to help with their schooling.

You can make sure that your kids are well-taken care of when working at home by investing in a good baby cot bed.

Ensuring that the baby is comfortable will help you make concerted efforts to get rid of the negative emotions and to replace them with positive thoughts.

Know Your Triggers

It could be bumping into fellow working parents at the local supermarket planning an upcoming birthday party.

Or it could also be knowing that you’re not spending enough time with your child, even though you’re working from home.

Learning your triggers is crucial as it makes it possible for you to prepare for these tricky moments.

For parents that have to check on their little ones every few minutes, they can always acquire a cot.

Choose any beautiful design that pleases you and place it in your home office.

This will mean that you won’t have to leave the home work station every few minutes to check on your child as this can be distracting.

Get Rid of the Guilt

Guilt is at times a good emotion.

It makes it easier for parents to navigate murky waters and can assist in ensuring that they get to remain on the correct life path.

However, when guilt manifests in working parents, it tends to complicate things for many of them.

Chances are that regardless of what you choose, you will still end up with a feeling that you have made the wrong decision.

But the truth is that if you choose to take it in the right context, the guilt you’re experiencing can serve as a balancing act when things become unequal.

For instance, you could start feeling as though you’re spending too much time working and not paying enough attention to your child.

As soon as things start to get out of hand, your guilt could help you to remind yourself to try and seek a better balance between your remote work and your life.

Block Off Time to Worry

For example, if you’re at home reading a story to your child, but your mind inadvertently starts to wander off to an upcoming teleconference call, try to block it off.

But if it continues, don’t continue to try. Instead, take a timer and set aside five to ten minutes to allow yourself to panic, just for a bit.

The timer, in this case, shouldn’t be used for anything else.

This time you have set aside will allow you to let out all your fears and even contemplate all the worst-case scenarios. As soon as this time is up, revert to the initial task.

 

The author is a Digital Outreach Specialist