Tips for Working at Home with Children
Having a home business where you need to work from home can be challenging when you need to take care of children too. Here are some thoughts on working at home with children.
Number one of any list is to take some time, here and there, to really be with your child. A few minutes goes a long way in reminding your child how important they are to you.
If you are struggling with needing some childcare while managing your home based business opportunity, remember there are many solutions that could fit your unique situation perfectly.
Top Six Ideas for Creative Childcare.
- Part or full time daycare centers.
- A live-in nanny.
- Barter childcare with nearby parents.
- Let your relatives and your children enjoy each other.
- Hire an older child to come over and play with your child.
- Can you trade on and off with your spouse?
But maybe your children, like mine, will just be home with you most of the time. Don’t worry, there are many ways of keeping them happy and finding space to get your own work done.
Top Six Ideas For Keeping Children Entertained While You’re Working
- Stock a toy corner, full of special toys that can only be played with in the office.
- Set them up with their own ‘office’. Children love to mimic their parents. Get a hold of a play phone, a small desk, even an old computer if you can. Tape, scissors, stapler, and of course paper and pens all make wonderful additions to their ‘office’.
- Invite their best buddy over for the afternoon.
- Encourage quiet games.
Reading, writing or drawing contests could inspire them. - Incorporate them into your home business opportunity. If you deal with merchandise and shipping, can they help pack and unpack boxes or stick labels on envelopes?
- Get them playing on an old computer. Even a five year old can figure out navigating the Web, especially if he’s looking for photos of dragons and Tyrannosaurus Rex.
So far we’ve covered how to work without them, and how to work with them. Here are some ideas about working around them.
Five More Ideas To ‘Work at Home‘ with your Kids
Burn the candle at both ends. Be careful not to burn yourself out, of course, but if you can manage to get up an extra half hour to an hour early, or to stay up beyond your child’s bedtime, you could manage to sneak in some delightfully quiet and quality work time.
- If you work on a laptop, bring it to a playground or a library to get some work in while your children are happily occupied.
- Wear headphones to tune them out and focus on your home based business opportunity when you need to.
- Bribery. Save it for when you really need it. But if you are on a very important phone call and your daughters are tugging on you and pinching each other and you just need ten more quiet minutes to wrap up this deal, don’t feel bad about reaching into the cupboard and handing out cookies to buy you that time.
- Send them outside if that’s a safe option.
Do what you need to do to make working from home with your children a success. Balancing a profitable home business opportunity with parenting has its challenges, but is infinitely rewarding. Good luck!!