Anyone else worried about lockdown with small children (whilst simultaneously “working from home”)

[Ilikeviognier]

Just that. A bit worried really - obviously there are bigger things at stake like lives so clearly we will do what we have to.

BUT- I have a 3.5 and a 5 year old. Both boys. When together at home they fight, so much fighting, argue; get sooo bored if not completely entertained. When schools close, I’m going to somehow work from home, whilst home schooling and supervising the fighting, also presumably we won’t be allowed out by that point so we’ll all be climbing the walls.... and for how long?

Anyone else worried about this? 😳

We off since Friday n both can wfh so in shifts with kids. Trying to do some schoolwork with the 12 n 10 yr old & getting them outside for exercise while keeping 3yr old amused is tough but we lucky to be able to share it.

@MrsP2015 yeah that's like a normal day at home with 2 small children. No time for actual work in there though. Just keeping children entertained.

I went to Flying Tiger today and bought a basket full of toys, craft stuff etc in preparation for the shit that is to come when my 3 & 6 year old are home. I expect their school will close this week and I am WFH with at least 2 client calls and video conferences every day. Honestly i feel like crying.

I have kids and unable to work from home, and unable to take time off due to my job where everyday I'm dealing with it. I got through the last 2 Pandemics, sure we will struggle through this.

I’m working from home with a four year old, he is generally fairly good, but obviously still a bit bonkers as he’s four. I had three conferences yesterday so my poor boyfriend became his victim and had to keep him entertained/out of the way of me for a few hours.

My sister and I have pre school DC that are usually cared for by our parents when we are at work. DSis and I both work 4 days so we are going to each have each other’s DC on our days off. DSis, BIL and I can wfh so we are each going to do one day in charge of DC whilst also keeping on eye on emails etc, but doing the bulk of our work on our day to look after them before they wake up and when they go to bed. My DP has a job that can’t be done from home. Hopefully this will minimise disruption for our employers.

I would love to do a timetable. But unfortunately we have meetings that we have no control over. So one day I might be free to help DSes with schoolwork at 9am. Another day it may not be until 2pm.

Dh and I are both working from home, 2.5yo is going to nursery still and 5yo school. I am getting twitchy about still sending them in... But my workplace has a policy that you can't work if you're in charge of young children, so i would have to use annual leave so I'm putting it off, anticipating schools will shut imminently and I'll need my leave. I've started to keep a running list on my phone of entertainment ideas, I'll try to post it...

I posted on another thread about this.
We need a support thread for people at home with toddlers!
I have 2yo and 4yo and research papers due. 4yo school shuts down today, 2yo off anyway.
I'm immune compromised so am not sure what to do with 12 weeks at home with them. It's going to be terrible....

4yr old and 18m old. Their nursery shuts tomorrow. I work F-T and I'm doing a course with course work due next week! 😩

I don't have a clue how this is going to work. I can't even work mainly when they are in bed as I'm a manager and need to be able to answer queries from my mainly child-free staff when they are working.

18 month old DS at home. I'm wfh. Dh is self isolating (as we all are) but we can't afford for him to be out of work.
DS is really unwell with a cough. Dh has caught it. I'm trying to wfh and hoping I can send DS back to nursery when his isolation is over however I anticipate them closing. So I will have to have DS in the day, then wfh in the evings and make up 30 hours in a week somehow... If work let me do that. Dh's job is centered around the hospitality industry. If we go on complete lock down we are up the creek. We will still be expected to pay nursery fees despite them being closed, otherwise they fold. My way just covers our basic bills not including nursery. Dh has already lost nearly a weeks pay.

I have no idea how we are are going to manage this. All I can do is hope it disappears as quickly as it came and we arnt put on total lock down. And if we are, then our rent and council tax are suspended somehow.

Buy a mini child's trampette before amazon run out!

Is my only advice.

I feel your pai

OK this in my running list of ideas. Maybe someone has an idea to add! Actually I might start a thread too...

Stuck inside list

Baking
Den making
Painting
Face painting
Drawing
Obstacle course
Lego
Film
Disco party
Cosmic kids yoga
Long baths
Teddy picnic
Actual picnic in the lounge
Play dough
Musical statues
Simon says
Balloons
Clapping games
Card games
Lego
Duplo

• dice roll exercise / action game - assign each number an action
• Fake birthday party - pick a toy, it's their birthday! Make party invites, presents, birthday cards, make cakes, have a party food lunch, play pass the parcel, have a disco, wear party clothes
• Whiteboard pen frogs and tadpoles - draw them on the bath, add water, watch them float off
• Slalom course using cans, hands and knees, weave in and out, relay to collect toys
• jolly phonics
• limbo
• jumping over a stick! Move stick left and right
• fly swot - chopstick with fly, chopstick with swot, take turns
• pinball - make it out of cereal box, eg cut in half long ways, draw face, cut out round mouth, stick on obstacles, balls (playdough?) need rolling around to fall through mouth
• cup and ball games - roll balls, kids catch them under cups
• table tilt catch game - prop table legs up, roll bricks or balls down, kids catch in tub at end
• circus skills - make stilts from cans, make a balance beam, hula hoop, spin plates on sticks
• fete games - egg and spoon, splat a rat, sack race

I'm really perplexed at all of these 'fighting' children. Maybe now is the time to,really read them the riot act and tell,them that it's just not acceptable, that they have to step up on this crisis / unusual circumstances? Even small kids can understand that things are different.

Standard things like rewarding good behaviour, making them sit on the naughty step in silence every time they fight (1 minute for every year of age).

Have structure to the day - time slots where you will spend dedicated time with them - maybe introducing board games that take a while to play, jigsaws ditto etc. Things that will start to,teach them patience and healthy competition. Time when they read quietly (in separate rooms), time for tv , time for drawing, crafts, time for schoolwork, time for food and snacks. Put an alarm on, stick rigidly to it. It Will help you with work too as you can treat the 'kid dedicated' time as a 'not available' for work/calls time.

It's very, very tough but routine and being strict in the first few days is essential to get it off on the right footing.

I've done it before when DS was ill and it was a nightmare.

But if the nursery has to close, DP said he will also WFH so we can take turns trying to entertain DS.

i have to take phone calls as part of my job but my colleague has said she will handle those for me so I can just do emails and project work.

Oh and a bubble machine.

Yes. I also have a 3.5 year old and a 5 year old. Both have SEN. I'm a single parent with precarious MH.

I honestly am dreading it :(

Yes. I have no idea how I can work at home with little children.

@lightlypoached how old are your children? No amount of reading the riot act has ever stopped mine from fighting!! Infact I'll leave this here :)

We did day 1 yesterday and it was bloody awful.

9 year old was fine he did his work 6 year old moaned constantly.

They ended up watching more TV than I wanted.

I have actually got up at 6 today to start work early before they wake up so I can get ahead of myself.

I think I might try and do this every day if I can.

I’m at home with two primary aged kids, wfh and doing shifts with DH. Always thought I might like to home educate but this has made me think again (after one day!).

Day 1 yesterday with my 2 year old. I got him a little table and chairs, art supplies, books etc. Ultra efficient and organised.

Complete and utter carnage.

I don't know how the nursery assistants do it, I really don't.

Not currently in lockdown but I am a single mum and was working from home for a while when DS was young.

Needless to say it was impossible to do any work while he was awake. So having a good bedtime routine was essential: Put him to bed at 7, work until 4 am, sleep for 3 hours, put DS in front of CBBies from 7-9 while I had a nap in the sofa and then deal with the day as normal.

There are some advantages these days, you can schedule emails to go out at working hours with Gmail and nobody will chastise you if you pick up a business calls while your kids are squabbling in the background.

We’re both wfh and expecting our 10 and 8 year olds to join us imminently. I am already ready to kill my husband - we’re both working on the kitchen table, I’ve had to buy new equipment as we previously never worked from home at the same time and he has called dibs on it, he’s insisting on me leaving the room to take calls while simultaneously taking them himself (because that is what his job requires apparently) and nearly went nuts when the kids came home from school yesterday and wanted a snack from the kitchen. It isn’t going to work well. Somehow the kids will be my problem - as his job is the most important despite the fact that I am the highest earner (my view is that we could share the childcare but he doesn’t see it like that).

Oh and the heating has been on full blast for 24 hours as he is cold - the rest of us are dying from heat and dehydration.

DH and I are both WFH. Kids are 2 and 4. We'll have to just take it in turns to work. With me having more turns as my work is less flexible and requires more concentration.