Anyone else struggling to juggle working from home and young children?

[OrangeSodaCrab]

How does everyone work from home with little kids? I have a wfh job with a 12 year
old, a 10 year old, a 7 year old and a 3 year old. I can’t stop working because of the mortgage but I absolutely hate working and juggling it all. Not to mention that when my little one is off sick from nursery, I’m having to juggle calls with him at home, no doubt my manager has noticed! I really want to stop working :( but feel backed in a corner, can anyone relate?

Are all your children in childcare whilst you’re working? If they are WFH is no different to working in an office. It sounds like you’re trying to juggle them being there which is super stressful and means your work will also suffer sadly. Some companies won’t allow this at all either.

Juggling work and kids is hard and just being super organised is what helped me. Ready the night before - clothes out for everyone and bags packed too, including mine. Shopping deliveries once a week and keeping on top of housework but cleaning around the kids, putting washing on at night etc.

It’s exhausting, be kind to yourself, but it does get easier. Older kids can help - whether cooking simple meals, clearing up etc.

WFH is a lot easier than working from an office when you have children! I feel very fortunate that I have the option. Take your current stress and times in by 10 and that’s how many women not as fortunate and you and I feel.

No because I follow my employer’s policy and don’t work at home with young children around. Why are you still working with a sick 3 year old and not telling your manager? Assuming this is anti WFH rage bait.

When I wfh my kids aren’t there, they’re in nursery and school wrap around. I couldn’t wfh with them there, that’s not fair on them or my employer, and would be very difficult to juggle.

When either DC is sick and can’t go to school or nursery I tell my manager and work a bit where I can (if they’re napping for example) but also take annual leave as there’s no way I could do a full day with a sick child at home. My DH takes his turn too looking after sick DCs.

My kids are in school/nursery/childcare when I'm working - aren't yours? If one is sick either myself or my husband take the day off work.
If someone else is looking after them (yesterday their dad had them for the day) then they try to stay out of the house all day as otherwise they distract me.

WFH shouldn’t be used as a substitute for childcare. In my company it’s policy that we shouldn’t be working from home with children under 12.

So is your issue that you have to work full time with 3 children (yes, it's tough to juggle, particularly when they are different ages and have different needs like yours do)?

Or is it specifically that you have to work from home? If so, as other have said, wfh should be easier as you don't have to factor in commuting (unless you have to "commute" to drop the children off in childcare and then come back again meaning you have more travel). Other than perhaps the 10 year old, you should have proper childcare lined up and not be working round the children also at home.

My employer has a clear policy - like most - that WFH can’t be in place of childcare. That being said even during school holidays most holiday clubs start later and finish earlier than my before/after school childminder so my boss and I have a trust agreement that I can WFH to be able to go and get them.

presumably you’re 3 year old can be at nursery leaving the 3 eldest who are most than old enough to keep themselves occupied on their own home

i have a 9 year old and 5 year old twins. Last summer was an epic shit show as my office was closed for 3 months due to a leak - my ex husband had disappeared and not paying CMS and I financially was stuck …..I swore I’d never WFH with them again no matter the cost!

Are you trying to work with all those children at home?! The two younger ones need to be in childcare for you to be able to work properly otherwise it will feel stressful

I think most companies have a policy of no working from home with children under 12 years old.
The odd time I have had to do it if a child is sick and can't get the time off or waiting for a parents/DH to come back from work to look after them, they are sick so basically sleep or sit on the sofa watching TV.

Take the WFH out of the equation. Working and having kids are difficult are the best of times. For holiday periods, you need to take time off work or arrange childcare, especially if you have little ones. Older kids can be pretty self sufficient, so less need to take to time off if you wfh. .

It's not WFH with kids that's hard, it's working full stop, the juggle of childcare especially in school holidays is a nightmare. You do just have to be ruthlessly organised and take time off if they are sick.

It is easier to WFH with young children I found. I know I am 5 min drive to the childminder and no traffic. I know I don’t have to factor in commute delays. It meant I arranged meetings till I had to leave.

It became even easier once my youngest started walking home herself after school.

The answer to your question is that you need childcare just like working out of home. But without the commute.

If you WFH and your children are in school / nursery / childcare then it should be infinitely easier than being in an office. Hence why most parents would prefer to WFH.

But you need to treat it as though you are in the office and have that mindset. Which means if one of your kids is ill, you call your employer and tell them and either take unpaid leave or whatever other option your company allows. You don't just continue working with a poorly child in the background as you couldn't do that in a workplace.

To be honest, with 4 children unless your home has extra bedrooms or you have a desk in your bedroom, I can’t see you WFH effectively even if they are year 5 or older. Even tweens and teens are noisy. I got my office in the box room so they don’t disturb me when they got home.

Is it working full stop or working from home that is the issue?

I understand the feelings of overwhelm of trying to juggle everything with children? Most working mothers I know feel the same.

Funnily enough men don't wrestle with the same conflict.

What's the father/s of the four children doing to help?

What childcare is in place?

It is tough OP, I wfh full-time, although I'm sure it would be loads more stressful if I had to travel in and out of the office.

It is hard when my little one gets sent home from nursery though, as I'm at home it always usually falls to me to manage it. Luckily my manager also has a child so I always tell her if my DD is around so she knows I'm a bit hampered.

Most people don't do this - unless I have misunderstood you and your children are all in childcare?
WFH should be taken as seriously as working in an office and although there are undeniable benefits from being at home, one of them should not be also looking after young children while you work.

Its tough but not possible. I would not be permitting wfh when young children requiring childcare are around. How are you expected to do your job???

If I've understood the first post properly, the 'WFH' is a red herring, the OP is just asking how anyone manages to work full time with 4 children?

Is this about the difficulty in working from home or working full stop?
You have 4 children, I don’t want to sound rude, but what part of life isn’t a constant juggle with 4 children?

But then talks about trying to work with a sick 3 year old without her manager noticing. I think it’s WFH rage bait.

This. Bluntly, I know how hard life would be with 4 children so I just you know, didn't have them 😐

Most employers quite rightly don’t alllow wfh while looking after children. Do they know? Because if they are allowing it, that is really good of them.

I have phoned where the employee is clearly looking after small children at the same time and it’s not good.