5 Ways To Juggle Your Responsibilities As A Parent At Home

The lockdown seems to be a never-ending phenomenon, which means that most children will still remain at home, and many of us will continue to juggle homeschooling with a number of different responsibilities. We have to put on our multi-tasking caps often and in the same physical space i.e. home. We juggle from being a parent, the next minute a teacher, an employee a moment later. It’s not at all surprising that we’ve been feeling this pressure for a really long time.

Below are some tips to manage your juggling responsibilities at home as a parent and an employee:

1. Be realistic:

You need to accept that you can’t do more than one job successfully at one point in time. However great you are at multi-tasking, you can’t be a fully committed parent supporting your child while also simultaneously being a high-performing employee. If you try, you will not do justice to both parenthood and your career leaving you the feeling of guilt and demoralization. On the other hand, you may even lose sight of what you’re good at, and miss the moments you could enjoy as a family.

Instead, be realistic about how to manage your day and strike a balance between the competing demands on your time. Perhaps you and your partner can sit across the table to organise things so that, while one of you is dedicatedly playing with your little one, the other works - and then you swap responsibilities.

2. Set a days routine:

Routine and structure are really valuable learnings for children. So, if your child is currently without the strict routine of school, or that routine has been disrupted due to various uncontrollable reasons, think about how to replace this situation with a favourable one. It may feel stressful but it also opens up a whole new set of opportunities to design your own structure - including perhaps having the flexibility to shape the day more around a teenager’s needs or those of a toddler.

Divide your day into manageable chunks. Check on it every morning, which will give your infant a sense of security about the day ahead. This is critically important when the world around you is full of uncertainties.

What you aim to do shouldn’t feel over-ambitious, and there will be times when it fails. If so, don’t be too hard on yourself - and if it makes you feel disheartened as a parent, accept that as normal and wait for it to pass. Just pick your routine up again as soon as you can.

3. Talk to your employer for adjustments:

For parents who are also working from home, often for the foreseeable future, the demands to deliver work on time can weigh heavy. Many employers have henced been supported by their employers who have altered roles during these lockdown periods. This is because work from home especially for a new parent is not a joke. They are aware of the pressures you face.

Talking it out with your employer can be a challenge but is the most effective way to manage a work from home day. Before you do so, you need to brainstorm and identify your priorities within your job, which projects/tasks are time-dependent, and where you could make adjustments. Ask yourself, would it help if a change in working hours were done? or would it be a good idea to request notes of meetings rather than attending it? If you can, start to have this conversation with your manager and perhaps encourage a wider conversation if the workload is a common issue in your workplace which is now baggage at home.

4. Reach out for help:

When under pressure, it’s most common for you to think that you’re the only one in this messy situation. But trust us, keeping this to yourself can make things worse. In the early days of the first lockdown, many people spoke of throwing themselves into new activities and discovering hidden talents, but let’s be realistic - each of us has had our moments of highs and lows. Even the most motivated will occasionally feel overwhelmed. That’s perfectly normal.

Connect with family, friends, colleagues and other parents. It's extremely critical to have this life support system in our lives at the moment. Exchanging ‘challenge stories’ with other parents can remind us of our common experience and our brilliant solutionism skills. Share parenting tips, online resources, and strategies for juggling family and work life.

5. Be Gentle with yourself:

Be realistic about what you can achieve and allow yourself to let some things go. Acknowledge that this changing situation puts us all under immense pressure, so be clear about what emotional capacity you have. Not only to support others as well as to look after yourself. Use it wisely. Encourage a culture of kindness and warmth at home - kindness to each other but at the same time to ourselves.

Genius Baby not only aims to make your quarantine life at home simpler but also stress-free. This is a long-term situation but will definitely end. You may hence be keen to read 5 tips on how to return to work after taking a long parental leave.