https://madamenoire.com/1190712/working-from-home-as-a-parent/

Source: JGI/Jamie Grill / Getty

If you’ve been able to master caring for a young child during the pandemic while also balancing your work responsibilities, kudos to you. I have not.

I have a four-month-old son and started working again from home a little over a month ago. I am exhausted. As every work week begins, the dread intensifies because the truth is, infants are not cooperative when it comes to giving you time to handle your business. Employers are also not understanding when it comes to having to wait longer than they would like for what they need from you because you’re busy tending to a child. I’m hopeful as each day passes that at some point, I’ll figure out a way to create some balance. However, there are days where I find myself trying to calm a crying, screaming baby looking for attention, while crying myself because I can’t seem to get anything done.

I know I’m not alone in the struggle, as so many are caring for kids (some people watching multiple) while trying to be productive from home. Many are trying to help their kids navigate interactive classes until further notice and hopping on their own meetings in Zoom and Google Meet. The day-to-day is chaotic right now. How does one give themselves a break?

LaNesha Tabb has some ideas. The education expert with Juicy Juice is also a wife, mom, soon-to-be author, and primary educator. She teaches kindergarten full-time and is the brains behind Education With an Apron, a resource for teachers like herself to help them find innovative ways to instruct their students. We talked to her during this on-again, off-again back-to-school season about the best ways to look out for ourselves and be as understanding as possible with our kids during this extremely stressful time. Here are the nuggets of wisdom she passed on.

Practice Self-Care So You Can Be At Your Best For Your Brood 

Prioritize yourself! They say that if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else. While that may be cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true. This can mean making sure that you are prioritizing your physical and mental health. Make sleep an important part of your routine. Take some time for yourself to get to the gym to release the stress and tension that might come from working a full-time job and caring for children. Self-care can also mean making sure you’re prepping and preparing food ahead of time that you need for healthy eating. Finally, the most important tip to consider would be to harness the power of the word “NO.” We can’t take everything on. So many parents are wearing lots of hats – because they believe that that’s what “good parents” do. But a burnt out parent can’t be a good parent. The thing about these tips is, when you do them, your children (who watch EVERYTHING that we do) will notice. They will see how you manage your life and take care of yourself in the midst of a crazy season of life.

Manage Your Time Better By Prioritizing What’s Important and Seeking Help

As parents, we wear so many hats! This means that it can be really easy to get burned out if we aren’t careful. In order to avoid this, we can take a few steps to ensure that we manage our time well. We can prioritize our tasks not only by importance, but by whether or not you delegate. Just because we can do it all doesn’t mean that we should. For example, you might pack the perfect lunch for your children and that might be on your list of things to do, but if your partner is able and willing to help, let them! It may not be perfect, but if the children are fed and you’ve lessened your load…that’s a win! If you can spread out the responsibilities and tasks, you can save time and avoid burnout.

Keep Things in Perspective to Help You Practice Patience With Your Kids

If you find yourself snapping out of a lack of patience, please know this: you are not alone. We live in a world that demands our attention at every turn. If we are constantly in demand, it can be easy to feel like you want to explode after your child says, “watch this!” for the 19th time. When you feel like this, try to remember that the old adage holds true: the days are long, but the years are short. When you feel yourself getting frustrated and losing the little bit of patience that you have left, take a deep breath and picture your children 10 years from now. They will be older and want to hang with their friends more than you. Take a deep breath, open your eyes, and be grateful for the moment that you’ve been blessed with now.