Being a stay at home parent is a full time job in and of itself. Small children have big needs, and making sure that those needs are met takes a great deal of time, effort, and patience. Some home-based professional parents work at home to keep their professional skills sharp or because they do not want to wait until a later date to keep moving towards their career goals. Others work from home out of economic necessity. Whatever your reason or combination of reasons, you definitely want to be successful in both your role as a parent and your role as a professional.
Here are a few tips that home-based professional parents may find useful. One thing that many home-based professional parents find very useful is the smartphone. While it may not be possible to do everything that you need to do while you are out and about, having the ability to access email and send a quick reply or edit a document without sitting down and waiting for the computer to start up can help you make the most of those “stolen moments” – you know the ones that I’m talking about. Naptime, night time, and the occasional few minutes where your little one or little ones experiment safely within eyeshot and earshot with the concept of independent play.
Another helpful hint is to make sure that your communication in every area of your life is rock solid. If you have a work commitment, double and triple check your child care arrangements to avoid last minute dilemmas. If you have family commitments, make sure that they are marked on your calendar so that you do not schedule a phone conference during your son or daughter’s first soccer game. In fact, a central calendar with everyone’s everything on it may seem like it would get crowded and chaotic, but if you get a big one (or use an online one) and color code it by assigning a color to each family member, things will be less chaotic because it is all in one place for all to see.
A third suggestion is to make a list of your priorities and keep it handy. Again, do not separate family, work, and individual priorities because they are all important. Priorities help you make decisions more efficiently by giving you a framework within which to make the seemingly endless amount of choices that you are faced with on a daily basis. As trite as it may sound, do not forget that you yourself are an important priority. Things like getting adequate nutrition and rest as well as time to do things that you enjoy should always be at the top of your priority list.
If you add these suggestions to the strategies that you have already developed to make working from home work for you and your family, you will hopefully be less stressed and enjoy more success.
Photo by anitapatterson on morguefile.com.