10 ideas for homeworking with youngsters for Christmas

There’s no place like home for the holidays!

Unless you are one parent and you work from home, This is. How do you work with children at home? You really need to rewrite the song to reflect this situation. It could look something like this:

(Clears his throat)

There is no way to work from home during the holidays

Because no matter how far you go

Someone in your family is going to interrupt you, oh yeah

Making work at home hell on earth, sweet home.

(With deepest apologies Perry like.)

Okay, so I’m a little pessimistic about the prospect of having a lot to do at home over the winter vacation. Usually my two boys attend a nearby elementary school, which gives me a good window of time every weekday to do some work.

Then when they get home, I can disconnect from the computer to do homework, drive them to piano lessons and choir practice, or even take them to the park.

But when the third week of December arrives, everything comes to a standstill.

My kids are home from school and there is so much pressure to have A LOT! FROM! HOLIDAYS! FUN! which you can post on Instagram with a relaxed virtual shrug: “Oh, we’re conjuring up a few thousand Christmas cookies in our perfectly clean kitchen.” Or maybe with a little cheerleader, “Hey, look how much great holiday fun we have!”

Every time I log into Facebook, I see another picture of a friend who dresses her children in adorable festive clothes and takes them to decorate gingerbread houses or something similarly precious.

And then I think, “Oh, man. We should have gone and decorated gingerbread houses instead of staying home so I could check the hospital employment stats while the guys watch ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’ again. ”

Yes, the pressure comes from me. Nobody says I have to get everyone together and insist on having all the vacation fun. I understand. I shouldn’t feel guilty. But I can’t completely suppress it either.

It’s daunting to say the least.

But there are a few ways you can do something during the vacation. I have a few strategies up my sleeve based on my eight years freelancing from home. Consider them my Christmas present to you.

How to work at home with children on vacation

1. Preliminary work

The last week before school happily sends your kids home for two or three weeks should be a big crunch time. Do as much work as you can. And start … three, two, one … now!

2. Set office hours

Regular offices sometimes set special, shortened vacation times. So can you – after all, you’re the boss. Find out when you are most likely to get your job done and do it during your office hours. Be as realistic as possible.

3. Register your children for summer camps

Even a full day or two half days of child-free time can help you improve your workload or word count significantly. Check with your local parks and leisure department, dance studio, indoor climbing center, or community center for options. In my city, several private schools even offer Lego camps during the holidays.

Alternative strategy: if your children visit daycare and it is open, send them!

4. Talk to your clients about your vacation plan in advance

Maybe a customer can withdraw meeting to give you some wiggle room or to get some necessary files earlier than usual so that you have more time to work on a project. Start this conversation at least a few weeks before your change of appointment.

5. Make time for vacation fun

Take your time to have fun, and don’t feel guilty about it. Plan to attend this gingerbread house decorating workshop in the morning. Then you can work the rest of the day off.

In all fairness, your kids can take advantage of the downtime while you work. So what if they only played Minecraft for a few hours? It’s your vacation!

6. Get popular Christmas movies

You can’t tell me that you weren’t looking forward to watching Rudolph the red-nosed reindeerr or one of the innumerable repetitions of a Christmas Story when you were a kid. Let the kids enjoy a vacation classic while you work for an hour or two.

7. Share child care with a friend

Do you have a buddy in the same boat? Swap some childcare with her. You take Monday and leave all the children hanging around you and then send them to her home on Tuesday.

8. Prioritize

Pick a vacation activity that you really love and can’t imagine missing out. Then scrap the others who make you feel like you should do but don’t care so much.

You might love the Charles Dickens Festival but you don’t like the local Christmas parade where you have to look for parking. When you work at home instead of shaking on the parade route, remind yourself that you made a good decision.

9. Hire a sitter

I know it will take away from your bottom line, but sometimes you just have to. Look for a babysitter who can take the kids out of the house for a while, even if it’s only to the playground which is a mile away.

Send them to the Dollar Theater for a couple of hours or provide enough cash for lunch and video games at a pizza place.

10. Don’t take on projects that you just can’t do

Easier said than done, I know. But if you know that the last half of December and the first half of January will see you knee-deep in kids, vacation activities, and family commitments, it might be worth putting a moratorium on all but the most important jobs.

This also gives you some air to breathe in the event that an unexpected vacation is required Disaster.

Writers with kids, tune in: how do you deal with a full house on vacation?