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Working from home with kids

5 min read

Jan 24, 2025

How to work from home with kids

If you’re currently swapping the corporate headquarters for a room in your home, there are plenty of tools and guides to help make the work from home transition a painless one. Being a parent however makes this much trickier—even if you and your little ones are both excited to be spending so much time together. Thinking outside the box is crucial to keeping your work, your team, and your kids happy. Here are some useful work-from-home tips and tricks for being a work-from-home mom, dad, or sibling.

Explain the situation

While your kids will be excited to have you in the house, especially if they’re housebound themselves, they need to understand that life goes on as usual. Explain that it isn’t like a holiday—work hours are still in place, and their schoolwork and study hours are just as important. Not only will this help set expectations, it will also prevent any feelings of rejection when you lock them out of your home office for hours at a time.

Get a routine down

Whether they’re your own children, a younger sibling, or your roommate’s kid, it’s easy to fall out of routine if you share your home with little people when working from home. Set yourself work schedules, much like you would on a regular workday in the office or when they’re at school. Don’t be tempted to sleep in until 9am and don’t take a 2-hour lunch break just because you can. You likely need to practice greater self-discipline than you typically do and clearly demonstrate how essential your work hours are. Then you can help the youngsters to follow your example.

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A person working from home on a laptop with their kid lying on the sofa next to them.

Accepting the challenges of working from home

Let’s be honest, the job of a parent is a heroic undertaking on the most normal of days, so don’t be alarmed if you’re struggling to manage a regular working day at the same time, especially now. If your kids are getting in the way of your work, be honest and open with your manager and your team so that you can all work with realistic expectations. You’ll likely find that some of them are having the same problems, creating opportunities to collaborate and solve them together.

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