Keeping your sanity when kids at home due to COIVD-19

As children are kept home from school during the coronavirus pandemic, another crisis has sprouted for parents , What will the kids do all day? 

The widespread school closures have sent a ripple effect into parent communities as many scramble to find ways to smoothly transition kids into at-home life. It’s one thing to entertain them all day on the weekends. It’s another when you have seven days a week to fill for an indefinite period of time.

Not only are we facing school closures, many work places have implemented remote working protocols, turing the home space into a workplace.

Although it is easy to think about sleeping a little late, don’t! Though you have the ability to design your schedule, we recommend sticking to your regular working hours, which will make the transition easier for everyone. The brain is accustomed and wired to keep to your routine, i.e., work the same hours every day. Changing up that structure can create confusion and you may lose focus or interest.

Create a daily or weekly schedule with your children in mind. With your help, they can create one too! For the children, this is a great example and also an opportunity for them to learn to follow a schedule of their own.

Use school as the framework and honor what had been your child’s routine:

• When are they used to having breakfast? Snack? Lunch?
• When is recess?
• Break the day into small chunks much like school does with subjects.
• If your child has assigned schoolwork, do they work best in the morning or afternoon?

At first, working from home might seem like a dream: no commute, no distracting co-workers and think of all those chores you’ll be able to sneak in. But after the novelty wears off, things get real. It can be lonely. Your home suddenly feels a lot smaller. And there’s no real end to your work day.

Here are some tips to stay balanced:

• Take a break, it importance to de-stress and keep healthy
• Create an ‘Office Space”.
• Get Dressed, it will improve your moral
• Make a schedule and set boundaries.
• Dont isolate yourself, use video and conference calls to stay connected.