Managing a family and working from home

Managing a family and working from home – how can I juggle everything?

Has the coronavirus turned your working and family life upside down? Are you sitting at home right now and trying to work, but your children, not your colleagues, are whirling around you?
You are not alone in this new situation and the associated challenges. Since the schools were closed, many families have found their day-to-day lives have been turned on their heads. The freedoms that we have always taken for granted until now have, from one day to the next, been restricted to our own four walls. In recent days, as a father or mother, you have probably wondered, just like many others, how you are going to manage to stay sane in the coming days and weeks with the kids on top of you when actually, you still have to work. Since nobody can call upon previous experience in this unprecedented situation, the motto for the near future is “Try it and see”. As in many other circumstances, there is no single solution, but many different ones, and every family needs to find their own way of juggling family routine, schoolwork and working from home over the coming days.
We have put together some tips and tricks to help you with it all.

Agree your daily structure together
As all family members have different things to achieve in the limited space inside your own four walls, it is advisable to draw up a detailed plan together and for all family members to stick to it. Who works when on what, and when are the breaks? Like a school timetable, it is best hung up somewhere where everyone can see it. This also includes agreeing rules, such as children should first knock on the door, and wait for the “come in” when the parents are working in the study. Making a plan and discussing it together while you make it means that not everything needs to be re-discussed every time. This in turn will mean more peace and fewer arguments.

Family time
In addition to working from home, and home-schooling the children, spending time together is just as important for both parents and children. The children will need a lot of attention, particularly in this uncertain time. Plan windows of time for family activities in your daily lives. You could use them to craft things together, or cook, take a walk outside or play a board game. Be creative and try out something new.

Keep everything as normal as possible
In this time of “social distancing”, social contact is important for keeping both adults and children mentally stable and healthy. Although children can continue to spend time in small, defined groups in the neighbourhood under the currently valid hygiene and behavioural rules issued by the Federal Office for Public Health (BAG), many parents are not happy about this. The risk to adults is too great. Digital media are a suitable alternative, allowing the children to connect and to continue to learn and play together. Children are now using digital channels both to keep in touch with grandparents and godparents, and also more and more with classmates and friends. Right now, family support is more important than ever when searching for ideas for making contact with our nearest and dearest and our circles of friends.

If you too reach your limits, are unsure or have any questions, advice for parents from Pro Juventute (https://www.projuventute.ch/de/elternberatung) and family counselling from the eff-zett specialist centre in Zug (https://www.eff-zett.ch/einzel-paar-und-familienberatung/) are there for you!

And here are some more exciting tips and tricks for the coming days:

Some useful tips from Pro Juventute for all parents in their daily lives:

• When home is the only place children can be
• Tips for parents and for teenagers
• Corona: How families can organise their daily lives
• Corona: Exploring important questions with children
• Corona: Ideas for free play at home
• More suggestions for family life during the corona pandemic

All about home schooling:

• Pupils and parents
• Grandchild School - Homeschooling from a Distance with Grandma and Grandpa
• Distance learning - Information, ideas and documents from the canton of Zug

Working from home:

• Tips for teachers that are also suitable for working from home
• Tips for the home office
• Home office in general
• Set up workplace
• Exercise at work
• Working from home but healthy anyway, an audio report by SRF advisers

Counselling in Zug Canton:
Family counselling eff-zett by telephone in Zug Canton.