by Leo Wiles
20 January 2016
As a newish freelancer with one child at home I am finding it near impossible to do the whole work/parenting thing. Have you or Rachel got any suggestions on how to survive working with kids over these school holidays? Anita
As a child, I remember summer holidays seemed to last forever. Now, as a parent of three, it feels even longer! Especially when trying to maintain your workflow. With two weeks out from the finish line (Jan 27th at 8.30am, but who’s counting), here are some of the ways – including a total sugar ban – that I’ve made it work this time round.
Compromise. Juggling study with work commitments and parenting in 2015, I finally got my 8-year-old off my back by asking for a tantrum-and-hassle-free 6 weeks in return for a week at the beach. The 5-year-old reneged on his pinkie promise, but two out of three toeing the line was a good outcome.
Bribery. In our house TV and/or computer time are limited to after the sun goes down. However, with a deadline looming or a day of extremely noisy bouncy argumentative siblings, it could end up being MUCH earlier. The reason it works so well is because we use screen time sparingly and the kids understand watching it is a privilege – not a right.
Phone a friend. Do you know another working parent under the cosh to juggle kids and work? Perhaps you can alternate a morning or afternoon of child-minding with one another or work out a way where you split the week so you have a couple of childfree days without the bill.
Call in the cavalry. We’re two weeks into 2016 and already I’ve used up my annual quota of grandparent goodwill and child-minding. My fall back is vacation care. The problem here is of course is you need to earn more than you spend on care AND worse still, bookings often need to be a month in advance. So unless you have a very big or concrete contract in the pipeline the solution can end up being more stressful than children bouncing off the walls.
Turn into a night owl or a pre dawn lark. Finding those childfree creative hours can be a challenge. As the children are up at dawn most days, no matter what time they go to bed, I find burning the midnight oil works best during holidays for those stretches of writing uninterrupted – bliss.
Multitask. Being parents I know we are all familiar with this one. For me it means doing the mundane necessary things like culling my emails sitting on the couch flanked by my little people and once they’re in bed addressing the urgent missives and setting up interviews etc, online.
Wear them out early. This is true for our new puppy and the children who are all much better behaved when they’ve been taken down the park first thing after breakfast. After that it’s swim time, lunch and with a full belly quiet time for cards, games, books or Lego, which gives me time to make urgent phone calls, emails or deal with social media.
Accept or die. On a final note, Anita, I’d say the most powerful thing you can do is accept the situation and stop fighting it. I know for those first few years I ended up frustrated and unpleasant to be around as I kept working at the same pace. Family life suffered as a result and my workload took twice as long to achieve. It’s why I don’t take on big contracts during these family times and make sure that my contract deadline buffers reflect the downtime that is family time.
What do you do to survive the school holidays?
Don’t lose heart Anita. Use any and all of Leo’s suggestions. Mostly accept that “it is as it is”. My now 20-somethings still talk about how Mum took them on ‘research’ — searching for a specific gravesite is the stand-out favourite!
You sound like a seriously cool mum Heather. I often subject my children to bouts of ‘chasing the light’ when I take my hinterland image bank photos post dinner before bed.
The best part from them is that we regularly get lost on purpose and discover things like roos grazing at dusk or a deer farm in the middle of nowhere – magic.
I think this is such great advice for new mums as well Heather. I used to end up completely frazzled trying to work and keep an eye on Charlie (now 16 months old). Then one day I thought, ‘this is impossible. I’m doing a half-arsed job of everything’… and it was a bit of an epiphany. I accepted that NO work was going to get done when he was awake, and I just had to cram stuff into his sleep times. Suddenly life became a lot easier.
The television – the bane of my existence – is my back up plan when we’ve overstayed our welcome with the grandparents. I hate shoving the kids in front of the idiot box for hours at a time, but to be honest, it’s the only way I can get peace and quiet while I finish a project, or speak to clients. I try not to do it every day… and reward the kids with an outing once I’m done. C’est la vie!