Work From Home with Kids | Four Ways to keep Children Occupied

By: Andrea Gibbs

For many parents who work from home with kids, parenting and working sometimes go hand in hand. It certainly makes for a convenient lifestyle to work around your children while they’re still young and small. The downside, however, is that often the time you spend with them doesn’t seem like enough.

Nowadays, it can feel like your kids need constant entertainment or other activities. And because you are also occupied with your work, you stick to the activities you always provide for them. As a result, you’ve become constantly worried about them becoming bored or having nothing to do. Some days, it feels impossible to concentrate on work knowing that your children need your attention. Technology has helped, but if you’re not careful, it can also provide a distraction.

The good news is that aside from the usual routine you keep doing to entertain your child, you can do other things to keep your kids busy while you’re working. And because you have found this article, it means that you’re looking for ways to do just that. So with that, here are four ways to keep your children occupied and busy while you’re working from home.

Work From Home With Kids? 4 Ways to Keep Children Occupied

Schedule Playtime

Children need to play in order to grow and learn new things. While this is true, we can also say that playtime can provide them with the energy they need to be well-behaved the rest of the time. For instance, it’s easy for your child to get rowdy or impatient when you have work to do. To avoid this from happening, schedule a regular playtime activity that will give both you and your child space away from your work without being too boring for them.

Ideally, set aside 30 minutes each day just for playing with your kids, even if you have so much work to do. Although it’s a short segment of time, it will provide you and your child with a good dose of entertainment and energy. And if you make the playtime fun enough, you can be sure that your child will want to spend more time with you.

Play with Toys

The great thing about toys is the fact that they’re almost entertaining in themselves. Because of this, they can be an effective tool when it comes to keeping your children occupied. They’ll be able to play with them on their own, or you can join in their game. In addition, it helps to keep them away from screen time while you work your stay-at-home job, but still need some time to finish your work.

There are some things you should know about toys, though. It’s not enough that you buy new toys for your children all the time, though. While this makes them happy initially, it also becomes a problem because of how easily bored they will get by playing with the same toy repeatedly. And because of that, your kids will most likely get used to it and lose interest easily.

That is why you should also pick toys that they can play with on their own. Generally speaking, the more interactive a toy is, the longer you can keep your children entertained. Some toys are even educational. This way, you won’t have to worry about them getting bored with the same toy anymore.

Get Them Involved (With You)

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to get the kids involved in what you’re doing. It will give kids a sense of responsibility while also rewarding them for helping you out. Whether it’s sorting your mail or going through your papers while you’re working, this works even better when you make it fun if they can choose which documents should go where and whatnot, they’ll be more engaged in their task and want to help you out even more.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that they should handle confidential documents or other important papers. But, at the very least, let them keep all the documents together so that they don’t get lost.

Set Up a Playroom/Office

Parents who work from home with kids can struggle to create a productive space for everyone. To manage this, you can set up a playroom/office. It is another option but might take some time to set up for day-to-day use. The idea here is to create a room within the house where only the children hang out (and, as such, parental supervision). Since this is a place where they’ll be able to play or do their homework, it makes for a great place to work on your projects too.

You can also name it something like “The Playroom” or “The Office” to make them feel more responsible for what goes on in there. And because it’s an open space, they won’t feel confined. At the same time, it might encourage them to clean the area whenever they see something wrong with it. Finally, because you’ll be working from home, you can still supervise them while working at the same time.

Author Bio: I’m Andrea Gibbs, born, raised, and still living in New York. I’m a work-at-home mom with a background in business development, strategy, and social media marketing. I’m a blog contributor at Baby Steps Daycare in Forest Hills, New York to motivate and educate other parents about how they can get their children ahead of the game in school.