In our regular series five minutes with, we catch up with parents and carers across our network to hear how they are adjusting to life working from home.
Alex Goodyear, Paid Social Account Manager at iProspect shares her tips and tricks for new daily routines.
What new processes or routine have you adopted whilst working from home and taking care of your child / children?
- Blocking out time in the day to spend with my two year old son to go for a walk (weather permitting), or doing something fun for him like art or reading with him
- Working out a routine with my husband where we each have periods of undisturbed working.
- Ensure we also have an hour a day each to ourselves to do whatever we would like (read a book, watch a film/TV series, even just sit in a quiet room!) whilst the other takes care of the child if needed.
What are you finding most surprising about your new routine?
- By having designated time to work and spend time looking after my son during the day, I feel more organised with my day
- I’m actually doing more exercise than previously which is great, either through the walks in the afternoon, or doing the Joe Wicks workout in the morning with both my son and husband!
Do you have any tips or ideas for other parents or carers across Dentsu to help with their daily routines?
- Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do it all, these are really tough times and some days your children will not listen to you, or do as they are asked.
- Take one day at a time, try not to schedule everything as this is likely to demotivate kids – perhaps give them the opportunity to carve out their own routines (if they are old enough to do so!)
- Rather than stress about having to be a full-time parent plus work, think of this as an opportunity to spend time with your family, instead of having a coffee break in the office, you can have a break with your child/husband/partner.