Tips for Keeping Your Child Occupied When Working From Home
A parent will often choose to work from inside the home to spend more time with their child or to relieve the high cost of daycare. Many parents are working at home while still having their child in the home. Older children may be more able to keep themselves occupied and realize that you are working, but how can a younger child be kept occupied?
Lets face it, if you were to take a job calling potential customers from your home your employer and the customer on the other end do not expect to hear a screaming toddler in the background. For the most part, newborns and smaller infants are more easily entertained; however, toddlers can become restless and they tend to get bored quickly. As a work at home mother, I have tried many different strategies to keep my daughter occupied, some worked and of course some did not.
Many work at home parents may recommend just allowing your children to play with their toys. This idea could work; however, most parents know how easily bored a child can get when playing with the same toys over and over again. It may be a good idea for parents to keep certain toys put up, out of sight, and only bring them out when you need to start your work shift. Having two or three of these groups of “different toys” may help keep your child more interested in them.
As much as we hate to just sit our children in front of the television, sometimes it may work. If you allow your child to watch television, they must have a favorite program. My daughter’s favorite television program is Blue’s Clues. I went to the store and purchased a few tapes containing episodes. She loves to sit and watch Blue’s Clues and often times will not even get up until the programming is over with. If your child is a toddler, a fun filled educational video may be more suitable for them.
There was another idea that a fellow work at home mother recommended to me and I have to say it has been the most successful one yet. The other mother suggested that I set up a child’s desk near mine and place crayons and paper there. So I purchased a desk at a yard sale and my daughter loved it; however, she was still reaching for the computer. See my daughter loves the computer, every chance that she gets she is hopping into the computer chair or trying to type on the keyboard. My daughter has a toy computer that is colorful and full of activities but it really does not resemble a real computer. I went to Ebay and purchased a laptop computer that did not work. The laptop cost me 99 cents and quite frankly, I really didn’t need it to work. Once the computer arrived I printed a colored picture off our working computer and attached it to the laptop screen. My daughter loves her “new computer.” Every time that I have to get on the computer to do work, she is right there next to me typing away.
Many parents make the assumption that working from home is easier than a job at an onsite location; however, it may not always workout that way. There is the option of still sending your children to daycare; however, if you are able to keep them occupied and still give them attention that they need while working, why not give it a shot? Finding the perfect job requires trial and error and becoming a work at home parent is no exception.
