Covid-19 working from home but no childminder

tomgaa

Hi,

Both me and my partner have to work from home now, but with last night’s announcement we cannot take our 1 yr old son to his childminder. Is this just a bite the bullet and try and work around it? I know you are allowed to do essential travel for minding kids, the elderly or the sick but I presume this doesn’t include child minding as you aren’t allowed to interact with those outside your family?

listermint

Bite the bullet .
.there are thousands and thousands in the same position including the folks you would be in conferencing with. This is global btw.

JDxtra

Work around it. Work when you can, share the load - catch up in the evening if either of you didn't get enough done in day.

Employers will need to be somewhat flexible for parents.

iamwhoiam

Loads of people in the same position with two or three kids

Larbre34

Loads of people in the same position having just lost 2 salaries.

Try and channel the resilience your grandparents would've had in spades and figure it out.

tomgaa

Yeah agree with all.... I’m in the construction/civil industry and for me I can work around this with minimal issues..... it’s more my wife who is having a panic attack as she just started a new accountancy job last week, and is worried she won’t get the time during the day to perform all tasks and which have financial deadlines.

Trying to get her to understand that this is not a normal event and if employers think that work will be completed in the same timeframe as office based work then they need a reality check

shesty

Yeah we are doing it with three kids for the last fortnight.
Take turns.I can understand where your wife is coming from.Tell her to discuss with her employers, find out exact expectatioms and see can they umderstand.Do a morning or afternoon each, and maybe a bit in the evening if absolutely needed.I would not recommend that under normal circumstances but needs must.
You need to be in a separate space away from the child though....we set a desk in our room for now, as it is where the kids are least likely to be.I did a day last week with headphones in listening to white noise to force myself to not hear them!!!But we are juggling basically.A 1 year old should have naps....2?....in a day, so try and work something out around those hours between you.But these are not normal times, and will not last forever.
We took ours out of their minder on the 12th, and as it turns out, one of her family came home with symptoms late this week so I am glad we did.Work out payment wih your minder also.

Salary Negotiator

Larbre34 wrote: »

Loads of people in the same position having just lost 2 salaries.

Try and channel the resilience your grandparents would've had in spades and figure it out.

Loads of people who have lost their jobs are having to work and look after their kids at the same time?

Don’t think that makes much sense.

kieran.

We have 4 kids and are both working from home. Think flexible and your employer will too. I work 6am to 1pm and my wife works 1pm to 8pm. 7 good hours per day and we both get great time with the kids. I run a architectural/engineering consultancy and my wife is an accountant for a large food manafacturer so we would be quite similar to your family situation.

Dravokivich

I've been doing it with my son, since the schools closed. You just got to roll with it.

Toots

We've been doing it here since the schools closed. You get used to it. I've an 8 year old and a 2 year old and unfortunately the 2 year old is getting a lot more screen time than we'd like, but needs must. My husband has multiple conference calls a day, and he said it's the same with all the colleagues - you can hear kids in the background for a lot of them. Our two year old ended up "helping" on the Friday conference call because I had a medical appointment and she had a meltdown as I left the house.

At 1 year old, they'll still be having a nap or two during the day, so if you can, try to schedule any calls etc for during the time they're asleep.

_Brian

Obviously depends on the role

My regular job allows me to regularly work from home.
I often work early and late and have the day to do other stuff. But I don’t need to interact with others to do the portion of my role that I do from home.

krissovo

We have a nice routine now with the kids, our calendars are shared so we are not on conference calls at the same time. I start at 7am and finish at 7pm but spend 3 or 4 hours with the kids and visa versa for my wife.

Conference calls are fun and its now clearly acceptable to have kids screaming and fighting in the background. My daughter (10) has even been attending some of my meetings taking notes and getting work experience. Probably more educational than some of the work she has been given by school. My son (6) is not so great as a PA but he enjoys our weekly team call with my colleagues from India, US, Germany & Canada and is interested about these countries and what is happening locally for them.