Do you know what working from home with a kid looks like? By work here, I don’t mean the household chores though that is another monster in itself. I’m talking about office work. You know, applying your mind to find some sort of solution etc. So, have you any idea what kind of animal that is? No? Well, then let me give you a glimpse into the world of a parent trying hard to work while also taking care of her child without a maid or older family members to help or even a daycare.

Now, don’t think I’m relating this for sympathy. This is, after all, a path I have chosen. I could have not continued working after M and the pressures on me wouldn’t have been so much. But that is not me. The intention of this post like all my motherhood posts is to show you a true, dispassionate picture of what being a working mother entails. No airbrushing for me.

When COVID invaded our lives it took away the two most powerful tools of a working mother – the daycares and working out of office. I have always believed that it takes a village to raise a child when a mother wants to continue working. My village was M’s daycare but that is no longer an option now. And I no longer have the uninterrupted long stretch of 9 hours like I had when going to the office was viable. But there is no challenge a mother can’t handle, even though she probably gets crazy every few days dealing with everything on her plate. You could say it’s part of our job description.

So, what does working from home with a kid look like during COVID?

Imagine you are working on something for which you need to concentrate, a piece of work that involves calculations and racking your brain. In other words, the ideal environment for this kind of work is when there is no noise, no disturbance. In the pre-COVID era, I would do this with my headphones on at work to minimize any need for conversation. Complete and total focus, that was how I did it. But now, with COVID, I need to do this kind of work with my daughter asking me a million questions in the middle. In fact, my regular working day is now nothing short of an obstacle race. Don’t believe me? Well, then read on.

Here are some of the things I have done while working from home with M now that there are no daycares and I don’t have any help at home. Yes, it’s just me and my husband with our little monster. And we both need to work from home while also managing M’s online classes and her entire day.

My regular working day is now nothing short of an obstacle race.

Now, working from home means you have to attend a lot of calls. Since M hardly sleeps in the afternoon, there have been occasions when I have taken calls with M on my lap. But that’s an easy one. The tricky part was when she had to go potty between my updates. So, picture me giving my updates and rushing to the toilet with her to be back just in time for continuing with the call. Yes, the exciting life and times of being a working parent!

Potty duty between calls has been a highlight of working from home during COVID.

But that’s not all. I moved to a new project with the start of lockdown and have had to work on new tools. So, imagine me trying had to concentrate to learn new things while this one has been calling ‘Mumma, you know something?’ nonstop!

What Working From Home With a Kid Looks Like Share on X

Then there are the usual things one needs to work around. The knick-knacks she wants every few minutes while you just want to be able to get at least one hour undisturbed at a stretch. This is one of the reasons, working from home never ends for parents like me. We just keep working throughout the day simply because of the fact that the peaceful continuous stretch at work that we were used to doesn’t really exist at home.

I have had talks with M about how I know she gets bored when mummy and papa work but there is no other way around it. Though I know she understands but being a kid she does everything she can to get our attention when we are in between calls or even when we are trying to work on that complex piece.

I have had to hug her a hundred times in between completing a single complicated deliverable. I have had to keep talking on calls while she pulled at my headphones. Also, every time I know my day is going to involve work items that need more effort, I have had to literally bribe her to leave me alone. But of course, those are the days when she wants her mom the most. At such times, I have often lashed out on her. But after 5 minutes, you would find me trying to make it up to her before I can start all over again. The mom-guilt comes inevitably even though you know it’s not your fault.

My regular working day is now nothing short of an obstacle race.

Then there are times when she wants to do her classwork and homework while I’m working on a very important deliverable. What can you do then? You can’t discourage her. So, there you are trying to automate a functionality while telling her what she needs to write or how she shouldn’t spoil her book. 

It’s not fun. It’s not fun at all. I liked it when work was work and home meant I was completely home, not thinking about work. Now, the boundaries have blurred and interruptions have become a part and parcel of my working day. There are moments when in these months I have found myself crying because you have to admit it gets too much. But nobody ever said being a working mom was easy, right? Still, nobody said I couldn’t cry?

I don’t blame the kids though. Though I often get annoyed at M for disturbing us, I know she just wants our attention. While our lives have changed due to COVID so have the kids’. They don’t get to meet their friends. They don’t get to go to school. M has not ventured out to the playground in months. Sometimes her dad takes her cycling late at night when no one else is out. This is not normal for a kid. But in all fairness, the kids have coped better than us adults. So, yes, they have become a little demanding but is it really their fault? Not at all. All they have are we the parents and how can we expect 4 or 5-year-olds to understand the complexities and demands of work?

Being a parent is hard work. Being a parent in these times is even harder. So is being a kid. There are days when M keeps asking me to do a craft with her while I have so much office work to do. So, as exhausted as I might be, I have to switch to craft mode soon after shutting my laptop. And I lose it more than I would like to admit. When there is so much you have to do, you can’t help but lose it. Moms, parents rather, are humans after all.

So, yes, that is what working from home with a kid looks like. It’s not as glamorous as it seems.