Quarantine Routine: Day One of Working at Home with a Toddler
The announcement yesterday that creches, schools and universities were to close for a few weeks filled me with a combination of both fear and relief.
Relief because I think that social distancing is an essential step to slow down the transmission of the virus and consequently reduce the pressure on our health system. See here for recommendations on social distancing from the Irish Government.
Fear because it means my concerns about COVID19 were not unfounded.
Also, a little bit of extra fear because we both work full time and whilst we can both continue to work from home, I have no idea how we will manage with a toddler in the mix. (Osk is usually at creche from 7.45am - 4.30pm Monday to Friday).
Creating our Game Plan
The first thing we did was sit down, make a cup of tea and think about our gameplan.
Breaking the day into chunks (or sessions) based on Osk’s routine made it less daunting. No chunk was longer than 2 hours. We identified specific tasks that need to happen within each chunk to make the rest of the day run more smoothly and to ensure we stay on top of our household tasks as well as our own professional workloads (and to prevent us warring over the division of labour).
My role is more flexible than C's, so by each taking on the parenting responsibilities for different sessions we determined that I can probably get about 4 or 5 hours of work done per day on a good day. I texted my boss to let him know the situation and suggested we review it next week.
For some context, Osk is 15 months old and still has two naps (hurray!). He usually wakes at around 6am and goes to bed around 7pm. We go to bed around 9.30/10pm.
Here's how it went yesterday, on Day One:
Early Morning Session
6am
Osk woke just before 6am today, so instead of one of us snoozing a little longer (we usually take turns), we all got up. I made a cup of tea and brought my breakfast to my desk. C took charge of breakfast, emptying the dishwasher and preparing Osk’s snacks for the day. They then played together whilst I managed to get 2 solid hours of work done.
Outdoor Time
8.15am
We did a quick handover. C then got showered and went to his desk to start his workday. Osk and I got our coats on and walked to the park. We said hello to the ducks and chased the ball on the grass for a while, taking care not to touch anything and staying well clear of anybody else. Osk decided to explore his first muddy puddle - we’ll wear our wellies tomorrow!
Snack & Naptime
9am
When we got home, we washed our hands, then Osk had a snack and went down for his morning nap. I cleaned the mud off his shoes and chucked his coat and the footmuff from the buggy in the wash before sitting down at my desk with another cup of tea. He slept for just over an hour, so I managed to get another hour of emails and some data analysis done.
Late Morning Session
10.30am
Osk woke from his nap in great form. He was happy to play independently for about 40mins with his toy car and the busy board whilst I assembled the Pikler Triangle that arrived yesterday. He checked in for cuddles (and the occasional bite - he's teething). When he got bored playing by himself, we read some stories, played peekaboo in the teepee and threw a soft ball back and forth.
Lunchtime
12pm
I prepared lunch and C joined us for some toasted ham and cheese sandwiches at the kitchen table. I finished putting the Pikler Triangle together and rearranged the play area whilst C and Osk tidied up after lunch.
Early Afternoon Session
12.30pm
We attempted a big reveal of the updated play area, hoping our excitement would rub off, but Osk was more interested in pushing his table and chairs around the room. We all played together for a few mins before C went back to work.
Osk and I played on/around the Pikler and had a video chat with his cousins. He then discovered the packaging from the Pikler and we got about 20mins of entertainment out of the big cardboard box and crinkling up the tissue paper.
32 Likes, 1 Comments - ✨mum blogger&improvement coach (@themumproject.ie) on Instagram: "✨Our Pikler Triangle arrived! ✨ . . Watching the news recently I figured it was only a matter of..."
Snack & Naptime
2.30pm
Osk had a snack and went down for his second nap at around 2.50pm. At this point, I made a cup of tea and collapsed back at my desk. C popped out for a while to deliver some groceries to his parents.
Late Afternoon Session
4.30pm
Osk woke late from his nap, around 4.20pm. He sucked the houmous off some breadsticks and tossed the breadsticks onto the floor whilst I took dinner out of the freezer to defrost and baked some bread rolls to go with it.
Whilst the oven was preheating (it takes ages…) and the food defrosting we pulled on our wellies and weeded the flower bed out the front. This is a task that has been bothering me for weeks. Trying to stop Osk running onto the busy road was tricky, but we got some fresh air and the garden looks much neater now.
Dinner Time & Family Time
5.30pm
We all sat down to eat dinner together. This is much earlier than normal for me and C, but we are trying to shift our routines to spend more quality time together. This also means we all eat the same meal, only have to tidy up once and avoid our usual early evening snacking.
Pre Bedtime Session
6pm
Osk had his bottle of milk whilst we cleaned up after dinner, listened to the news, put on a wash and hung some wet laundry to dry.
6.45pm
Osk skipped his bath this evening (we ran out of time), so C just brushed his teeth, put on pyjamas, read a story and put him down. He loves bedtime (just like his mama) and settled pretty quickly.
Whilst C did bedtime, I folded some laundry, restocked our handtowels (we are using individual hand towels in the downstairs bathroom at the moment) and made yet another cup of tea.
Evening Session
7pm
I grabbed a mini Kinder Bueno bite to go with my tea and sat down at my desk again. I checked my work emails and updated my to do list for tomorrow.
I then migrated to the sofa and wrote this post whilst keeping up with friends and family via WhatsApp.
Bedtime for Grown Ups
10pm
Lights out. Fingers crossed for a good night..
Verdict
It's possible to work from home with a toddler!
I probably got as much work done today as I would on a normal day. Having defined time periods really helped me to focus.
Although it was pretty full on, it was amazing to spend so much time with Osk and to still manage to do some productive work.
We’ve decided we’ll try to just run the same routine seven days a week for the next two weeks. It will give our days rhythm and keep us from going crazy. It also means I can do slightly fewer hours of work each day, but still get through the same amount across the whole week.
There are definitely some areas for improvement. We didn’t get any proper exercise today, so we’ll have to fit that in somewhere. Also, we spent some of the sessions playing together as a family was nice, but we should probably divide and conquer a bit more to ensure we each get a breather from work/Osk/housework/each other each day.
