Essential Tips for Parenting During The Pandemic
Parenting During Lockdown
Homeschooling, working at home, and the uncertainty of finances surrounding COVID make parenting even more difficult.
All parents work during the lockdown. The only difference is in their workload, both paid and unpaid.
Many working parents were forced to do their usual paid work, which they usually perform at the office, from home during COVID-19 lockdowns. This is a new experience for all involved: working parents, their families, and employers.
Researchers are also in a relatively unexplored territory. In previous academic studies on work-life integration, home, and work were viewed as distinct domains with tasks delineated and performed at different locations and times.
In addition, research on balancing these roles and working flexibly (including from home) has shown that parents mostly worked while their children were in school or daycare, or they weren’t paid full-time work.
Here are some tips for parenting during the pandemic that will help you through this difficult time.
It’s crucial to keep a routine. Children thrive with structure, so it is important to adapt it to the current situation. Finding a balance between work and family can also reduce stress and promote stability. Prioritizing mental health is important. Taking time to care for yourself and encouraging open communication can help strengthen your relationship. Finally, encouraging creativity and outdoor play will help you and your child stay active and engaged.
Parenting Tips During The Pandemic
1. Be calm and Proactive
Parents should talk to their children calmly and openly about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the role that children can play in maintaining their health. Tell them that you or your child may experience symptoms that are similar to a common cold or the flu at any time. They should not be alarmed by this possibility; Parents should encourage their children to tell them if they feel unwell or are worried about the virus. This way, they can help.
Adults can empathize and understand the anxiety that children feel about COVID-19. She says to reassure your children by telling them that COVID-19 is a mild infection, particularly for children and adolescents. Remember that COVID-19 symptoms can be treated. We can then remind them of the many things they can do to stay safe, feel more in control, and keep others safe. For example, washing their hands frequently, not touching their faces, and socially distancing themselves are all effective ways to achieve this.

2. Ask Them What They Hear
Many people are spreading false information about the COVID-19 coronavirus. Find out what your children are hearing or thinking. You can’t just give your child the facts. If they’ve picked up an inaccurate idea, you need to find out what their thoughts are and address any misunderstandings. Otherwise, they might combine the new info you provide with old information. Start by finding out what your child knows.
Use the opportunity to work together with them to find answers if you are unable or unwilling to answer their questions. For information, use websites from trusted organizations such as UNICEF or the World Health Organization.
3. Allow Your Child To Feel Their Emotions
Children are disappointed that they will miss out on school plays, concerts, and sports games because of COVID-19. These are big losses in the life of an adolescent. We are comparing it to our lifetimes and experiences, so it’s bigger for them. Expect and accept that they will be very upset and frustrated by the loss they are grieving.
4. Play With Your Kids
Children can work out problems with dolls, stuffed animals, action figures, and costumes. Your children can be angry at the virus and try to control it. Elsa could cast a spell to stop it in its tracks. Ryder and his pups could go on a rescue to save sick people. You could make a COVID-19 remedy using food colouring, glitter, and other ingredients.
5. Justify Your Anger and Disappointment.
You must be feeling a lot of disappointment that you have to cancel your travel plans for spring break. Or your sleepover party. Or your school play. It’s okay to yell, cry, or even hit the couch for a while. It’s not “super fun” to spend time in your local park instead of Disney World. Your children are not stupid; they’re just little.
Working While Watching Your Kids
Covid-19’s outbreak has led to an increase in the number of people working from home. This change may negatively impact productivity, but it ignores the perceptions of workers and their effects on well-being.
Covid-19 has changed the way many people work. In many occupations, the shift to working from home (WFH) during the pandemic was rapid. This will likely be a permanent change in the way work is organized in some advanced economies.
This development has led to questions regarding the impact on worker productivity. Recent evidence suggests that policymakers should be sceptical of claims made by some about the positive or negative impact of working from home.
Tips for Parents While Working During Pandemic

1. Enjoy your family time.
It is an opportunity of a lifetime. There are no commutes between school and work. No extracurricular activities. We are so used to travelling non-stop all day long to and from different places, but now we can’t. It’s a wonderful opportunity to reconnect. After you finish your work, be fully present with your family. Play games, take walks, talk to each other, call family members and friends. Find a way of helping someone or making their day brighter. We often forget to do the things we enjoy in our busy schedules. In this age of social distance, people are finding creative ways to stay connected and engage with others. Make some memories by seeing what you can do!
2. Keep a morning routine.
You can sleep in later because you don’t have to drive or take your kids to school anymore. Enjoy it. Get up and prepare for the day. Shower, dress (even in sweatpants), and eat breakfast. Whatever helps you start your day with your family. You will feel more ready to start the day and less like you are playing catchup.
3. Understand the expectations of your boss and communicate with him.
Speak with your boss and ensure that you both understand the expectations you have for yourself and your team when everyone works from home. What is the expected schedule? What are the expectations for communication? What is considered to be excellent performance? Keep in regular contact with your boss to discuss how things are progressing and to relay any important updates that the leadership may have for your team. Keep communication flowing both ways.
4. Plan your day and prepare your office.
It’s important to plan out what you will do that day. But the big question is how? Plan this. Decide where you will work before starting to work.
You don’t want to waste time looking for items you normally have on hand. Consider any IT requirements you might have – a computer monitor, power cable, the ability to access documents, conference call resources etc.
Consider rooms that are suitable for all. You could set up your office in the child’s playroom or bring quieter toys to your home office.
The Lockdown Effect
The lockdowns changed this, forcing many parents to work full-time while also caring for and educating their children.
We suggest that concepts like ‘work-life balance’ and ‘work/life conflict,’ which are
often used to describe the new reality, cannot adequately reflect it.
We have developed a concept to better describe the experience of working parents who juggle paid work (formal work) with unpaid work, such as caring for their children, doing household chores, and volunteering, when they are both performed in the same place and time.

Working From Home Shuffle
Imagine a typical situation: Sarah is a teacher of 26 9- and 10-year-olds in a primary school, and she also has two children aged 11 and 15 who both study from home when the lockdown occurs. She has a husband who is an essential worker, and he goes to work every day during the week.
This is What One Hour in Her Morning Could Look Like:
9 am She sets up her Zoom session in her kitchen (her ‘work area’) to facilitate a discussion with her class for 20 minutes.
9.07 am She motions to her teenage son not to eat the ingredients that she plans to use to cook dinner for him.
9.20 am Leaves Zoom call to give her students the time they need to finish a task. She also has some time to do laundry and respond to an email sent by a parent.
9.35 am Checks her students’ progress online for eight minutes.
At 9.41 am, A mother is approached by her daughter, aged 11, who asks for help.
9.50 am She brings her class together to discuss their work on Zoom and also shows her son the food in the refrigerator.
Meetings and Monitoring
Ananya, a senior manager in banking. She is a single mum with twins aged 16 who are also studying at home. She misses soccer, as both boys play it at a high level. They have a puppy.
At 1.15 pm, While listening to the CEO’s update live on her computer, she texts her boys to encourage them to go out and skate instead of playing games during their lunchtime (they ignore her).
1:30 pm: She eats leftovers for lunch after the update.
At 1.37 pm, Answers a call from a member of the team.
1:48 pm: Her boys are back in online classes, and she is sitting down to respond to emails.
2.07 pm: Encourages a son to finish an overdue school project and also fill the water bowl of his dog.
At 2.11 pm, she starts a conversation with her manager via Teams.
2.17 pm She realizes that one of her twins was playing video games when he should have been working on his project.
2.19 pm – Courier knocks at the door. No one else is there to hear it. She interrupts a meeting of another team.

Employers Territory
These scenarios show the reality of zigzag work the continual and simultaneous diving between paid and unpaid work in micro sessions or managing paid and unpaid tasks at the same time.
Many of the support systems that parents depend on are unavailable during lockdowns. This includes relatives, paid household services, schools, daycare centres, and after-school activities.
Many employers are also in a new situation, enforcing their own rules and having a large number of employees working from home full-time.
Employers should consider the multiple roles that working parents have to play. There are some tried and tested ways to support your organization and be a good employer.
Employers may consider these changes for lockdown work:
- There is no such thing as a ‘completely silent’ period or a prolonged period of ‘focused’ time.
- Start online meetings at the exact hour that school classes start.
- You can schedule a call with a working parent by confirming in advance when it is convenient.
- Micro-breaks are a great way to break up long online sessions for all participants.
- Recording updates on the organization so that parents can listen in at a convenient time for their family.
- Encourage and enable staff to take breaks as they would in a normal working environment.
- Encourage and facilitate discussions about ‘chaos’ to combat notions that you are the perfect parent or worker.
New Reality Research
Before COVID-19, life was complicated. It feels even more challenging now.
Employers are encouraged to take a proactive role in zigzag work and understand its reality. They should also recognise that zigzag work can be experienced by grandparents who are working multiple jobs and contractors who manage several jobs in addition to family responsibilities.
If a parent’s partner is also working at home, the impact of zigzag work can be magnified.
There are many permutations. The research opportunities are also numerous to understand and study this new zigzag world.