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PSYclone22

Visual Analytics Mercenary
SuperFanatic
Aug 15, 2012
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Des Moines
Have a 3 yr old and both wife and I work from home. Trying our hardest to avoid letting tv be his teacher. We're essentially combining to work 7 am until 7 or so at night with some overlap of work but staying engaged with our kid.

We've tried to replicate the preschool curriculum and schedule as best as possible to make the school-at-home easy for him.

Not easy, but others have it way harder.
 

Cyientist

Well-Known Member
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Aug 18, 2013
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Ankeny
it is. mine are young enough that they can't/won't play by themselves and when we leave the room for a minute they're fighting or whining about something. it's near-constant attention and scolding. it's been one week and i'm not sure who to mentally handle it.

Mine, 7 and 4, demand a lot of attention (probably our fault). I'm actually interested to see if this makes them more independent because we definitely will not be able to interact with them all day and get what needs to be accomplished done.

We've found they actually get a long better if they think they are by themselves. It's once they know we are nearby they start fighting. Also, we have definitely just kicked them outside when we notice they are starting to turn.

Good luck.
 
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SoapyCy

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Oct 10, 2012
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One young child who requires a lot of supervision and attention. Spouse and I tag team throughout the day. The extra time with toddler is nice but it definitely makes this harder. He's eating breakfast next to me now while I catch up on emails. Life gets frustrating when he needs attention, spouse is on a call same time as me and everyone on my call is just chit chatting because they have no kids. I'm not resentful because this is my choice but I do wonder how can I politely be like STFU and get going on the agenda before I get a meltdown in the background.

Trying not to work all night/weekend because that is not sustainable for weeks on end, imo.

this happens to me. at the onset of the call i just say something like "im working from home with children so if there's business i need to be apart of can we get that out of the way so i can get off the call" i don't think anyone has ever given me a poor response to that since i'm being honest.
 

spierceisu

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Jan 28, 2007
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Ankeny
Our 2 year old is still allowed to go to daycare and my wife and I are still going to work for now. If we go into lockdown I will be struggling with the 2 year old. We also have a new baby due in 1 month, so that will be even more terrifying in a lockdown. I have heard a rumor that I may not even be able to be at the hospital for the birth when the baby comes due to virus concerns!
 

Clonefan32

Well-Known Member
Nov 19, 2008
21,693
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I have 4 (ages 9,6,3,2). The 9 and 6 year olds have been fine thus far. We basically have let them do their thing at home this week since it was Spring Break anyway. I'm honestly alarmed by how little they apparently need human interaction. It will be interesting this week, though. Going to try to get them going on some more enriching activities to keep their minds working. Expecting a little push back.

The 3 and 2 year old have plenty to play with, so they've been ok. A lot of encouraging them to nap.

Once it gets nice out it will help. This weekend did suck. Especially as we had to continually run them out of the room while we watched Tiger King.
 

Angie

Tugboats and arson.
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Mar 27, 2006
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As soon as we got the message a week ago Sunday that school was closed, I got a homeschooling schedule made up. I was WFH last week while Janny was in office; this week it is reversed.

We had varying degrees of success. The first couple days went pretty awesome, although I definitely needed out by the end of the day. By the end of the week, I was super-busy at work and trying to triage while yelling at them to not murder each other. I'm hoping we get a good rhythm.

Our school is going to send "optional" stuff to do, but I am not expecting a great deal. Plus, neither of us have time to actually teach them when we're working.
 

Clonefan32

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Nov 19, 2008
21,693
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As soon as we got the message a week ago Sunday that school was closed, I got a homeschooling schedule made up. I was WFH last week while Janny was in office; this week it is reversed.

We had varying degrees of success. The first couple days went pretty awesome, although I definitely needed out by the end of the day. By the end of the week, I was super-busy at work and trying to triage while yelling at them to not murder each other. I'm hoping we get a good rhythm.

Our school is going to send "optional" stuff to do, but I am not expecting a great deal. Plus, neither of us have time to actually teach them when we're working.

I'm still working (obviously, not very hard at this exact moment...) but the wife is going to take a stab at some educational stuff today. Problem is we have two school aged kids and two non-school aged kids and there's no chance she can devote full attention to keep the school aged ones on task.

We've opted to try for more of a checksheet of sorts--give them a few days to get A, B and C done. Think it will be important to keep it fun, so going to try to incorporate some rewards into it.
 
  • Winner
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Clonefan32

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Nov 19, 2008
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As a bit of an aside, I imagine that Quarantine Parenting Guilt becomes a thing. I see other parents with all these great activities planned for their kids while mine have not left their room in what feels like over 48 hours.
 
  • Agree
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SoapyCy

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Oct 10, 2012
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As a bit of an aside, I imagine that Quarantine Parenting Guilt becomes a thing. I see other parents with all these great activities planned for their kids while mine have not left their room in what feels like over 48 hours.

enjoy it if you can, as long as they're not on netflix 20 hours per day.
 
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ISUTex

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2012
8,419
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Rural U.S.A.
We're both working from home. Two kids. 11 and 8. They work on "school work" type activities for two hours in the morning, do chores for an hour, and play outside, play with us, or play video games the rest of the day. Not bad at all. I can't bring myself to feel sorry for people who are being "forced" to stay home with their kids. What a horror right? Seriously, so many things in this world that are a million times worse.

Also, this month, there will be some parents who finally realize that their kids' teacher or school isn't the problem. LOL!!!
 

cowgirl836

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2009
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and now all these people wanting video calls to "maintain connection" **** I was enjoying no real clothes or getting ready. That was the GOOD part of this quarantine!
 
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cowgirl836

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Sep 3, 2009
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this happens to me. at the onset of the call i just say something like "im working from home with children so if there's business i need to be apart of can we get that out of the way so i can get off the call" i don't think anyone has ever given me a poor response to that since i'm being honest.

that's a great way to say it, I'm going to use that.
 
  • Friendly
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cowgirl836

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2009
47,185
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last week, Elmo didn't help babysit until after 3:30/4pm each day. It's 10:40 and he's up today. Oh well. Two conference calls and a screaming toddler wanting to bang on the keyboard.
 
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cycloner29

Well-Known Member
Dec 17, 2008
11,415
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Ames
18 year old that goes to bed at 5 am when I am getting up at 5am!! Keeping is skill honed on Xbox.
 

DSMCy

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Feb 1, 2013
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West Des Moines
We're both working from home. Two kids. 11 and 8. They work on "school work" type activities for two hours in the morning, do chores for an hour, and play outside, play with us, or play video games the rest of the day. Not bad at all. I can't bring myself to feel sorry for people who are being "forced" to stay home with their kids. What a horror right? Seriously, so many things in this world that are a million times worse.

Also, this month, there will be some parents who finally realize that their kids' teacher or school isn't the problem. LOL!!!
Thought your kids were staying with a neighbor?
Yes, I have two small ones. They're staying with neighbors. One of you will need to stay home and/or your employer is going to have to let people stay home.

I don't have experience to know for sure, but my guess is that 8 and 11 is much different than young kids.
Parents with kids under 4 or 5, still trying to work 40+ hours per week, this is going to be very difficult.
 

grantdd

Member
Jan 4, 2017
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Count me in the WFH with kids camp. It's normal for me (full time remote), but it's utter chaos with my wife and both of our kids (5 & 7) at home now too. Somehow my office ended up as the de facto meeting/school work/arts & craft place for the while family during the day so all four of us are spending 8+ hours a day in ~150sq feet of space while the rest of the house languishes.

Fortunately for us our school district got their stuff together for eLearning quickly, but it's more task based with a lot less "teaching" involved in many respects. This is working well for now, since it allows me or my wife to facilitate learning from home without impacting our regular work too much. Of course this goes to crap if both of us have meetings at the same time...
 
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State43

Well-Known Member
Nov 22, 2010
17,195
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Omaha, NE
I have twin 8 year olds at home with me and the wife who are both thankfully able to work from home provided we can keep our jobs in industries being deeply affected by this ****.