Smart tips for working parents to balance work, home, and kids

Schools have reopened across the country. Some in June, some July, depending on which part of India you live in. And while parents are all about providing the best education to their children, with the reopening comes a lot of additional responsibilities. Parents are already overloaded with work at the office and home. Add to it the packing of lunch, ironing of uniforms, keeping track of celebratory days (from Gandhi Jayanti to Halloween), projects, assignments, daily homework, outside-school activities (swimming lessons, guitar classes etc.), and whatnot. How do they manage it all?

You don’t have to wonder. We’ve got two BYJUites right here to tell you! 

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Laxman Kumar Narayanan

AVP, Product Development, CLE

Aparna (my wife) and I have chosen to take a slightly non-traditional approach to our children’s education. As far as academics are concerned, we homeschool the kids, with BYJU’S playing a pivotal role. But as far as their life learning goes, they are in a gurukulam system. They do have daily routines, but unlike a typical school, they’re not as set in stone.

My wife and I share our household chores — cooking, cleaning — plus, we ensure that we’re spending equal and enough time with the kids, whether playing or studying. Almost every day, we do things that the girls like, but we make sure to bring in some form of learning along the way. 

A big shout-out to Aparna for being the kind of partner who knows how to balance our lives!

To all the parents out there, trying to bring some balance to their lives, I have this to say:

Prioritise the time you spend with your children. This is sacrosanct. Spend time learning with them. Spend time indulging them. Have meals with them. Be silly with them. Enjoy your time with them NOW, because they’ll be independent very soon and you will kick yourself for missing out on this glorious phase.

Laxman has two adorable daughters, Saatvika (6 years old) and Spatika (4 years old)

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Swastika

Sr. HR Specialist, Pre-onboarding

Managing work and home, along with the kids is challenging, but parents become experts (over time) at striking a delicate balance. During the summer vacation, the children were home all day. It was up to us to keep them entertained! We would find engaging activities for them, take them for playdates, arrange for summer camps. All this, in a bid to make sure they stayed busy and happy, while learning something new. It also gave us the time to do justice to our respective work schedules and household chores.

Now that schools have reopened, it’s a whole new ballgame. There was less pressure on us to adhere to strict schedules during the vacation. But now, setting up routines is critical. We juggle our daily work responsibilities while ensuring that the kids are ready for school, their lunch is packed, and homework is done, along with regular household tasks. 

It gets hectic, no doubt, but with the right mindset and organisation, it can be done. The key is to find balance. Managing a family is a LOT of work, so be kind to yourself 🙂

From my own experience, I think these tips will help parents effectively manage their responsibilities at work and home, when kids go back to school:

• Establishing a routine can be immensely helpful. This doesn’t have to be rigid, but for activities like waking up, homework, and playing, a structure will help bring in a sense of order and reduce stress. 
• Sharing responsibilities is essential. If there are two parents in the house, try to divide tasks equally. If you are a single parent, enlist help. 
• Manage your time wisely by prioritising and focusing on the things that matter most. As parents, we are wired to want to do everything, but sometimes it’s best to delegate tasks or let go of those that are less important

Swastika has two adorable kids, Barnika (5.6 years old) and Anirudh (3 years old)

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We hope that these personal accounts will help all parents out there to manage their life better!

Here are our top five tips for all the amazing parents:

1. Share: Share your life story and issues with your family and friends. You never know who might present you with a life-changing hack. If nothing else, the mutual support can be very comforting, especially in stressful situations.
2. Divide and rule: Don’t just swap stories with your friends, share the load with them and allow them to reciprocate similarly. Drop their kids at school, let them babysit yours if you want to go to a movie, and so on.
3. Ask for help: Never shy away from asking for help, whether at work or from neighbours. If you need to leave early from office to watch your daughter’s karate demonstration, ask for your co-worker’s support. You’ll be surprised at how kind people can be!
4. Plan. Plan. Plan.: Figure out your entire week by Sunday evening. If you start your planning on Monday morning, you are guaranteed to be overwhelmed. Meal plans,  activities for the kids, your yoga class (yes, your health is important too) and grocery shopping. Plan it all out at the top of the week and breathe easy once the work week starts.
5. Employ external helpers: Parents are sometimes judged for employing helpers. “Why can’t she cook for her own child?” “Do they really need a nanny?”. You need to ignore such people. Period. If paying someone is making life easier for you, such that you have more time to spend with your family, there’s no shame in that. Own it and be glad that you’re able to be there for all the special moments, instead of missing them because you were busy scrubbing the toilet.

We just want to take this opportunity to thank parents across the world for being so amazing and bringing up their kids, whilst handling a million other things. Single parent, working parent, liberal parent, or strict parent, hats off to all of you. 

Do you have any interesting tips to share with us? Please leave a comment below!

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(This story has been put together by Storyweaver, Neha Dua)