THE BENEFITS
Under normal circumstances, you have your scheduele: you drop off the children at school on your way to work in the morning and the nanny picks them up in the afternoon. Now, you and your partner have to work from home and your schedule has completely turned around. The children are super happy that you are both at home now: Daddy, will you read me something? Mom, why do you have to be on the phone again?
How can you handle this situation?
HOW IT’S DONE
Sit down with your partner in a quiet moment. Ask yourselves the following questions:
– Who needs which time slots for undisturbed work in the home office?
– How does the other person (who is responsible for the children during this time) structure this period?
– What rules are needed in order to ensure that there are no disturbances?
– How are the daily tasks of life (re-)allocated?
– Who has free time to themselves, and when?
– Where do you have to put aside demands/live with 80% instead of 100%?
PLEASE CONSIDER
When there is a big sudden change, it is important to focus on your needs. What do you need, what do you want to negotiate? But be careful with accusations. Enjoy the good parts of this reorganisation of your routines. Some might turn out to be even better than past routines…