REMOTE WORK, OR MOM AT HOME WITH A WINK

Introduction paragraph: 8:00 AM, I am ready for a new day! After all, we’ve done more challenging things before. We will plan games for the kids, some lessons, maybe online educational movies, and we will have time to get our own work tasks done in peace. At least that’s what I thought on the first day…

8:00 AM, I am ready:

• freshly brewed coffee – check
• computer – on
• email – opened
• “Center of world management” prepared for a new day full of challenges…and suddenly:
• I amooooooo, I’m hungry – and I already know, this won’t be an ordinary day at work…

When breakfast is taken care of and I feel that yes, this is the moment when I can start conquering the world…. Then my “whole world” shows me that I can put my plans aside, because that’s when THE question comes:

Mom, can we play together? And here begins the juggling of tasks and time for my daughter. On one hand, I have to complete the tasks planned for today, and on the other, I don’t want my daughter to feel rejected, left alone. This is task juggling at the “master” level.

I start repeating to myself:

“Dear, this is another challenge that will help you exercise creativity, effective management, and patience. This will only strengthen you and make you stronger”…

It helps a bit, although a glass of wine would probably help more, but that’s not allowed, so I have to pull myself together and drink green tea ☺

Time: 12:00, I notice in the mirror that the first gray hairs might have appeared…

When I finally manage to get a handle on the omnipresent chaos (at least more or less) and keep the child occupied with playing with the dog, the phone rings. I recognize the number, it’s one of the important clients. I grab my cell phone, run to an empty room, close the door, and answer. About halfway through the negotiations, there’s a loud ‘boom!!!’. I’m in shock, and with the phone still at my ear, I run to assess the damage to people and dogs. Fortunately, the only casualty is a poor peace lily that was decorating the windowsill… The silver lining is that the client, hearing what’s happening, agrees to my terms – ha! First victory of the day ☺ But the moment of triumph is short-lived, as my daughter calls me to the kitchen… Supermom forgot about the pasta boiling on the stove for dinner. Ok, it happens – fortunately, we live in wonderful times where there are things like frozen food, and to my child’s delight, today for lunch we have fries and fish sticks.

From 1:00 PM to around 2:00 PM, there is relative peace – thank you, fate, for a child who eats slowly.

I take advantage of the moment and send overdue emails, finish the report, and plan my next workday – I didn’t expect that I could do so many things in an hour, it seems to be a matter of motivation.  I inform the boss about successful negotiations – he is proud… I don’t bother him with other matters, let him remain proud ☺

Finally, it’s 4:00 PM, I close my email, turn off my computer, mute my work phone, sit on the couch, close my eyes… and then I hear the familiar, melodic voice of the being I love more than life itself:

– Mooooom, I’m thirsty! – and I already know that the workday is far from over ☺

This is exactly how my first day of remote work combined with taking care of my daughter looked. It was quite a challenge, but also an interesting experience, it helped me develop a few tricks for the following days. Here they are:

• Playing school – me at my desk, my daughter at her little table, the first lesson is art, the topic: ‘Spring’ and I have about 30 minutes of peace… but what a shock. I was afraid to speak up so as not to distract the young one from work. Then checking and evaluating the work, a short break for her and for me, and then Polish language, where I also gave the young one a few tasks, and surprisingly, she really got into the whole activity, even calling me ‘Ma’am’. Of course, the whole activity didn’t last 8 hours, only about 3 hours, but after the whole activity, my daughter had probably had enough of my company and just occupied herself ☺
• Playing office – similar to playing school, but just changing the name of the game made it something new and fun. Here we set up our desks opposite each other, and each of us had our own duties, mine were the real ones and the young one’s were those that just came to my mind. The benefit of this game is twofold, not only could I work peacefully, but my daughter, fresh out of college, will be able to put over 20 years of office work experience on her resume ☺
• Internet – contrary to appearances, you can find some valuable and helpful sites in the virtual world, here are a few suggestions below ☺
  https://www.matzoo.pl/
  https://www.buliba.pl/
  https://www.domowyprzedszkolak.pl/
  https://ciufcia.pl/
  https://cojanato.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Gra.pdf

I am keeping my fingers crossed for all the brave moms and dads, and remember:
“This is another challenge that will help you practice creativity, effective management, and patience. This will only make us stronger and more resilient”… 😀