For all my people who are trying to juggle working at home with a child, I figured I would type out and share our schedule during the Coronavirus Crisis of 2020. Although I can work from home part-time, I have about 20-25 hours of work a week that I have to do, and Mr. R has a full time job (read: 60-70 hours a week). Trying to fit in work plus fitness plus childcare plus cleaning plus potty training (when is a better time than when you are quarantined?) is a crazy struggle, but after about 10 days we figured out a groove that works for us.
If you are a mostly work at home mom like me, you already know that the hardest part is switching gears from mom mode to work mode to workout mode to housekeeper mode, and that you lose so much time in between. So because of that Mr. R and I worked together to ensure that we both have 3 hour solid chunks of time to work or do what we need in order to actually feel productive before we switch modes again. I think this is important if you have older kids and are teaching at home as well. 3 hours of work at a time feels like the right amount to feel accomplished without completely burning out, and then when Mr. R or I switch, we’re refreshed enough to handle to next task.
So, after 10 days of being a bit of a mess, here is our weekday schedule:
Our ‘Tag Team’ Shelter In Place Schedule
6am: Mr. R wakes up, works for an hour
6/6:30am – Stefanie up, goes through emails, catches up on the news
7am: Marina wakes up, Stefanie grabs Marina’s milk and they watch news/read books in bed, use potty etc. Mr. R goes on a run or does a yoga workout at home.
7:45 – 9am: Mr. R takes over with Marina, feeds breakfast. Stefanie either does a virtual workout and showers or works.
9 – 12pm: Stefanie takes over Marina. Virtual gymnastics class at 9am, followed by 30 minute socially distant walk outside, KiwiCo activity boxes, lots of potty time, coloring/reading/puzzles/magnatiles/painting etc.
12 – 1pm: Mr. R takes over, makes Marina lunch and gets her ready for nap at 1pm (hopefully 2 hours)
12 – 3pm: Stefanie works; client work and emails, sewing, blogging
3 – 6pm: Stefanie takes Marina; lots of play, household work like laundry, short outdoor walk, virtual story time, and most likely a sesame street episode at 5:30 when Stefanie is about to lose her mind
6 – 7pm: Mr. R back in charge, makes dinner for everyone and we all eat. Mr. R handles bedtime routine and teeth brushing while Stefanie cleans or does computer work.
7pm: Bedtime for Marina. Jeff works for another hour, Stefanie zones out for the night
