4 Ways To Get Work Done and Keep Kids Happy

Being a work-at-home mom certainly has its perks. Spending time with my girls while they are young is very important to me but I also like bringing in an income. I do that in two ways currently; the blog is one way (so thanks for reading❤) and I also watch another kiddo a couple days a week. In reference to the blog, or any online working you may do, here are 4 ways to work at home with kids around!

Invite Play

Invite Play is a great way to engage kids without using screens! Stephanie shares loads of ideas on her Facebook page as well as her blog! One activity that both of my girls love is playing with a sensory box. Check out her video here. We have a box full of dried beans, some spoons and scoops as well as some farm animals I got on Amazon. Both of my girls will play with this for about 30-45 minutes which is incredible. In fact, my 20 month-old is doing it as I type this blog post!

Stephanie’s motto is setting your kids up with independent play so they can work creatively while you do as well. I love that! Her ideas are fresh and unique and they don’t require a laundry list of supplies. She has activities for toddlers to tweens s you’ll be sure to find something you like on her site. I personally love her vision board activity and any kid ages 4 and up would enjoy it! Be sure to check her out, you’ll be happy you did!

Go to an Indoor Play Space

Ah the joys of modern parenting. Indoor play spaces are my jam! My kids can play and get in some activity and some are even set-up for parents to be able to get some work done.

Now sure, you can’t take calls at these places or completely immerse yourself in a project but you can still get lots of things done there. I was able to outline 4 blog posts and work on graphics in the two hours we were at the McDonald’s Play Place on Sunday. If you go in with tasks that you know you can personally get done with some background noise going on, you’ll have success.

▪McDonald’s Play Place

The simplest of them being the McDonald’s play place. I recently discovered that the one very close to my house is a hidden gem! It’s clean, it’s full of kids to play with mine and they have free WiFi. Best part? You can use this space for a the price of a cup of coffee and an an oatmeal. What can be better than that??

▪Gym Daycare

Another place I like to go are my gym, which has childcare that I pay for but they also have a juice bar with tables and a computer bank. Usually I’ll work out for 45 minutes and then take another 30-45 minutes to work on my blog. It’s all about finding small pockets of time throughout the week to work on stuff when you’re a WAHM. Right?!

▪Drop-In Playspaces

The last place we like to go are smaller indoor play spaces that do charge admission. My kids kids enjoy playing and I enjoy getting a little time to myself to work. I love finding small play spaces on Pearachute. Luckily we have a lot to choose from in the Chicago land area but enter your zip code to see what you can find! Sure it may cost a bit of money but my kids are having fun and I’m getting work done. Best of both worlds.

Swap Time with a Friend

Last Spring, two friends and myself got together and did what we called Kid Drop. Every Friday one of us would host each others kiddos while the other two moms got to run errands for 3 hours. It was bliss and I was able to get so much done every month! Sure I had to entertain 5 kids once every three weeks but that was well worth it to get 6 free hours in exchange.

You don’t necessarily have to do it with two other friends, even just you and one other friend could swap time every other week. I find it works best if you have approximately the same age kids and same number of kids. It wouldn’t really be fair to swap your four kids with a mom who had one, lol! Also, we had a set timeline. Drop at 9am and pick-up at noon. If you dropped at 9:30, that’s fine but you still have to pick-up at noon. Respect each other and don’t roll in late. By the three hour mark, you’re ready to be done.

If you have slightly older kids, you can probably swap larger chunks of time but just be sure to hammer out the details beforehand. No one wants to feel like they are being taken advantage of. We chose to provide snacks for each others kids so we didn’t have to pack anything and in rotating we were all essentially providing the same amount every three weeks. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just make sure you communicate with each other and you’ll be golden.

Wake up Early or Stay Up Late

This tends to be everyone’s least favorite option but once you get used to it, I think you’ll really love it. Now I personally choose to wake-up early because I am naturally an early bird. If you aren’t, you can totally stay up late to get the same amount of things done. Just choose a time that works best for you so your brain is working at max capacity.

My brain is firing on all synapse at 5am. As long as I go to bed by 9pm, I have no problem jumping out of bed to get about 90 minutes of work done before my girls start waking up and requiring my attention. I set the coffee pot to 4:50am before I go to bed and I try to lay out my clothes downstairs, where my desk is, so I can grab some coffee and quickly get dressed before I jump into my tasks for the day.

Now this is also the time I prefer to write or work on a tough problem because I can dedicate my full attention to it. Toss on noise cancelling headphones and throw on some study music and get to work. Don’t look at your phone! Just get straight to work on getting some accomplished and written for the day. This is your special time that you set aside to work, don’t let distractions get in the way.

If you personally like to work at night, I recommend getting out of your house if at all possible. I don’t so it a lot but when I do work at night I usually reserve a study room at the library and go there for a couple of hours so I can actually focus. There’s something about being out of my house and in a work space that just motivates me. You can also go to a coffee shop if you prefer and you know you won’t get distracted.

Do What You Can

So those are my 4 ways to get work done and keep kids happy! I hope you found one or two useful. When I talk to you guys about meal planning and you tell me you have no time to do it, this how you can make some time! Grab your FREE Meal Planning Guide and head over to McDonald’s and fill it out. While you’re there, order your groceries from Instacart or your local grocery pick-up service and grab them on the way home! Win win win!