How to balance work and a school bubble closure

“The bubble’s closed”. A sentence that wouldn’t have made any sense at the beginning of 2020, let alone be a topic of a blog to help parents with their work-life balance. But low and behold, with all the changes in life that this year has brought with it, is a genuine concern that many of the parents of the world are contending with right now. So today I want to share some ideas to help you balance work and a bubble closure.

I’m writing this during the second bubble closure that my youngest child has experienced; the first started just under a month ago. I won’t lie, I didn’t expect it to come around again so quickly, and I don’t think I’ve quite recovered from the last one. However, I’d like to think like any experience, a little reflection, lessons learned, and future planning will help me through this time, and the ones that may come up again.

I want to interrupt this blog to say this is not the space to debate closures and the pandemic, we all have our beliefs and can find permissible space to do so. Right now, I want to focus on how we can help each other through this reality.

I’ve spoken before about the need to plan for work interruptions; snow days and sick days are a universal experience of parents. However, what we are experiencing right now has taken this planning to a new level; the need to be agile (at least a fortnight at a time) with our work, businesses, and life has been a universal truth.

Whilst I don’t claim to have all the answers, I want to share with you some ideas to balance work and bubble closure.

1. Increase the space in your diary

Where possible, strip out as much as you can with your diary. Leave space so you can move things around and allow for home-schooling slots. In an “average” week I tend to have 3-5 actions in my diary. Since schools have returned, I have moved that to three.
Right now, whilst communicating is essential, sometimes things can be shifted to be more efficient to allow for space in your diary; could a phone call work better than an email, so you get to the point quicker and get that action ticked off? Could a meeting be 30 mins rather than an hour?  With this in mind, priories can shift and give you the opportunity to change working practice and bring in efficiencies. So consider, what is business-critical; can a deadline, the content, or the quality shift?

2. Communicate what is happening

Nothing beats honesty, and the past eight months have created blended work and home lives. Don’t slip back into the old ways of trying to compartmentalize your life; this level of openness enables us to help each other. Tell your clients, contacts, and colleagues what is happening, to help set expectations, and be open about any potential interruptions! There may be ways that you can be helped through this; for example, I know if one client who has taken some outstanding annual leave to step away from work whilst the children are home. Another has utilised the emergency parental leave clause in their employment contract.
Also, let the teachers know about your work commitments; in my experience, they want the very best for the kids, which includes (relatively) stress-free parents. I’ve found cherry-picking the work that is set from the school, focusing on the main subjects (maths and English) interspersed by what my kids are interested in, helps create a fair balance.

3. Shift your working day

Balance is essential, it goes without saying, but one of way dealing with this conundrum in the short term is changing what your working day looks like. If the bubble closure means no school run, then maybe shift your working hours a little to work in bursts in the morning or shift to evening or even a little bit of the weekend. If your work is outcome-based, then remember the emphasis on getting it done, not when you work. Dependent on the age of your child(ren) it may mean some parallel working, getting through the to-do list side by side, so consider which parts of your role could be completed whilst they are doing a semi-independent activity.

4. Draw on your bubble

Delegate where you can; the mental load of this situation doesn’t have to fall solely on the shoulders of one parent. This could mean working in shifts with the other adults or older children in the house (I have found that my teenager can often explain schoolwork to her sister, quicker, and better than I can).  Within a household, there are ways you can reduce the pressure; lower your expectation when it comes to the other responsibilities we have as adults. It is not realistic to expect our lives to “run” the same way as they did before.

For some of us that have an extended bubble, there is an opportunity to ask for some extra support. This may include a chance to share the schooling supervision or to entertain the kids whilst you blast through some work for an hour or so.   This may not be in-person; I’ve heard of grandparents and friends Facetiming the kids!

5. Start and finish your day with kindness

Kindness gets us through the hard times, and it starts at home. As we have reminded ourselves frequently, we are in the same storm but not in the same boat. Lower your expectations; don’t try and hit every point on the homework checklist and be aware of what success looks like right now for you. Remind yourself at the end of each day by creating a “done” list, so you can recognise your progress. Even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, you are getting so much more done than you are giving yourself credit for.

So, there are my five points to help you balance your work when a bubble closes. It’s all the things that I am using to help keep The Balance Collective open, whilst looking after my wellbeing. I’d love to hear what is working for you; right now we are learning so much about what we need and how we can create a career to enjoy; let’s share this to help others in the same situation.