Home office with children: not easy and not a “vacation” ****************************************************************************************** * Home office with children: not easy and not a “vacation” ****************************************************************************************** The closure of schools and kindergartens, restricted movement in public and a shift to wor (or home office) has created a new species: Homo Domesticus. Within the few square metres, the members of this species now work, teach, learn, play, as cry, and run the household, often at the same time or in quick succession. Finding a secon or stealing at least a little space and a brief moment for themselves is almost impossible parents of pre-school or primary school children; to put it mildly, this is a challenge. Educators of Charles University are no exception. How do they manage to run their househol students at a distance and their children at home, while maintaining a creative mind and g Jana Kalbáčová Vejpravová [ URL "https://iforum.cuni.cz/IFORUM-16637.html"] , who teaches research projects at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at the Faculty of Mathemat of Charles University, puts it bluntly: “Working from home with a child around is a utopia “As I have been continuously preparing the materials for the lectures, I am now able to se students and I also add test questions to check if they have understood the topic. Besides care of a small child and a household, so the idea of recording two two-hour lectures a we them on the cloud is unrealistic at the moment.” As for her scientific activities, they ha completely for the time being. “I sort of knew this was bound to happen because I have a lot of collaborators in Italy, w had to close earlier. Theoretically, we could work individually in our laboratories even n not want to risk the health or even the lives of my colleagues. Those without children can or process data from home; those with children apologised for not being able to do even th on a partial leave and am considering sending an application to suspend the ERC project,” Vejpravová. It’s a two-player game Perhaps the most effective way to avoid going bananas at home and carry out as many work a divide the time of babysitting between the two partners if possible (e.g. if they both wor Especially fathers should accept that in the current situation, working from home really d moving their offices to the living room for eight hours and enjoying “free meals” cooked b “It sometimes involves a really assertive approach. This is no day-or-two situation, so a necessary,” agrees Irena Smetáčková [ URL "https://iforum.cuni.cz/IFORUM-16563.html"] , th Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Education at Charles University. “On the other a great opportunity to learn more about each other’s work and even set up a different rela future and move it to higher levels.” She took refuge at the family cottage several weeks ago, together with her husband, their son, and grandmother. “Mornings are reserved for my share of work, while the husband has t Grandma also helps us with babysitting. During the day I have to deal with urgent phone ca from the department. Otherwise, we try to be out in the garden as much as possible, we go the forest. At eight o’clock, when my son falls asleep, I go to work again. The pile of ta department, from my teaching and research projects is huge,” Smetáčková describes her dail To maintain the physical and mental health of all family members, it is necessary to set t schedule of the day. It is not necessary to stick to exact minutes, but it is vital to mak activities planned actually take turns during the day. Uncharted territory Just about everyone these days has experienced the feeling of anxiety and remorse that wor we are still forced to postpone dealing with it because of children and households or, on that we chain ourselves to the computer and let all hell break loose behind our study door by surprise when I realized how difficult I find it to concentrate now,” admits Michaela S "https://iforum.cuni.cz/IFORUM-16571.html"] of the Institute of Information Studies and Li at Charles University, where she teaches media theory and technologies in education. “I te constantly to the news, I’m less able to concentrate and am stressed. I manage to tackle t minimum, such as the preparation of teaching materials for students or I am able to comple progress, but I find it difficult to start something new. I totally lack creativity and id openly. No time for perfectionism Slussareff’s colleague from the Pedagogical Faculty of Charles University, Hana Sotáková, her, it is necessary to set realistic goals and give up the idea that, as a mother of two she will manage as much as she would if the university was operating at standard mode. “I much as I can as I have a responsibility towards my students. I want to provide them with as they need to take from my courses because it is essential for their further study and f But the priorities are now different, it’s no time for perfectionism. If my students fail assignments by the deadline and are in default just in terms of days, I make no fuss about have shopped for their grandparents or otherwise volunteered,” explains Sotáková. She, too, has an established something of a home regime: she wakes up her kids in the morn nursery rhyme ‘Wake up you fool, it’s time for school!’ After lunch, when the children hav lessons, she has two hours reserved for her work. “I’ve been home with them since their grammar school closed. In the beginning they took it and fun, but as time went by and new stuff was added which would otherwise be explained to but now they had to deal with it on their own or with their mother’s help only, their exci declined significantly. Moreover, they miss their friends greatly,” says Sotáková. Repetition and consistency It is equally as difficult for children to find their bearing in the situation and it is n explain even to the youngest of them why we suddenly insist on adhering to completely new consistency, constant repetition and the role model of parents work with the younger ones. is more often in the head of adults who also do not like the covered face and tend to comp child. “However, we know from the cases of physically or mentally challenged children that the masks and other restrictive aids within a few days if they are presented with clearly regime,” Sotáková points out. Get a life On the other hand, one should take things that are not life-threatening easy and not waste on them. Multi-member families cope with this better. For example, in the family of the hi Stehlík, father of eight, who works at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University and in ma National Museum, there have been no dramatic changes, although his wife now works as an in video conferences more frequently than ever before. “She can hardly choose the times or do her work at night, so sometimes the older children care of the youngest ones, who are a year and two years old,” explains Stehlík. In the mor schoolchildren are assigned their tasks, with a bit of interference from our four-year-old go to kindergarten. “It may sound harsh, but with so many children, you need to have a lon plan, a solid regime, and clearly distributed tasks. The children are used to taking into of other people, I prepare lunches for the next day, and I usually wear headphones which e work “on the go”. There is, however, one substantial change: they had to give up family tr ten-people strong family, we exceed the limit and other people could report us for ‘gather limits’,” laughs Stehlík. Reducing anxiety The psychologist Markéta Niederlová [ URL "https://iforum.cuni.cz/IFORUM-16524.html"] mana and carry on” when she realised that she already experienced a similar situation; in fact, parent did: “I remembered when my children had chickenpox and we found ourselves stranded weeks. Maybe it was even more difficult for me at that time because the kids were much you sick. And I managed it nonetheless,” she says. Now she is trying not to judge but rather observe and think about what she can do here and term stress is not bad, some people can only work under pressure. Anything people do activ than wait passively for what may happen be it volunteering for others or buying supplies f Whatever you do gives you the feeling that you have things under control, that you can inf Niederlová sums up. The biggest stress factor is uncertainty. Perhaps the only solution is measures necessary for survival, focus on things that make us happy, try to change what we disregard the rest. Whether it concerns family communication, moods in society, or careers Weathering the crisis, new outlooks The current crisis can be compared to a five-stage process of coping with deep sadness, fo after a family disaster: from denial (nothing is going on), anger (why do I have to keep s haggling (when I do this it will settle it) depression (it is not worth an effort anyway) (it just happened but everything will be okay). Anyone can find their place on this line a Individual sections, however, have various lengths, can blend and swap the order. Jana Kal has come to the very end. “I am expecting and accepting that grant support will be reduced to a general lack of funding, but maybe this will prove a change for the better. Until now going full throttle. Having one smaller project and more time for students doesn’t sound b physicist says. Additional editing in English by Jan Velinger