Bring Your Kid to Work Day still takes place. With global developments in recent years, such irony couldn’t be stronger. For many, it was (and still is) “kids at work” every day since 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought new focus on the home as the family hub. From schooling to working to entertainment, it’s all become much more centralized. The home headlines as headquarters for it all. Schools are open again, but snags still exist for many parents; the schooling and working aspects create a different set of challenges.

Teleworking is the new deal and employees have settled into it being a permanent part of the work life.

For writers, who looked forward to periods of non-distraction while their children were in school or visiting friends, getting into the “writing zone” has become … distracting.

Ink Slinging from the Kitchen (Or dining room, or …)

Not all scribes work from home. Playwrights and journalists may commute to an office. Most novelists do work from “home” (the corner cafe, library, the park). Writers working from home enjoy greater flexibility with time management. There are also related cost savings in commute, wardrobe, and meals.

The chief objective of work-at-home parents is integrating business time with parenting duties without a loss in income or opportunity. For writers, “business time” equals writing time—which must be consistently productive. Journalists have deadlines for their expositions, columnists have, well … columns due. But productivity takes a hit incorporating writing, parenting, and homeschooling into the daily routine. What to do?

Balancing writing and being with loved ones.

Working from home requires additional entrepreneurial thinking. Writing is life, but parenting is your priority. Integrate writing tasks with parenting by better utilizing time, space, and cooperative childcare during business.

Time and space.

Writers are often characterized as peculiar creatures. Special pens, trinkets, writing-prep rituals, etc., are all traits associated with we quirky scribblers. We’re about special writing spaces, too (including the fav corner café). With members of the household inside more, time and space for writers is more precious. A productive setup may require a major overhaul of both: your sanity and livelihood are at stake. Time overhauls may include:

• Writing while everyone else sleeps (an ideal time for most writers, anyway)
• Writing during downtime after classroom assignments are done.
• Another consideration is writing in smaller blocks of time instead of long stretches.

Regarding writing space in the home: identify the space, isolate the space, and insist everyone respect the space place (or violators will be prosecuted).

Cooperative childcare.

This does not include tying the children in chairs or administering medications which may cause drowsiness. Although, maybe if … But no. Anyway, assimilating entrepreneurship with parenting has been in practice since the times of merchants and artisans. Technological advances have allowed kids “distance” from a parent’s workplace, but cooperative childcare incorporates children doing some “caring” by keeping constructively occupied beyond tablet screens. Depending on their age, enlisting their help performing minor household tasks goes a long way. Younger children embrace a sense of accomplishment from “helping,” while older children … Well, that “cooperative” part becomes challenging.

Flexibility.

There’s the time aspect and flexibility to adjust schedules, but writers can also be flexible with their creativity. Non-outliners may find new joy in utilizing outlines for their writing projects. Traditional pen-to-paper writers (like me) can relish time saved using a word processor first-off (oh, perish the thought!).

Writers also have a plethora of takeaways from family togetherness:

• New story seeds. Pondering “What ifs” while breaking up the fight over the tablet, can lead to great fiction—or non-fiction.
• New anecdotes. Children, having no filter, say the darndest things …
• New genre. You’re dedicated to writing horror, but if there’re young ones underfoot (horrific sometimes, I know), it’s a goldmine of story seeds for a children’s book.

Writers working from home aren’t on some entrepreneurial easy street; it requires hard work. They balance roles as partner, parent, and provider, while still meeting professional and social obligations. And because Murphy’s law boils down to “stuff happens,” expect frustration. Stressful periods will occur, but allow them, roll with them. Vent, learn, and move on to the next challenge; it’s healthy for you.

Adopting an accommodating blend of writing logistics and cooperative childcare contributes positively to writing productivity, and, in turn, revenue—which is key to this whole thing, right?

Until next time, stay serif—and thank the schoolteachers in your life.