On Friday I’m achieving a better work-life balance
SO far this week I have had 37 work meetings, carried out seven science experiments, supervised six French lessons, helped with three spelling tests, overseen four story writing sessions, cooked eight meals (plus made a homeschool apple pie), done four loads of washing and read seven chapters of Fantastic Mr Fox.
All while attempting to do some actual work for the job I’m paid to do.
A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies says working mothers have only been able to do one hour of uninterrupted paid work for every three hours done by men in lockdown.
Nearly half of dads polled by the New York Times said they spent more time homeschooling than their wives – while just 3% of women say their spouse was doing more.
The truth lies somewhere between, I’m sure.
My husband would definitely say he has taken on the biggest burden of homeschooling, cleaning, tidying and cooking around the house, while also trying to carry out a full time in
job. I would beg to differ.
But even with our new responsibilities relatively evenly shared (at least on my account) – and in a household where our children can entertain each other for hours with endless games of role play with soft toys – there just isn’t enough time in the day.
This time last year we each had a full time job. Now it feels like we both have two.
Nevertheless, those two jobs of homeworking editor and homeschooling teacher have both brought with them huge positives that I hope will pave the way for a better future.
My day job has been completely transformed by the ability to work from home.
Not having to travel or commute allows me to put more work in, while also creating a far better work life balance than I’ve ever had.
Being able to hold meetings at the click of a button on video call that would once have taken weeks of organisation, hours of travel and an overnight stay is superb.
The flexibility we’ve allowed people to work different hours, or take longer breaks in the day to fit their home life around their work schedule has been incredibly beneficial.
And the window we’ve had into people’s homes and home lives has helped us be more accepting of everyone’s circumstances and work around them.
My hope is that we retain the benefits that remote working can bring to many people, while also giving opportunities for regular face to face interaction when the pandemic is over.
There’s no need to force people to commute into work every day when we know it can be done remotely, but equally, there will be huge benefits to people’s mental health from human interaction once it’s safe.
Those remote working opportunities and better use of technology should hopefully open up job opportunities for people across the country – if not the world – in future that would never have been available pre-pandemic.
On homeschooling, I feel it’s a privilege to have the children at home and be able to watch and help them learn, as I said in my column last week.
It’s also opened my eyes to just how hard teachers work to help our children through their education – and how hard they’re having to work through lockdown.
Our teachers are posting videos every hour full of inventive learning activities, while also trying to teach a class that’s more than a third full of key workers’ children there in person.
They’ve had to get their heads around new technology, check in with children struggling to keep up and we now have a window into the regular marking they’re doing late at night and right through the weekend online.
In the future, I hope everyone will show more respect for the hours and the effort that they put in.
I also hope that the digital techniques used to help our children learn remotely can be applied to improve digital skills and e-learning techniques in the future.
In the height of a pandemic, juggling the jobs of homeschool and homework all under one roof creates a noisy house and an endless to-do list.
But when we look back on this time, I hope we’ll all be grateful for the things we learned and the time we had together in spite of the busyness.
And I hope our lives will be better balanced as a result.
I hope we’ll all be grateful for the things we learned and the time we had together