COVID-19 has parents juggling kids, jobs while on the clock
Tonyaa Weathersbee COVID-19 has parents juggling kids, jobs while on the clock
During a recent lunchtime at Lori Spicer Robertson’s Memphis home, the laptop lay on the counter, open and lit. The music — Beyoncè covering Frankie Beverly’s hit, “Before I Let Go” — was loud.
And so was the stomping and squeals of her newest “colleagues,” Liam, 5, and Emory, 3.
“This is what they do — play and run around in circles,” Robertson said. “But I just work through it.”
Such rambunctiousness are what parents like Robertson, who is chief communications and engagement officer for United Way of the Mid-south, have been
learning to work around since novel coronavirus, COVID-19, shuttered schools and workplaces in Shelby County and the rest of Tennessee.
But, just as parents are learning to manage their jobs from home, they’re also struggling to manage children who would otherwise be in day care or in school.
Trying to adapt a work schedule to times when children would normally be in school, and trying to persuade young children that Zoom video conference time isn’t time to climb in mommy’s lap can be a challenge.
However, Robertson and others say it’s also a challenge that can be met through creative scheduling, tasking and viewing the situation as an opportunity to build closer ties with children, instead of as an impediment to productivity.
“Liam, our first child, grew up with us playing with him, so he always wants to play,” Robertson said. “When he sits in my lap [during a Zoom conference] I just have to say, ‘CEO, this is my Liam ... say hello to Liam.’”
“Emory, if he’s in our space, he doesn’t want you to be on the phone, he doesn’t want you to be on the computer, and he’ll crawl in my lap when I’m trying to make a phone call ...”
Such moments, however, don’t dominate Robertson’s remote work largely because she and her husband, Eric, devised a schedule to balance out their time with the children.
For example, Eric will do something called “Daddy Academy” with their sons during the first half of the day, as Robertson does her teleconferencing. Then, Robertson will engage the boys as Eric works.
“If you have an environment that is typically not a work-from-home environment, then you have to set boundaries, otherwise you wake up working and you go to sleep working,” Robertson said.
“... You have to do whatever you have to do to get the work done, but you also have to do whatever you can to keep your kids active and engaged.”
Kayla Linderfelt, a Collierville mother who works various gigs from home, said she’s still grappling with her coronavirus-imposed normal: The all-day antics of her sons, aged 7, 5 and 1.
“Being shut in the house with three boys, some days are better than others,” Linderfelt said. “One minute they’re cuddled up with each other and reading, and the next thing you know, someone is crying in the corner ... .
“Normally, I’m the one crying in the corner ... . ”
Yet Linderfelt copes with the chaos of her sons being in her work space by embracing her time with them.
“Before this [pandemic] happened, I felt that we didn’t have enough margin in our lives,” she said. “Now, all we have is margin ...
“We have deeper discussions about God, and who we should pray for. That’s’ different from ‘Hey, hurry and put your shoes on, we have to go here ...’” Then, there are parents like Ijeoma Iloh, a Collierville pharmacist who, while she doesn’t work from home, struggled to make sure that her three sons, aged 13, 12 and 9, were sufficiently occupied during their days out of the physical classroom.
Iloh said she taught them how to cook — and to help her in the kitchen.
“They used to help me in the kitchen [before coronavirus] but not as much as they do now,” she said. “They made meat pies on Friday, and they made Indian food on Saturday...
“You have to keep them occupied.” As Linderfelt, Iloh and Robertson found, finding the joy in having children home during the workday, and focusing on that and not the inconvenience is perhaps the best way to grapple with how coronavirus has upended everyone’s world.
“Mothers have an advantage,” Robertson said. The advantage is that we’re used to juggling a whole bunch of balls all the time, especially with kids who have their own schedules ...
“But although we are well-suited to handle this, it’s still an adjustment. So, we have to think about the benefits of being at home because, normally, we don’t have this kind of time to spend with our kids ...”
“Seize and live in the moment right now, because we don’t know what’s coming,” Robertson said.
Summed up Linderfelt : “I’m working through it with God’s grace — and a lot of wine.”
“Being shut in the house with three boys, some days are better than others. One minute they’re cuddled up with each other and reading, and the next thing you know, someone is crying in the corner . ... Normally, I’m the one crying in the corner.”
Kayla Linderfelt Collierville mother