Your Second Job at Work: Working While the Kids are Sick

Ah, one of the joys of working from home-being home with the kids when they are sick. You don’t have to get into a debate with your boss about leaving work and your employer continues to receive productivity from you.

However, trying to balance extra childcare duties, while maintaining the same level of grace and intelligence can make your day extra challenging. Pulling double duty on little or no sleep is like harkening back to the days of when your child was an infant.

Plus you have to balance dealing with taking care of the kids in between appointments. For example, my daughter has the stomach flu and my son has a cough and cold. I race back and forth to see who I can help. I’ll hear my daughter in the bathroom so I’ll run to see if she’s o.k.  She has her head in the toilet with one hand holding her hair back and the other hand gesturing to me that she’s fine and go on.

Then I hear coughing from the bedroom so I move on to see what’s going on in there.  There’s my son practically thumbing through the Yellow Pages in search for a Catholic priest to deliver his last rites. “Mom, I feel so bad!!”

I guess caring for your sick children is also a study in humanity. My 8 year-old daughter is throwing up but still trying to tell me, “I’m fine, I can deal with it.” My 12 year-old son who has a cold, however is ready for doom and gloom…much like my husband.

Either way seeing your babies sick is no fun. You know they will be fine, return to school in a few days but in the meantime you need to stay in the game and be there for them and your job. Some ways to keep it together while working and caring for a sick child is to get rest when they rest. Take a nap during your lunch hour or during the usual time you spend driving them to activities. Being sleep deprived opens you up to getting sick too.

Also, don’t forget to wash you hands. The last thing you need is to go down too. Keep a small bottle of hand sanitizer in your pocket and use it often. Also, let clients know what’s going on. Even though you are still in the game you may be off your game. Ensure that you will deliver what you planned and not to worry.