Raising a family in today’s hectic lifestyle is nothing short of a challenge. As beautiful as it appears to be, a young family can be difficult to sustain, especially if the parents are young as well. Even if you wait a few years before starting a family in hopes of saving enough, you’ll still find yourself struggling to maintain jobs and scrambling to manage bills while holding your baby’s burp cloth.
But hey, that shouldn’t stop you from raising a family, right? Whether you’ve started young, or you prefer to get married when you hit your 30s, it’s completely your choice. Starting a family at any point is bound to be stressful and challenging, especially when you and your partner are settling into your roles.
Why Is WFH a Good Idea for a Young Family?
The bonding time that you get with a young family sets the foundation for a lifetime of family values. Quality time spent with a young family allows for essential mentoring and parenting that is hard to make up for later on.
You’ll understand that an engineering career isn’t the only way to feel accomplished with your family. The time you spend raising a young family will teach you more ways to feel successful than just by building an office-based career.
Daycare is expensive. Nannies are expensive. Children require constant supervision, and managing time becomes more important than ever.
All of these factors almost make WFH look like a necessity but a rather tough one.
How to Ace WFH as a Young Family?
Wondering how you can achieve office-like performance and build a successful engineering career mindset while being around your family in a WFH scenario? Here are some tips that can help:
Schedule Your Day According to Your Family’s Sleeping Pattern
If you’re aware of your children’s sleeping patterns, it’s a great idea to shape your own schedule around it. So, let’s suppose your kids wake up at 9 in the morning. If you can get up a few hours earlier than that, let’s say at 6am, you’ll get enough quiet time to catch up on work.
Similarly, if your kids take an afternoon nap for like 2 hours, that gives you five hours in total. Finally, try to ensure that your children go to bed early, preferably around 8 or 9, so you can squeeze in an 8-9 hour shift if you work till midnight.
Look for Jobs That Are Flexible
Every WFH job isn’t for everyone. If you’re handling a young family, you have to be especially careful when reading job descriptions or reaching out to recruiters. Between your household chores, childcare, work, and your personal time, it’s easy to spread yourself way too thin until you’re struggling to manage the immense pressure from all sides.
Remember, the core of WFH is flexibility. It may take some time to find the perfect job with perfect work hours, but you’ll get there.
Split Your Duties
If you’re a single earner in the family, then this should be no problem. But if you and your spouse both work, then you may try to approach WFH together. This can bring in a couple of benefits, primarily those pertaining to your individual duties.
For instance, one of you can do the dishes when the other is on a call. One can put the baby to sleep while the other is rushing towards a deadline. Together, both of you might be able to juggle WFH better than just one spouse balancing household and childcare chores alongside their job. Working from home with a young family is a team sport.
Set Your Office Environment
If there’s something you can absolutely not compromise on, it’s your WFH office environment. Although your bosses will appreciate your work ethic, they won’t be very fond of your baby wailing in the background or your toddler watching nursery rhymes on YouTube. You need to step it up and ensure a sense of professionalism in the home work space.
Start with finding yourself a quiet corner in your house., somewhere with a steady internet connection and that’s away from all the chaos. It would be a bonus if you could also keep your children in sight while working, just to make sure they’re safe.
You can also take some safety measures to ensure that your child is safe while you’re busy in your home office. You may install a security camera and cover all sharp edges, such as tables and drawers, to avoid feeling distracted.
Conclusion
Working from home as a building service engineer with a young family will be chaotic at times. But we assure you, the reward is far greater than the effort. You’ll find your family becoming closer and more fulfilled, and you’ll also be able to take on tougher and more well-paying gigs in a couple of years.
Looking to move in with the family and start a work from home role? Get in touch to discuss your options.
Author: Alex Cole is a Specialist Building Services Recruiter with Responsum. He’s always interested in networking with Building Service professionals. He loves talking football, is hoping to get on the property ladder soon, and visits Tenerife every year!
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