I remember one week where the stomach bug came through our house and I was thrown up on at least 3 times.

I knew it was just a matter of time because every day leading up to my daughter getting sick, we received notifications from her school about another kid going home vomiting.

My daughter got sick on a Tuesday and was home the rest of the week.

My son caught it later and was home Thursday and Friday.

• My wife didn’t have enough sick days to stay home.
• Grandparents weren’t able to help out.
• We didn’t have an emergency babysitter that we could reach out to.
• And I had several pressing projects & meetings this week.

Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a similar situation?

Here’s how I managed working from home while caring for sick kids.

Assess & prioritize

Once Audrey threw up on a Tuesday morning, I knew she’d have to stay home for at least 2 days.

Since I WFH and there’s flexibility with my schedule, there was the temptation to think through how I could still get a full day’s work in.

But I’ve found that trying to work WHILE watching sick kids ends up being a lose-lose situation; neither the kids nor my work get the attention they need.

Sure, I could let her watch more TV than normal while I worked (and I think it’s fine to give kids more screen time on days like this) but after assessing my work load, I decided I’d take half-days off.

In doing so, I had to recognize that I was not going to get as much done this week as anticipated.

I then had to decide WHEN I was working and WHAT I’d be working on those days.

Create a flexible schedule

Here’s what my schedule looked like one of the days:

5:45 → read, pray, prioritize for the day
6:15 → move primary project 1 forward
7:30 → wife leaves for work; coffee & hang with the kids
8:45 → drop son off at school
9:05 → 3 mile run w/ the jogging stroller
10:00 → games (Trouble & Zingo) with her
10:45 → check Slack; regret doing so
11:00 → lunch
12:00 → grocery store trip
1:15 → she begins rest time
1:25 → catch up on Slack notifications
2:00 → move primary project 2 forward
2:15 → rest time over
2:30 → she colors while I finish up some work
3:00 → make paper airplanes
3:30 → wife and son come home
3:45 → wife works out; I play with the kids
4:15 → wrap up primary project 2
5:00 → make dinner
6:30 → kids bed time
7:45 → wife leaves for Bible study
7:50 → catch up on work loose ends
8:20 → project management I’m behind on
9:45 → call it a day

Total work time: 4hrs 33min

A few things I want to call out:

• PRIORITIZE: I prioritized tasks early in the day, ensuring I was spending my time on my primary projects.
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• BE REALISTIC: I avoided putting 45 things on my to-do list on a half-day
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• LOW-LIFT WORK: At 2:30, she was coloring at the dining room table while I was on my laptop. I did some of my lighter-lift work (in my case, catching up on social media for my company) so when she would talk to me, I wouldn’t be annoyed that she was interrupting my stream of thought on something requiring deep focus.
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• AVOID SLACK: While I don’t have Slack on my phone, at one point I grabbed the iPad and took a look as a way to ‘stay on top of things.’ It just stressed me out because I was seeing all these notifications that I couldn’t take any action on. So just don’t get on Slack when watching them.

This schedule worked for a couple of days when I was just watching Audrey.

Then both kids ended up throwing up on Thursday morning.

Consider taking a full-day off when necessary

With BOTH kids home sick (and beginning to have my own stomach issues 💩) work just wasn’t going to happen.

I’d have less time to get things done which would lead to me trying to work WHILE I’m with them.

They would then start trying to get my attention to play (or clean up their vomit). I’d then get frustrated that I couldn’t get anything done. Everyone would be upset.

Not worth it.

BUT - I had one important meeting and if I missed it, it would put other team members back.

So here’s what I did.

When they were both down for rest time, I took 20 minutes to prep and record a Loom video of my status update.

I sent it to a team member to play at the meeting.

They’d discuss what I talked about and follow up with me any questions they had.

It worked out.

Embrace the chaos

Days off (even half-days) can be a blessing in disguise.

Sure, it wasn’t great when I was chasing my daughter around after I cleaned the vomit out of her hair to help her get dressed, all while she was crying because her little brother was destroying the fort she made the day before, all while trying to keep from crapping my own pants.

BUT, it was pretty nice to have some one-on-one time with her the day before and play games, have lunch together, and show her how to make a paper airplane.

So, try to find those simple moments that you wouldn’t have had on an ordinary day.

Recommendation of the week:

​Dad’s Essential Role in Making Kids Awesome​

This was fun one from the Art of Manliness podcast.

The host & guest chat about the role of fathers in human history and how our main role continues to be teaching kids the skills they need to take risks, become independent, and navigate the world beyond their family. They also talked about how roughhousing actually helps build kids resilience.

Makes me both excited about some of the later seasons of parenthood when my kids get older AND about wrestling with them on the floor more often.

If you’ve ever questioned whether your role as a dad is as significant as mom’s, this episode is a must-listen.

What about you?

Have you had to watch the kids while working from home? How’d it go?

Email me at thom@wfhdads.com and let me know. I read and respond to each one.

Thanks again for being a part of this community!

Thom Gibson Founder of WFH Dads ​​​

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