Thursday, March 19, 2020

Spring Break, School Closings, and Working From Home

What working from home is really like.

Working from home is a mixed bag, contrary to public perception, especially if you have kids. Summertime is rough, but if you can keep them engaged in other activities, it's not too bad. Spring break is the same way. But what happens when an unprecedented emergency, like the coronavirus pandemic, closes schools for an unspecified amount of time, and suddenly you're homeschooling your kids? Yikes!


Things started getting serious during spring break here. Next thing we know, spring break is "extended" for an additional week. Now we're going to move to e-learning and doing classwork from home for the next two weeks! Will they get to return to the classroom after that? Who knows, but I personally am suspecting the answer will be no. I fully expect the rest of this school year (through May) to be finished from home.

It really sucks for the kids. Field trips canceled. Class events canceled. Prom canceled (or rescheduled for summer). Senior meetups canceled. Not getting to see your friends for months. It sucks.

But from my perspective, what sucks worse is working from home with kids underfoot for an unspecified amount of time! Sure, they have their own work to do, but it's not non-stop, and when they aren't doing schoolwork, guess where they are? That's right! They want to do something with dad, who they don't usually get to see every day during the day.

Do you work from home? Would you be able to do it under these circumstances - meet deadlines, keep a semi-schedule, keep up work productivity? It's not as easy as most people think it is!

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