Right now, we don’t know when a proven vaccine for COVID-19 will be widely available. Some companies are going so far as to require their employees to work from home until mid-2021. Now is a great time to put some schedules and expectations in place so that everyone can remain sane.
You Need to Focus on Work and Your Child(ren)
Many fortunate Americans can work full-time from home as COVID-19 continues to affect our communities. Many of those same people have at least one child still in school attending their classes online. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for dilly dally around the house. Juggling Zoom meetings, emails, and other job responsibilities with keeping your child focused on their work are quite literally two full-time jobs.
Tips to help you focus during your working hours:
- Turn off unneeded media such as radio, TV, social media outlets, etc.
- Create a separate office area that you only go into during your working hours.
- Set a schedule for yourself and let everyone in your house know what that schedule is.
- Take active breaks like walking around your block or even stretching in your office.
Your Child Needs to Focus on School, Not Their Dog
If your child is doing part-time or full-time virtual school, they’re going to need quiet, uninterrupted time for online class meetings and study time. Keeping that child on task is a feat in and of itself.
Tips to help keep your child focused:
- Remove all distractions; this includes pets, unneeded electronics, and turning off the TV.
- Set age-appropriate time goals for your child and use a timer so they have a visual of when their next break is.
- Take active breaks. Avoid video games, YouTube videos, and social media. Get your child up and moving, like taking your pooch for a walk or to play catch.
- Try background music during their focus time. Classical, instrumental, or nature sounds are great to couple with creative type schoolwork such as writing and drawing.
Dogs Need Social Time Too
There are probably not too many canines who are unhappy with the increased time their humans are at home. However, it’s still essential to get your pooch some social time with other dogs. Dogs need to be dogs with other dogs. Dogs play differently with other dogs than they do with their humans. With dog parks closed or only allowing very limited access, getting your pooch that needed social time is becoming increasingly difficult.
Doggie day camp is a great solution for you, your kids, and your cuddly canine. You can get an entire day or even half a day to yourself, and your pup gets his much-needed social time and plenty of exercise.
If you can’t get your dog to a day camp, consider getting different types of enrichment toys (food puzzles, etc.) for your dog to work on during different times of the day. Let Fido also join you on your breaks when you take a walk around the neighborhood.
Taking a few extra steps to make sure you and your kids stay on task while Fido gets his needed mental and physical exercise will go a long way to keep everybody happy and focused.
