Working From Home with Kids: A Business Owner's Summer Survival Guide
Well, it's that time again.
The kids are home, your "quiet office space" has mysteriously transformed into a snack distribution center, and your carefully planned work schedule has vanished faster than the last granola bar. If you're currently reading this while hiding in your pantry with your laptop and a bag of chocolate chips, welcome to the club. No judgment here.
Running a business during school breaks is a challenge like no other - but it's not impossible. With the right strategies (and a healthy dose of realistic expectations), you can keep your business running without losing your mind.
Survival Strategy #1: Lower Your Expectations (Seriously)
I'm going to say something that might sound revolutionary: you don't have to be superhuman during school breaks.
Here's the thing - that perfectly curated Instagram feed of productive working moms who somehow manage full client loads while their children peacefully craft in the background? That's not real life.
Real life is answering emails while mediating sibling disputes and considering it a win if you remembered to eat lunch before 3 PM.
Permission to Not Be Perfect
Give yourself permission to operate at 70% capacity during school breaks. Your usual productivity standards don't apply when you're also functioning as camp counselor, snack distributor, and referee. This isn't giving up - it's being strategic about where you spend your limited energy.
Focus on What Actually Matters
When everything feels urgent, nothing actually is.
Identify the truly critical tasks. Everything else? It can wait.
That blog post you wanted to write, organizing your digital files, updating your website copy - all important, but not end-of-the-world urgent. Focus on your clients and your must do tasks.
Embrace "Good Enough"
Sometimes good enough really is good enough.
That email doesn't need to be perfectly crafted - clear and professional will do. Your social media content doesn't need to be award-winning - consistent and authentic beats perfect but sporadic. Save your perfectionist energy for the things that truly matter, and let the rest be beautifully, unapologetically adequate.
Survival Strategy #2: Create Chaos-Friendly Systems
Find Productivity in Unexpected Places
Case in point: I'm writing this very blog post from the corner of a dance studio waiting room, laptop balanced on my knees while my two small dancers work on their pirouettes. Is it my ideal writing environment? Absolutely not. But when you're a working parent during school breaks, productivity happens wherever you can grab it - car pickup lines, a quiet seat at the trampoline park, that magical 20 minutes while they're actually engrossed in a craft project.
The key is being ready to work in these stolen moments rather than waiting for the perfect, quiet office setup that frankly doesn't exist anymore. Keep your essentials portable, your tasks bite-sized, and your expectations flexible. Sometimes the best work happens in the most unexpected places.
The 5 AM Club
Set your alarm for 5:30 AM (or whatever ungodly hour gives you peace) and claim those precious quiet hours before tiny humans start demanding breakfast and entertainment.
It's brutal, but there's something magical about working with hot coffee while the house is still silent. Get your most important or brain-heavy tasks done during this golden window - client work, content creation, anything requiring actual thought. By the time chaos erupts, you've already won half the day.
Voice-to-Text Everything
Your hands might be busy making sandwiches or refereeing sibling arguments, but your brain is still churning out brilliant ideas for that client proposal.
Enter voice-to-text, the working parent's secret weapon. Record content ideas while you're walking the dog, draft emails during your commute to yet another activity, or brainstorm social media posts while folding the never-ending laundry pile.
Most phones can transcribe surprisingly decent rough drafts that you can polish later when you actually have two free hands and a functioning keyboard. Sure, you might end up with some interesting autocorrect gems ("send the client the toilet proposal" instead of "total proposal"), but that's what editing is for. The key is capturing thoughts when they strike, not waiting for the perfect moment to sit down and type - because let's be honest, that moment might not come until next Tuesday.
The Interruption-Proof Task List
Keep a running list of 5-minute tasks that can survive the inevitable "Mom, I need..." interruptions. These are your lifelines for those moments when your big project gets derailed but you still have a few minutes to be productive. Think updating contact info, organizing files, responding to simple emails, scheduling social media posts, or doing quick research.
The beauty is that even if you get interrupted halfway through, you haven't lost momentum on something important. Keep this list easily accessible - in your phone notes, pinned to your task manager, or scribbled on that piece of paper that's permanently stuck to your desk.
When chaos strikes and your carefully planned work session crumbles, you can still knock something off the list and feel like a functioning human being. It's the difference between feeling defeated by interruptions and feeling like you're making progress despite them.
Survival Strategy #3: Create Kid-Friendly Workspaces:
Turns out that Masters in Education actually comes in handy - just not in the way I expected when I was studying child development and curriculum design. Who knew all that knowledge about engaging young minds would be most useful for figuring out how to keep kids occupied while I respond to client emails?
Here's how to transform your workspace into something that works for both you and the kids who've invaded it.
Set Up Strategic Distraction Stations
Think of these as your secret weapons - bins filled with activities that can buy you precious chunks of uninterrupted time. Rotate supplies regularly so the novelty factor stays high: coloring books, puzzles, PlayDoh, stickers, those little craft kits you impulse-bought at Target. Keep them within arm's reach of your workspace so you can grab them quickly when an important call comes in.
Pro tip: save the really good stuff for when you absolutely need it. That fancy new art set? That's your golden ticket for client meetings.
The "Office Helper" Program
Kids want to feel important and involved, so you might as well use that to your advantage.
Give them simple tasks that keep their hands busy: sorting paperclips, organizing your pen drawer (again), or being the official envelope stacker. Older kids can handle filing, too! You don't need fancy badges or certificates unless you're into that sort of thing (hello, Canva!).
The magic is in making them feel like they're actually helping with your work instead of just being shuffled off to the side.
Plus, watching a kid take their job as "dried-out marker checker" seriously is oddly entertaining and buys you a surprising amount of focused work time.
Designate Zones (And Defend Them)
Create physical boundaries between kid chaos and your essential work materials. This might mean childproofing your actual work area - important documents up high, fragile equipment out of reach, and maybe a small area of office supplies that are absolutely off-limits.
I keep a small basket right outside my office door for all the random kid stuff that mysteriously migrates onto my desk - that rogue Barbie who keeps showing up next to my keyboard, forgotten hair ties, and whatever small toy has been designated "very important" for the day. It's become my daily treasure hunt.
On the flip side, give kids their own designated space within your workspace so they feel included but contained. I set up a little area on the floor near my desk where my kids can work on their summer workbooks. It’s close enough that I can supervise and they feel connected, but out of the way enough that I'm not constantly dodging elbows and eraser shavings. It's that sweet spot of together but separate that somehow works for everyone
The Emergency Entertainment Arsenal
Have a backup plan for when all else fails. This is where you swallow your screen time guilt and embrace the power of educational YouTube videos or that tablet loaded with apps.
Keep a few special activities in reserve for important calls - the kind of stuff that will genuinely hold their attention for more than five minutes.
And yes, sometimes this means bribing them with a popsicle (or a Starbucks run for those tweens). We're in survival mode here.
The Art of Strategic Neglect
Not everything that feels urgent actually is urgent. When your kids are home, you need to become ruthlessly good at identifying what can wait versus what absolutely cannot. Client-facing work? That stays. The blog post you wanted to write? That can wait.
Learn to batch the non-urgent tasks for later. Keep a "when school starts again" list for all those projects that would be nice to do but won't make or break your business. This isn't procrastination - it's strategic prioritization. Your future self will thank you for not trying to do everything at once during the most chaotic weeks of the year.
Emergency Toolkit: Apps and Hacks That Actually Help
When chaos strikes and your carefully planned work day goes sideways, you need tools that actually work in the real world - not just in theory.
Scheduling Apps That Save Your Sanity
Use scheduling tools to avoid the back-and-forth email dance when kids are demanding your attention every five minutes. Set up automatic booking for client calls, and don't forget to build in buffer time - because guaranteed, someone will need help finding their other shoe right before your important meeting.
My favorites: Calendly for its simplicity and reliability, or Acuity Scheduling if you need more customization options.
Task Management That Works on the Go
Forget elaborate project management systems during school breaks. You need something simple, useful, and that gets the job done. Keep your task list simple and mobile-friendly. Whether it's your phone's built-in notes app or a simple task manager, the key is being able to brain-dump quickly and check things off as you go.
My favorites: TickTick for its intuitive interface and task organization features, or Asana as a solid free option that grows with your business.
Content Automation Tools
When you do get those precious pockets of focus time, make them count. Use scheduling tools for social media so you can batch content creation during quiet moments and let it post automatically. Same goes for email newsletters - write them when inspiration strikes, schedule them for when you need them to go out.
My favorites for content scheduling: Buffer for its clean interface and reliable scheduling, or Meta Business Suite (Meta's free option) if you're primarily focused on Facebook and Instagram.
My favorite email marketing platform: Mailchimp for its user-friendly interface and ability to create intuitive email automations.
Time Tracking Apps
You need simple ways to log billable hours between interruptions - because trying to remember what you worked on three days ago when your brain is fried is an exercise in futility. Track time in real-time or add it retroactively when you finally get a quiet moment.
My favorite: Harvest - and I'm apparently so enthusiastic about it that some people I've worked with say I'd make a great Harvest saleswoman. What can I say? When you find a tool that actually works, you become passionate about it. Added bonus - Harvest also takes care of invoicing and has an online payment option. A true “all in one” solution!
Making it Work (Without Losing Your Mind)
Your business doesn't pause for summer break, but it doesn't have to suffer either. With realistic expectations, chaos-friendly systems, and the right tools, you can maintain productivity while actually enjoying this time with your kids.
Some days, survival really is the strategy, and that's not failure, that's life. The businesses that thrive long-term are the ones that adapt to every season, not the ones that maintain impossible standards.
Remember: you're not just running a business, you're modeling resilience and flexibility for the next generation. And if all else fails, the car really does have excellent acoustics for important calls. Not that I would know from experience or anything.
With my youngest now being nine, I'm almost on the other side of this chaos. Trust me when I say this phase doesn't last forever.
The constant interruptions, the need for snack supervision, the inability to have a five-minute phone call without someone needing something urgent - it all passes. But your business can absolutely survive and even thrive during these years if you give yourself permission to work with the chaos instead of against it.
