Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
Speaker 1: new world of work, where location and hours are more
Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to put
Speaker 1: your kids to work. If you're working at home, the
Speaker 1: lines between work and home can be blurred. There are
Speaker 1: downsides to this, as anyone who spent an evening half
Speaker 1: checking email and half puttering around the house knows. But
Speaker 1: if your teen and preteen kids are around the house
Speaker 1: a lot more this summer because of canceled camps or
Speaker 1: summer jobs, then you might be able to put them
Speaker 1: on your team, so to speak, so you can be
Speaker 1: at least a little more productive. One obvious approach specialize
Speaker 1: Mom and dad specialize in their paid work. The kids
Speaker 1: can specialize in more of the home tasks so you
Speaker 1: can focus on your job. Kids who are older than
Speaker 1: about ten or so can learn to make simple meals
Speaker 1: like pasta with jarred sauce and a bagged salad or
Speaker 1: scrambled eggs with cut up fruit. Teenagers might enjoy cooking
Speaker 1: from meal kits like those from sun Basket or Hello Fresh.
Speaker 1: There's nothing quite like hanging up from your last client
Speaker 1: call at six pm to emerge to dinner on the table. Hey,
Speaker 1: it could work in any case. They can definitely help
Speaker 1: with laundry and keeping the house tidy so you don't
Speaker 1: have to do these things. Older children can also entertain
Speaker 1: younger children if you have a call during a time
Speaker 1: that you don't normally have childcare all day. Childcare is
Speaker 1: more in the realm of actual adults, like if you're
Speaker 1: nineteen year old is home from college, but an eleven
Speaker 1: year old could build block towers for a three year
Speaker 1: old to knock down for thirty minutes or so in
Speaker 1: a pinch. I have strongly encouraged my older children to
Speaker 1: play Minecraft with the five year old when I need
Speaker 1: to knock a few things out. If you work for yourself,
Speaker 1: you can use your kids for various clerical tasks. They
Speaker 1: can help stuff and stamp envelopes, or scan or make copies.
Speaker 1: A teenager might be able to bike to the post
Speaker 1: office for you. He or she might be able to
Speaker 1: proof free documents. Your kids might have ideas for social
Speaker 1: media posts or campaigns. My thirteen year old has written
Speaker 1: blog posts for me. If your kids are crack googlers,
Speaker 1: you can send them hunting for specific statistics or research studies,
Speaker 1: or possibly have them read and summarize books for you.
Speaker 1: Mine sometimes come up with podcast ideas for me. In
Speaker 1: any case, the whole concept of take our Sons and
Speaker 1: Daughters to Work Day is that the world of work
Speaker 1: seems very remote to the average child. It's this mysterious
Speaker 1: place that mom and dad go and that you don't
Speaker 1: really know what's going on. But if you work from home,
Speaker 1: they can know pretty much exactly what's going on, and
Speaker 1: sometimes they can even be part of it. That's work
Speaker 1: life integration and I think it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: In the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's the succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New
Speaker 1: Corner Office is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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Speaker 1: or wherever you get your favorite shows.