Re: Programming with Kids

[Your Mother]

tilly's advice is very good. Probably a neighbor or two is the same straits and you can get organized about it so you each end up needing to pay for child care less frequently.

A good nanny or sitter can be had (if you carefully vet) for as low as $10-18/hour; This site is worth the subscription if you're in a location it covers: Sittercity. Bite the bullet and get one and look to extended family (if you carefully vet) for more help. An au pair is an option too, especially for a single parent. It ends up costing $15-$20K for a year for dedicated full time child care and can be very good for a family because of the cultural exchange and fresh outlook.

Working with kids underfoot is a mistake; it creates an environment wherein you can, almost certainly will, get overly crabby with them because you have a boss or client barking at you over a production bug or a deadline while your child is trying to get attention any way possible.

When it just doesn't work out for a given day there are lots of great activity books out there (e.g., McNally has a nice travel/activity book series which can be very engaging to the 4+ set). There are also DVD sets from Noggin (Backyardigans, Little Bill, and Lazy Town are some of the better series for kids; Dora and a few others are becoming a sort of Pokemon-lite to push merchandise) and such which you can rip to put on an iPod Nano (which has a master/lockable volume setting to protect hearing; set it at 50% and set the lock code). That way you can have the kid in the room with you, safely in view, silently engaged for a couple of hours.

By the age of 5 some kids are quite ready for a Nintendo DS or a Wii and they have a handful of games that are just right for that age set (Animal Genius for the non-reader comes to mind). I'm personally acquainted with a 6 year-old girl who dusted all the high scores on a non-kid PS2 game recently.

Good luck. Don't get too frustrated. Get organized. Realize you'll have difficult days. Take care of yourself and your attitude. Work is important. Happy, well-attended kids are moreso.

[tubaandy]

I definitely agree with Your Mother. Having been in exactly this situation, you soon realize that, if you are going to work from home, it's best done with no one else in the house (pets aside). At least, if you want to get things done. On the days when my kids have been sick, I have stayed home and cared for them, although an awful lot of TV watching or video game playing happens. (Our kids are older than yours.) When our kids were the 4-5 year age, many of Your Mother's suggestions were undertaken: books, TV, movies, etc.

It is a better approach to plan for a care giver or good daycare arrangement. Otherwise, you will get crabby with your kids, you won't be able to spend the time you should, and what looks like it should be a good experience takes a huge hit for everyone involved.

Now, to head back home and try to get some work done while my kids are off school. :)