Talia is an executive at a Boston area multinational company and the mother to two grade-school-aged boys. Over the past decade, she’s enjoyed advancing through the ranks, delivering consistently strong results while building high performing teams. But the past year and a half have taken its toll, pushing her to both her professional and personal limits.
4 Tips to Manage Childcare When You Go Back to the Office
Even as the optimism of a summer filled with friends, camps, and travel prevails, many parents are already looking ahead to the fall with the return to school and the call back to offices. And with this return to the routine comes the anxiety of potential logistical issues that derails the whole week — a sick kid, a school holiday, the nanny having car trouble, or any number of unpredictable events.
But the past year and a half in the pandemic have taught us things that will help us emerge even stronger than when we entered the pandemic. And you can create a bench of backup help that can be ready when you run into these issues. First, keep your pandemic pod — and consider expanding it. Second, find people with the same patterns or schedules to partner with. Third, build your professional backup bench of sitters, nannies, and teachers. And finally, talk with your manager about being your own backup (when necessary).