I'm curious how devs with kids at home manage the current situation. The constant multitasking stresses me a lot, I feel incapable of doing anything tech-related that would involve deep focus.
Does cleaning up the flat count as side project :D?
I've always said that working parents know how to make the most of their 8-hour days in the office, and that's only been amplified. In general, I'm pedal-to-the-metal for my 5-6 hours a day, and then have our family lunch hour to recover before the not-really-relaxing homeschooling begins. We'll get a spot of work in most evenings, half-an-hour of TV, and then it's to bed to start it again the next day.
As for my wife and I, we're both mostly exhausted and guilty – guilty that we're not getting more done at work (even though I'm volunteering!), not doing a better job on homeschooling, etc.
When it's time to get a new job on my end, I'm really nervous about how it's going to go. I'd typically be doing 10-plus-hour days as I ramp up on new teams and material, but that's just impossible these days. In a normal world, I had lots of arguments for why a business should want to hire working parents, but right now it's really tough to justify.
My kid is great, and certainly not a "tough" child by any real measure, but still... Camps and schools can't open up soon enough.
We're fortunate we both still have jobs and can work from home, but doing so full-time while caring for a demanding 3yo, homeschooling an inquisitive 8yo with ADHD and cooking/ cleaning/ washing/ housework; we feel like incompetent plate-spinners. We too take it in shifts, up at 6am, to bed gone midnight.
I've never felt more knackered or guilty. Guilty neither of our kids (nor our employer) get the best of us. Guilty at feeling hard done by when we're not really: we've friends who've lost their livelihood and know health workers are risking their lives. We know it ends, but man... not soon enough.
I feel you. I felt so guilty I had to clear this up with my boss. Thankfully it turned out they are pretty understanding and this won't go in any performance review of anyone in this situation (both parents work standard office hours, kid at home, etc). IF the business survives the pandemic and lockdown, that is.
Feeling very, very stressed out right now :(
I have a kindergartener and left my job at the end of March to volunteer on COVID efforts.
It's cray for everyone, just in different shapes and sizes.
Not only for mental health, but also to avoid that everyone take time off at the same time. On another hand we have 30+ days per year, I guess it's a different story if you only have 20 days or less.
Then leadership modified the metrics that bonuses are calculated on, so that the slowdown wouldn't affect our ability to get them.
How does anyone get stuff done beyond the requisite 40, with kids? Two proven strategies: 1) ignore the kids a lot, 2) hire help. That's what all those famous old guys who discovered all kinds of cool stuff or wrote amazing literature or philosophized or whatever, while also having kids, did. Probably there are super-humans out there who manage without doing those things, but I'm not convinced they're common enough to count on or to give much consideration. Nb some people will hire help but not really want to tell people they have—don't assume someone blogging about raising kids while doing 100 other things, or crushing it at work, hasn't hired help just because they don't mention it. Decent odds they have.
> 1) ignore the kids a lot
This is likely not the right answer. A lot of those "famous people" are horrible parents. Makes you wonder why they chose to have kids to begin with...
Today she said she does not know how to write an essay. I kinda fudged it for the case in front of her (Intro, your points, an opposing point or two, conclusion). I think there is a better structure in teaching writing 'essays' - I just dont know how to teach that.
I'm genuinely happy for everyone who has planted a new garden, taken up a new hobby, started a new software project, etc. For those of us who can't take our kids to daycare or school right now, though, quarantine has meant less time to do the things we already had to do.
Deep focus is really difficult. Without a checklist it's hard to get anything done, and there are a number of interruptions.
As for learning / focus - typically that happens after they're in bed, and the time gets eaten from sleep, but I haven't been able to dig into anything deeper than a Raspberry Pi tinkering project.
> I'm curious how devs with kids at home manage the current situation
I manage the situation by stressing a lot and panicking. Hope that helps!