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01
Give yourself the grace you’d give your best friend.
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| If a friend called and said she was trying to run her business while her kids were home all summer, you’d tell her she was doing something incredible. You wouldn’t hand her a checklist of everything she wasn’t doing perfectly. Extend that same kindness to yourself. The chaos around you doesn’t cancel out what you’re building. |
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02
Reframe what “success” looks like this season.
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| Summer success doesn’t look like your normal productivity. It looks like showing up for your clients and showing up for your kids, not perfectly, but consistently. You’re building something real while being present for the people who matter most. That’s not a compromise. That actually is the whole point. |
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03
Protect your focused hours and be honest about what those are.
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| Figure out your best work windows (nap time, early mornings, quiet time after lunch) and treat them like client appointments, because they are. Keep one or two activities that are only for work time for little ones. A sticker book, crayons, something with novelty they don’t get access to any other time. And when interruptions happen, because they will, give yourself one breath, handle it, and move on. The background noise is part of this season, not evidence that you’re doing it wrong. |
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04
Give your kids their own little “job” while you work.
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| Set up a little workspace right next to yours. Give them their own “work” — a notepad, some markers, stickers, a blank “report” to fill out, whatever matches their age. Tell them you’re both going to work at the same time. Little kids especially love this because they want to be where you are, and when they feel included instead of pushed away, they actually settle. You’re not tricking them. You’re giving them something that’s genuinely theirs. And the novelty of a dedicated work spot buys you real focused time in a way that just saying “go play” never will. |
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05
Create a visual signal they can actually understand.
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| A simple stoplight system is one of the most consistently recommended tips from parents who work from home, and it really does work. Red means do not interrupt unless someone is hurt. Yellow means come check with me first. Green means you can come in. Tape colored paper to your door, use sticky notes, whatever works. The key is that it removes the constant negotiation. Kids don’t have to guess whether now is an okay time. They just look. Older kids get it immediately, and younger ones pick it up faster than you’d expect. |
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06
And when all else fails, go be with your kids.
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| Close the laptop. Put the phone down. Just go be with them. Your business is resilient. It will come back. The effort you put into it is never wasted, and one hard day is not going to undo what you’ve built. But your kids need you in a way that has nothing to do with productivity or output. The emotional safety they get from you is something no one else can give them in quite the same way. So if the day falls apart and the work doesn’t get done and the kids need you, just go. The rest will still be there. You’re not just building a business. You’re raising humans. Don’t forget that. |
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