Summer, Kids, and Working From Home: When Your Office Is Not Really an Office

There is something nobody tells you about working from home during summer vacation. You may still have an office, a desk, a laptop, a calendar full of meetings, and a workday that technically runs from 8 to 5. But when your kids are home all day, your office does not always feel like an office.

Because to them, you are not really at work.

Dad is home.

I have been thinking about that a lot this summer. My kids have not been in summer camps every day, so while I am trying to figure out how to get through my workday, they are trying to figure out what to do with theirs. And those two worlds collide more often than I would like to admit.

My workday may already be well underway by the time they wake up. Then comes breakfast, a little later lunch, then a snack, and then another snack. Sometimes I simply walk out of my office at 2 PM to get a glass of water...

....and immediately I hear, "Dad! Are you done with work?"

There is so much excitement in the question, and I already know I am about to disappoint them. "No, buddy. Just getting some water." Then I go back into my office.

Eventually, I get into that state where I am completely focused. And then comes the knock.

"Dad?"

"When are you going to be done?" "Can you play with me?" "He's bothering me." "She took my thing."

Sometimes I handle it well. Sometimes I do not. Sometimes I get frustrated. I snap. Occasionally, I even get angry. Then comes the guilt, because I know they are just being kids.

We are experiencing the same moment very differently.

When my child walks into my office for the third time, I see an interruption. But what does my child see? Maybe an opportunity to show me something, ask me a question, or simply have five minutes with Dad.

I am thinking, "I need to finish this." They are thinking, "Dad is home."

Neither perspective is wrong. My work matters, and their desire to connect with me matters. Perhaps the difficult part of working from home is that both can be true at exactly the same time.

Why do we expect ourselves to get this balance right every day?

That question has made me reflect on the guilt many of us working parents carry. If we are home, we think we should be available to our children. If we are working, we think we should be fully focused on our work. Somehow, there is almost no version where we feel like we are doing enough.

So maybe the question is not, "How do I balance this perfectly?" Maybe it is...

What does being a good parent and a responsible professional look like in this season of my life?

Of course, some of this is practical. I can set clearer boundaries and be more intentional about when I am available. But I am realizing there is another boundary I need to work on: the one I set for myself through my own expectations.

I am going to get this wrong sometimes. I will lose my patience. And when I do, I can repair, reconnect, and try again.

Someday, the knock will stop.

That thought gets me every time.

Right now, "Dad, when will you be done?" can feel like one more interruption in an already busy day. But there will come a summer when they will not knock. They will have friends, plans, and lives of their own.

And maybe I will be sitting in the same office, staring at the same door, wishing someone would interrupt me.

That does not mean I need to open the door every time. But perhaps I can experience that knock a little differently. Less as something getting in the way of my day, and more as a reminder of what else matters in my life.

So this summer, I am trying something. When I hear that knock, before I react, I am asking myself:

What am I hearing: an interruption, or a child who still wants to spend time with his dad?

Maybe it is both.