For some families, Covid-19 has meant working, living, and learning together in close quarters over many months. For others, it’s meant caregivers leaving home to work in hospitals, grocery stores, and other businesses on the front lines of the pandemic. However your family’s dynamic has changed, it’s likely that your children are developing new ideas about your job and, more fundamentally, what work is, how it functions in today’s world, and what it means to them.
HBR employees working from home, as depicted by their children. Senior Graphics Editor Macaulay Campbell, by Maximilian (age 7).
How to Talk to Your Kids About Work During the Pandemic
An activity and a discussion guide.
November 11, 2020
· Long read
Summary.
The Covid-19 pandemic scrambled work-life balance in many families. For workers with children, their professional lives suddenly became visible to their children in a way they weren’t before. Jacqueline Zeller, a psychologist with a background in education, says it can be useful for caregivers and children to talk about these changes. She provides an activity and a discussion guide to help parents have conversations about pandemic-era work with their young children. By talking about their professional lives, parents and caregivers can better understand their children’s perspectives on work, how their kids think about their own possible futures in the workforce, and how best to support their children today.
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