Challenges of Working from Home with Your Spouse and Dogs

Meet the family! My family consists of Miguel, Titan, and Luna.

Transitioning to working from home is not easy.

Back in November 2022, I transitioned to working from home. At this point, Miguel had been working from home for over two years. This transition was difficult as the line between my work and home life became blurred. When did we do chores? How do you share responsibilities? How do you implement downtime to relax and recover? This all proved difficult for me, and I became overwhelmed quickly. Here are three things my family implemented to help establish balance:

1. I do not allow myself to do household chores during regular business hours.
   • When I would do household chores during regular business hours, I would end up working until 9 pm. This resulted in me becoming overwhelmed and stressed due to little to no breaks during the week between the work and home responsibilities.
2. Put the dogs in their crate for a minimum of 3 hours a day.
   • If Miguel and I worked outside of the home, the dogs would be in their crate anyways. With Titan still being a puppy, we need him to be comfortable with not constantly being around us. After putting the dogs away in their crates for the middle portion of the day, we were able to solely focus on our work.
3. We share all household and dog responsibilities.
   • Both Miguel and I would take turns unintentionally taking all of the household and dog responsibilities because we didn’t want to interrupt the other one. This resulted in both of us becoming overwhelmed and stressed on those days. Once we realized this, we split up the responsibilities so that neither one had to take the brunt of it.

I hope that these three tips help you and your spouse work from home together while still maintaining balance. If you have a suggestion that has helped you in your transition to working from home, leave a comment and help others!