How To Make Your Office More Kid-Friendly?

Being a working parent is no child’s play. It not only takes a toll on the parents but on the child as well. It is often seen that working parents struggle to balance their personal and professional lives. Not only this they hardly get involved with their family and domestic affairs. The solution to all this has come out as home offices. Home offices have become a trend. It allows working men and women to do their office work while keeping an eye on their children. 

But while home offices are great for the parents, it could cause slight inconvenience to the corporation they are working for. Time management skills, unattended meetings, inattentiveness, etc. are some of the major cons of home offices. Hence it’s on the corporations to make a safe environment for working parents. Thus, many companies are making their office more Kid-friendly. 

Kid-friendly offices allow working parents to work without having to constantly run after their kids. It provides a safe and sound environment, not only to the parent but also to the child. Since a young kid picks up things he or she notices around them, it’s important to design a good kid-friendly office. If you are thinking of making your office more kid-friendly, then cheer up. We’ve prepared a list of things that’ll help you build a more kid-friendly environment.

1. Encourage A Healthy Parenting Environment

Everything begins with educating people on certain things. Since the hustle culture has made working hard and putting in overtime look cool, it’s important to educate and encourage people to maintain a healthy professional style. Being a parent brings tons of responsibilities along with it. Hence a healthy kid-friendly environment must encourage its employees to prefer their child over their work. 

Missing a day’s work when someone’s child is sick should be the norm. People must be encouraged to attend their child’s piano lessons or dance performances. Even if it means missing a day’s work or coming to the office for half a day only. Due to societal conditioning, many parents may feel like giving all these important events of a child’s growing up years a miss and coming to work. Hence a kid-friendly office should always teach its employees how to become better parents. It should encourage employees to stay at home when required to take care of their kids. ‘Family over work’ should be their motto. 

2. Built A Play Area

Many corporations get afraid that if they allow new parents to bring in their kids, they’d be distracted all the time. And it’s a valid concern. Kids tend to be impatient and thus they’d always demand their parent’s attention. Thus a kid-friendly office must have a separate play area for kids. Kids love playing and it is the only thing that can hold their attention for hours. It will also help in their growth and help them make new friends. Games are a great way to develop cognitive skills in a child and thus it’s a win-win for everyone.

3. Welcome Kids During Office Hours

Welcoming kids during work hours could be a lifesaver for a parent. It could save them a long drive home from a pediatrician’s appointment rather than directly bringing their kid to the office. Thus normalize bringing kids to work. Talking and encouraging parents to do this could remove the hesitance attached to it. It won’t be an inconvenience at all if you’ve paid attention to tip no. 2. 

4. Paid Maternity/Paternity Leave

This is a great initiative if you want to establish a more kid-friendly environment. Paid Paternity or Maternity leaves could be a huge lifesaver for new parents. It would give them a chance to stay with their kid and not be absent from a young age. It would also positively affect their happiness index. And we all know that a happy employee works more efficiently and puts in more hard work. 

5. Parent Support Groups

Setting up a parent support group can bring a huge change in the life of a new parent. It can solve a lot of their issues and give them the support they require. Either you can bring in a support group from outside or establish a group including employees who have been parents for a long. Their experiences and anecdotes will surely prove to be of huge help to a relatively new and anxious parent. 

No employee can put in good work if they are facing troubles in their personal life. The whole concept of becoming more kid-friendly is to provide relief as well as the required support to new parents. Being a parent is hard and if they don’t get the support they need, things can become very troubling for them. Also if a corporation cannot look after its people, it won’t be able to maintain long-term relationships with its employees. Thus becoming kid-friendly is a must for any corporation.