So you thought working at home with your teens would be great — you'd share more quality time with each other, you'd get to eat lunch together, and maybe (just maybe!) they'd give you a hand with the laundry from time to time. It was supposed to be easy, fun, and packed with amazing, memory-creating family-time. But boy, were you wrong. Working from home with kids (let alone teens) can be exhausting and unproductive. Between your teen interrupting your Zoom call, demanding for you to make lunch, or blasting the latest Olivia Rodrigo song at full volume, not even a zen home office or tranquil Zoom background can make you feel at ease. Because we understand the struggle, we've rounded up 15 things that perfectly capture what parents working from home with teens feel everyday — all funny, but some much, much too relatable.
15 Things Parents Who Work from Home With Teens Will Get
15 Things Any Parent Working From Home with Teens Will Understand
They Expect You to do Their Homework
When you're home all day your teens assume that you're going to help them with their homework, projects, essays, presentations, and studying. So, lucky for you, you're left trying to remember how to do long-division and frantically Googling what APA format is between Zoom calls. It's basically like you're working your full-time job and re-doing junior high.
You've Become a Full-Time Personal Chef
Even though your teen may have made their own breakfast and packed their own lunch pre-WFH, when now that you're at home more often you've become their full-time personal chef. Meaning, you're cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, and preparing snacks.
You Have No Internet Bandwidth
With your teen simultaneously doing homework on their desktop computer, streaming Netflix on their laptop, and scrolling TikTok on their phone, that leaves little to no internet bandwidth for you to use for your work. That means you get laggy load times, video calls that break up, and even difficulties connecting to the internet. Not like you have a job to do, or anything.
You Catch Them Filming TikToks
You've scrolled through TikTok so you know it's pretty damn entertaining, so you can't really blame your teen for wanting to make their own content. But, every time you walk into a room that means you catch them filming some new dance routine or editing videos, rather than doing the things they really need to do (like homework, or taking out the rubbish like you asked them 7 times already!).
Watch This!
Pop Quiz
Watch the Cast of Fear Street Play a Creepy Game of Horror Movie "Would You Rather"
They Yell For You From Every Room in the House
Pre-WFH, if your teen needed you they'd text you. Now, no matter where they are in the house or what you're in the middle of, you're hearing"MOOOOOM!" or "DAAAAAAD!" screamed from the top of their lungs. And even though you'd assume it's something important, it's usually just them asking where the chips are or if they can borrow your car.
Or Worse . . . They Don't Replace the Toilet Paper
One of the best things about the bathroom at your office was that someone else always replaced the empty roll. But at home, your teen uses all the TP and just leaves the empty cardboard for someone else (ahem, you) to replace. Just what you need when you're doing everything else!