Polina Weidner Photo by: Courtesy

Polina Weidner is a 25-year Las Vegan who graduated from UNLV and jumped immediately into the marketing industry. Six years ago—right before COVID—she started her own company, The Marketing Model, and built it into a success while navigating motherhood and working from home.

“No day is ever the same as the next or the one prior, and the distractions can definitely get to you,” Weidner says. “But finding ways to include my kids in the things I do for work has made my life a lot easier. They’ve seen me put together a client event and gone to photo shoots, and showing them at an early age that work ethic and the importance of it is a different type of education for them.”

Since she’s been perfecting this routine for the better part of her career—and posting content along the way at @wholeweidworld—Weidner shared some summer survival tips with the Weekly for parents who work from home and want to keep kids busy and flourishing until school resumes.

Start with a morning menu.

Since the early hours can be one of the most productive times for remote workers, use one of the popular “morning menu” workbooks to keep young children occupied and engaged. Weidner supplies her 5-year-old with a few sheets after breakfast and often takes her laptop to the table to hang out together.

Get outdoors as much as you can.

Parents and kids both need breaks in their day, and Weidner likes to get a little active. “We do a lot of outdoor time and they can stay pretty busy in the backyard, but Vegas gets hot so this is typically an evening thing. We pop out when the sun’s going down, and I’ll finish up work emails while they play.”

Make your schedule chunky.

“Planning is about knowing when you have chunks of uninterrupted time, or when I can get help from Grandma or my husband, because kids need things at different times,” she says. “And I try really hard to give [the kids] a few-hour chunk of my time too, and then I don’t feel guilty when I do have to pull away.”

Avoid messy activities.

Crafts are great, but stick to cut-outs, popsicle sticks, construction paper and glue; paints and other materials will create a cleanup you may not be able to fit into the day.

Find the office scenario that works best.

As many of us learned during the pandemic, a dedicated work space can be a game-changer by allowing you to get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time. Weidner has a home office but it’s not off limits: “I actually put a small desk in my office for the kids, and there’s a whiteboard so they can scribble and ‘work with Mom,’ and it’s worked out pretty well,” she says. “Including them when I can makes them understand my work more, instead of feeling like they’re getting pushed away by it.”

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