With the 17-day circuit breaker lockdown ended, people have found themselves working behind kitchen tables and makeshift home working spaces.

However, as schools continue to send children home due to potential COVID outbreaks, thousands of parents have been forced to balance working, teaching and caring duties at home more so than ever before.

This amounts to more pressure on working parents as they are forced to work at home and teach their children simultaneously to help prevent them falling behind. In fact, two-fifths of parents polled by Theta Global Advisors agree that their own mental health has suffered due to the pressure of homeschooling.

Theta Global Advisors, a consulting and advisory firm that offers chartered accountants more flexible working opportunities than the traditional Big Four, has unveiled national research across 2,076 Brits, outlining the impact that homeschooling is having on working parents.

According to the research

- 26% of parents in Wales agree that their own mental health has suffered because of the increased pressure and responsibility of helping their child with their homeschooling

- 64% of people in Wales believe parents have been hardest hit by the pandemic as they had to work, take care of and teach their children simultaneously

- 25% of parents in Wales say having to take care of their child during the first COVID period set them back more than a year in their career

- 11% of Wales’ parents say their employer has been unsympathetic to them having to manage childcare around work during the COVID-period

- 19% of Wales’ parents fear their child not returning to school full-time will put their job in jeopardy as they will have to continue to care for them while working from home

-10% of Wales’ parents made provisions for childcare as they did not believe they will fully return after half-term

Chris Biggs, Partner at Theta Global Advisors, commented on the research:

"Lockdown restrictions were bound to impact people across the country but for those who already look after children, the impact this period would have on their career has been significantly underplayed. Our research has shown that working parents do feel that they are under increased pressure and stress due to homeschooling during lockdown and the majority of Brits support this. Therefore, we must do more to help working parents to ensure any further restrictions do not hold them back even further.

If you are feeling stressed, it is crucial that you speak to your employer or manager. Stress decreases productivity, increases the margin for error and makes people less focused, so it is vital for both employee and employer to deal with it effectively.

If you are struggling to balance work and home life, for example, especially during a second national lockdown, have a conversation with your manager and put in place workable deadlines that work for you and your employer. Many of my team can actually work more effectively after 7 pm when they’ve settled their children down for the night so they can just focus on work, meaning that neither their work or home life suffer while the kids are at home. Try and be as accommodating with your boss as possible and all being well, they should demonstrate the same willingness back."