Working from home w/baby - Is it doable?

[Anonymous]

My maternity leave doesn't end for another two months but my company has just approved me working from home twice a week. I'd like to hear from other moms who've done this with their babies at home. I haven't locked in any childcare yet and this will play a big part in what I decide to do. Some people have told me that it's impossible to work from home with a baby. My friend says that she was able to do this with no problem until her baby became mobile. In her situation, the baby had his morning nap from 8-11am. She would then play with him for an hour and then take him for a walk during lunchtime. He would then take his afternoon nap from 1-3pm. Is this really possible? Most of the work that I do would involve responding to emails and completing various projects. I would not really need to use the phone much. Under her scenario, this seems possible but I wonder if my baby will be sleeping so well by the time I go back to work. He eats every two hours right now and has to be held when he sleeps but I'm hoping a lot will change in the next two months. Ideally, I'd like to keep him with me and schedule a nanny for the other 3 days when I'm in the office. I can't afford to keep a nanny full-time so I'd either need to put him in daycare or keep him home with me when I'm working from home. Can I make this work?

[Anonymous]

Totally depends on your baby. I could have done it with my baby but she slept well and I work very quickly - even in my office, I prob only spend 4 our ot 8 hrs a day working and I get all my work done.

[Anonymous]

PP here -

Also depends on the time nature of your work - does it need to be completed between 9-5? Can you do something b/w 8-10, 1-3 and then 6-8? Can you work on weekends when DH is home to take care of baby?

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I totally couldn't do this -- with either of mine. We had a 45 minute morning nap somewhere in the 9-10 am range and an afternoon nap around 1. DS took a longer afternoon nap (1.5 h) but DD is 8 months and she's just gotten reliable at giving us an hour! When you add in time to nurse the baby before each nap, plus a few other sessions during the day, it really doesn't leave much time for work. As one of the PPs said, it totally depends on the baby. You could always line up childcare for one of your at-home days and keep baby home for the other to see how it works.

[Anonymous]

I got an incredible amount done before my DC became too mobile. Now it's almost impossible.

[Anonymous]

What will you do the day your baby starts crawling? walking? The day you have a conference call and he's crying his head off? Same re: a big deadline and he's sick, or falls, and needs to go to the pediatrician right away?

What is your office's expectation about your priorities? Can you schedule around his naps, feeding, etc? What about taking him out of the house? Can he stay in the house all day with you?

My husband and I both work at home 1-3 days a week, have since the baby came, but we have a full-time nanny. BTW, the inspector general of my agency has checked up on people who work at home to make sure that they are WORKING and not taking care of their children.

[Anonymous]

You're going to wind up shortchanging either your employer, who expects you to be productive with this privilege, or your baby, who deserves more than to be shuttled from bouncy chair to bumbo to swing to exerciser all day. Not to mention the pressure you'll put on yourself.

Do everyone a favor and get someone in to help.

[Anonymous]

I would say that if you have a baby who sleeps very well, and your employer is ok with you flexing your 16 hours, then you can work from home for the next couple of months. As far as this being a long-term arrangement, you can't expect to work from home with an older baby without having child care. As the PP states - either you'll end up cheating your employer or your child. If you're going to get a nanny, get one for all five days and continue to work from home two days a week, with child care in place.

[Anonymous]

sorry, but i've gotta vote "no." The days I telecommute, my daughter's in daycare. Telecommuting is nice because you can use the hours you would have spent commuting to do something else, like hitting the gym or cleaning the house or dropping your child off at daycare later and picking him/her up earlier. But if I tried to work with my daughter at home, it's unlikely I'd get anything done. The few times I've tried to do work when my daughter was home sick, I didn't get much done. (when she was younger and sleeping a lot, i was too tired to be super productive. and now that she's older, she needs and deserves a lot of attention.) And I suspect your employer would have a problem paying you to be home with your child.

If you can afford a nanny 3 days a week, you could probably afford 5 days a week of daycare instead - would advise doing that. in this economy, you've got to be careful about being seen as unproductive by your employer. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OP, if your child turns out to be a good sleeper than it might work initially. Once your baby is on the move it will certainly become more challenging. Have you thought of hiring a nanny for half days on the days that you are working from home? If you can't afford a full-time nanny than perhaps that would be a solution.

[Anonymous]

I agree this a no. For your own sanity.

I work 4 days a week and my employer knows on the 5th day I have no child care (I took a pay cut so don't get paid that day) - but I check in a couple times a day for "emergencies" though none have ever come up!

A few Fridays ago I was home but agreed to do a very short call with someone - and of course that day my baby decided to be so fussy (she is usually very laid back but it turns out that day she got a new tooth) and luckily she was asleep when we did the call but if she had started wailing, it would have been awkward. That has happened once in the almost year I have been doing this arrangment. I can't imagine the stress of dealing with that 2x a week.

One exception - I took a pretty long maternity leave and for my own sanity, did want to keep up a little with work. So, I did schedule a call with my boss once a week to check in, and I would carve out some time during the week to check e-mail so I wouldn't come back to work after months and months to a million emails. But, it was a little different because my boss knew I was on leave so the expectations were low - he knew I might have to change the call time or bail if the baby was crying, etc. But again, I wouldn't want to commit to 2 full days a week. Babies schedules are so erratic the first few months, you really can't count on any routine.

[Anonymous]

My baby never took naps longer than 45 minutes and went through a stage where he didn't nap at all around 5 months. You never know and wouldn't want to be unprepared without child care. I find the most productive work from home time is after 7 Pm when my son is asleep for the night.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all of the feedback so far. I like the idea of having a nanny work half days. I'll keep all of these things in mind. I wonder if a daycare would also let me bring DC in for half days. I guess the next step is finding good childcare.

[Anonymous]

I also vote no. I work from home 4 out of 5 days and on the days I have no childcare for one reason or another, I only get about 3-4 hrs of work done, because I use DD's naptime as my chance to work. Working while DD sits next to me playing (she's 11 months) would not be fair to my boss as I'd only be giving some of my attention to work.

[Anonymous]

If you are comfortable telling your employer that you plan to work from home without childcare, then you should go ahead and do it (as long as DC cooperates). If you are uncomfortable being honest about what you are doing, then you probably shouldn't.

some employers only allow working from home if you sign an agreement stating that you have childcare while you are working.

good luck!