Anonymous wrote:Op, it depends on your job. My job, it worked. It was part time. I plan events. I can insert plans and orders easily when baby was sleeping. I knew ahead on time how much work I had coming in with deadlines planned out. So, I could huge how to juggle, what mornings in needed to get up early to knock out my work and have my husband on standby to take care of baby or even have him plan a half day during a real busy season. I made it work. I had no time when I went to work. For me, this gave me more "me" time but, more importantly it game me the time I wanted to be a mom. I have no regrets. We all do what we need to do to make it work... All of our situations are different. Good luck

...sorry for the mis spelled words! Nursing and typing!!

Op, it depends on your job. My job, it worked. It was part time. I plan events. I can insert plans and orders easily when baby was sleeping. I knew ahead on time how much work I had coming in with deadlines planned out. So, I could huge how to juggle, what mornings in needed to get up early to knock out my work and have my husband on standby to take care of baby or even have him plan a half day during a real busy season. I made it work. I had no time when I went to work. For me, this gave me more "me" time but, more importantly it game me the time I wanted to be a mom. I have no regrets. We all do what we need to do to make it work... All of our situations are different. Good luck

I have a friend who did this for almost a year without childcare. She had a flexible job in that her hours could be put in whenever she wanted, not a lot of conference calls. However, she was exhausted and had no time to herself.

I do think this offers a unique situation for cheaper child care since you'll be home (college student or high school student after school, around the hours that you need to work and baby will be awake).

I work from home one day a week, and once the baby was mobile, could not have worked at all except during nap times without having someone else watching the baby.

I don't think any kind of traditional telework job would work because you can't reliably and consistently participate in calls/meetings or schedule things during business hours very well. I could see a job working if it had very flexible hours or where you get paid based on the amount you turn in (like transcription or medical billing or something) but those are few and far between.

I think the bigger problem is that while you might be able to do this for a few months with an infant, in just a few months you'll have a toddler who sleep much less and needs much more interaction. So then you really have no time to work at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never approve an employee to work from home if they were also taking care of any child under 12. Are you kidding me? I can't believe you are actually asking this.

Not everyone has trolled the boards and read the other 20 times this work from home question as been asked. But, it's understandable that someone would think that this would be ideal for them. I didn't see "rocket scientist" as a requirement to ask a question. Oops, sorry. Not qualified. If that's the case, I hope that you're the director of some intelligence agency or something comparable.

Are you the OP? Because if you are, then you need a serious attitude adjustment.

Nope. Just someone who dislikes online adult bullies who act like everyone else is an idiot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never approve an employee to work from home if they were also taking care of any child under 12. Are you kidding me? I can't believe you are actually asking this.

Not everyone has trolled the boards and read the other 20 times this work from home question as been asked. But, it's understandable that someone would think that this would be ideal for them. I didn't see "rocket scientist" as a requirement to ask a question. Oops, sorry. Not qualified. If that's the case, I hope that you're the director of some intelligence agency or something comparable.

Are you the OP? Because if you are, then you need a serious attitude adjustment.

OP here, and no I didn't post the rocket scientist/intelligence agency rant (yipes!!).

I appreciate the honest feedback and personal experience from those who offered it. I stayed at home for the first 12 weeks and totally realize that taking care of kiddo is a full-time job and then some. Even more so as they get older. Some days it's a victory to shower, much less check e-mail. So I definitely get that it would be a disservice to an employer to WFM without some kind of childcare support. FWIW, I don't plan to try to "cheat" the system. I would be mortified if I failed my employer because I overestimated the amount of uninterrupted time I could dedicate to work. That's why I would want to enter into a WFM arrangement with a very honest assessment of how much time I could work (and it sounds like it wouldn't be much). I also don't want to try to WFM if my kid suffers because of it. I guess I just want to get a feel for whether anyone out there has had any success in bringing in a little extra income while trying to stay at home.

OP - I have two friends with infants that work from home. Both of them are required by their employers to PROVE that they have child care during the hours they are supposed to be working. Please clarify this with your employer before you try to work from home without child care.

I also agree with the PPs who said this is really unfair to your co-workers. You will be judged and talked about the first time they hear your baby screaming in the background of a conference call, and your work assignments will definitely suffer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never approve an employee to work from home if they were also taking care of any child under 12. Are you kidding me? I can't believe you are actually asking this.

Not everyone has trolled the boards and read the other 20 times this work from home question as been asked. But, it's understandable that someone would think that this would be ideal for them. I didn't see "rocket scientist" as a requirement to ask a question. Oops, sorry. Not qualified. If that's the case, I hope that you're the director of some intelligence agency or something comparable.

Are you the OP? Because if you are, then you need a serious attitude adjustment.

I work from home two days a week without childcare. I work 2.5 hours before my husband is at work (in the basement), 2 hours during naptime, occasionally some time while kids play quietly--but not very often (2 kids aged 4 and 1), and around 2 hours after they go to bed. Plus some on the weekends. I make it work to get what I need to done but it is very very tiring. Those days are long days but to me it is worth it to spend extra time with my kids. I would agree that you could fairly predictably work 4 hours a day during times when a baby is sleeping.

The people who do this without childcare are burnt-out and exhausted, but as long as you don't have to do anything at any particular time, you can probably do as much as 20 hours during the week, plus whatever weekend time you want to give up.

I work out of the home part time and I am also in grad school. I am going to assume that you want to do a good job at being both a mommy and at your work. So, I can get in about 2 hours of school work a day during the time that my husband is gone (typical work day). If you can also put in another hour when he gets home (meaning he watches the baby), then you should be able to do almost 3 hours a day. So if I were you I would say about 10 hours a week, to allow some room for difficult days. Now, this means you do nothing but work during naps, and you have a great routine, and that your baby can happily hang out by himself for 25-30 minute increments. Also, as the previous poster said, it also depends on the kind of job you have.

A sitter in your home works only if you have a large well-configured house. Having your office next to any activity areas would not be practical.

Anonymous wrote:I would never approve an employee to work from home if they were also taking care of any child under 12. Are you kidding me? I can't believe you are actually asking this.

Not everyone has trolled the boards and read the other 20 times this work from home question as been asked. But, it's understandable that someone would think that this would be ideal for them. I didn't see "rocket scientist" as a requirement to ask a question. Oops, sorry. Not qualified. If that's the case, I hope that you're the director of some intelligence agency or something comparable.

About 3 hours during the day, and more if you want to work nights and weekends. You will also be exhausted, because taking care of an infant is a full-time job in and of itself.