Author Topic: Advice on working from home with a six month old  (Read 2699 times)

Mrs. S

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Advice on working from home with a six month old
« on: October 06, 2018, 09:36:19 AM »
Our daughter will be 6.5 months when I join back office in January after my maternity leave. We are not comfortable sending her to a daycare to she is 1.5 years and I am pushing for work from home once I join back.
We intend to hire help for 4-5to 8-9 hours each day if family can not pitch in our we want to be without guests. My income is easily 5-6 times of a good daycare and would be around 7-8 times of any personal help we may hire.
I have a few questions and would love be to get some insights
1. Is it realistic to expect me being productive if we do not hire help to take care of her every requirement. I hope to be able to supervise and see that my child is well cared for.
2. I plan on creating a proper work area and have her pack and play nearby. Will that be too distracting?
3. Anything else I should know?

joonifloofeefloo

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2018, 09:55:46 AM »
In that situation, I did need to hire help because Baby’s needs were frequent -babies like eye contact, touch, being held, being chatted with. So between Baby’s needs for those and my need to stay focused, I found it necessary to hire help at least for the most intensive work hours. (But I also have almost zero ability to work with distraction, and have a heckuva time resuming after a distraction or attempt to multi-task.)

MayDay

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2018, 10:27:18 AM »
Of course you need help.

How is this even a question?

Sure you can fit a little work in here or there but not full time.

Do yourself a favor and hire a full time nanny, and get some therapy to deal with your anxiety around needing to constantly supervise.

joonifloofeefloo

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2018, 10:32:37 AM »
I will add: excellent baby care can make all the difference in one’s *enjoyment* of work. It’s wonderful to be able to enjoy one’s work! To be able to focus, to be able to present professionally, to work in peace and ease :)   Given your income, “enjoyment of work” is a luxury you can afford. I would always take that option where it’s available, because it can do the soul and body such a world of good.

Catbert

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2018, 10:53:13 AM »
No, you cannot work and take care of a baby at the same time.

In order to convince your employer to let you work from home you'll need to pitch a specific plan for childcare.  A vague "someone" will be there 4-5 or 8-9 hours...or maybe not won't inspire confidence in your employer that you have a viable plan.

Jon Bon

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2018, 11:57:18 AM »
Sure you can do it!

But you gotta be awesome.....

My SO was able to do it for a while, but is a rock-star at multitasking and picking things up again right where it was left off.

Also finding part time help is damn near impossible FWIW. We found a few people who would show up but only for a few weeks. Its just not worth most peoples time to come over for < 1/2 a day of work. This was a big challenge for us, depends on where you live.


historienne

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2018, 12:32:23 PM »
If you want to work full time, then you almost certainly need full time help.  If you can flex your hours, you might be able to hire 4-5 hours of help during the day, and make up the rest at night after your partner gets home to watch the baby.  But honestly, unless your baby is an unusually good sleeper, you are going to be exhausted, and it's going to suck to have to work into the evenings.

I'm sure there are some exceptions to this - magic baby or job that doesn't actually require sustained concentration.  But the vast majority of mothers I know could not have succeeded at a demanding job while watching their baby.  For this reason, as other posters have noted, your employer probably expects you to have childcare while your work.

Frankly, I would not count on even being able to work in the same room as your baby.  Neither of my kids wanted to play with anyone else if I was in the room.  I worked from home 3 days/week for years, and my kids were watched in my house by my father for the first 6 months after each maternity leave.  It only worked because I locked myself in my home office while my dad played with the baby downstairs.  He would text me to come downstairs to nurse, but otherwise, it was like I wasn't there. Your kid may be different, but my experience was quite common among my friends.  Plus, where I am, it's actually much harder to find a nanny if you tell them you are working from home.  Good nannies are professionals, and don't want to be micromanaged all day at their jobs.  And again, for most kids, it's easier to keep the kids happy if mom/dad isn't right there.

I would focus your efforts on finding an excellent nanny whom you can trust absolutely.  Get recommendations from trusted friends, offer market-beating pay and benefits (which it sound like you can afford), and then let the nanny do her (or his) job. 

YttriumNitrate

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2018, 12:41:08 PM »
My wife and I both worked full time without daycare until my son was 15 months old. Up till about 6 months old was pretty easy, and then it got progressively more and more difficult. Our schedule was that I would work from 6 am to 8 am, at which point my wife would leave for work. From 8 am till 11 am I would watch our kid (and work if he was sleeping), from 11 am till noon my wife was home for lunch so I would work then (and schedule any conference calls at that time. From noon till 5pm I was watching the kid again (working when he was asleep), and would typically work till 8 pm to fill my quota of hours.

As my son got older, he slept less which meant that I was working later and later. The last few months were brutal.

bugbaby

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2018, 02:43:22 PM »
It sounds rather unfair to your employer or your clients.

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AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2018, 03:17:26 PM »
A 6 month old is not going to park and play, sorry. They have the attention span of goldfish, and they're going to be far more interested in what you're doing. You need some help. I would suggest that you hire someone for say 3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon. Make sure you can be somewhere out of sight in the house. That will give you some big lumps of work time, while you can still interact with your child during the day.

trollwithamustache

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2018, 03:51:24 PM »
I seem to recall I could do about an hour of email type stuff and if I timed the naps right two short phone calls when I worked from home with the baby.   So yeah,  I only worked from home one day a week.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2018, 08:43:12 PM »
A 6 month old is not going to park and play, sorry. They have the attention span of goldfish, and they're going to be far more interested in what you're doing. You need some help. I would suggest that you hire someone for say 3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon. Make sure you can be somewhere out of sight in the house. That will give you some big lumps of work time, while you can still interact with your child during the day.

This. I definitely would not expect to be able to work from home with an infant

Sibley

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Re: Advice on working from home with a six month old
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2018, 08:43:48 PM »
Working full time and caring for a baby/toddler are incompatible. For older children (5+) it gets a bit better, but is highly dependent on the child. Either you neglect work or you neglect the child. Whatever your concerns are about childcare, you're going to have to come up with something that is consistent and reliable.

Also, I happen to know what my current employer requires in this type of situation (auditors learn all sorts of fun stuff): proof of appropriate child care which covers the entire work period, for children under the age of 8 said childcare must be out of the house. A full time nanny won't fly. For school aged children, some managers will allow flexibility as regards to short school days, days off, etc. But if work quality or quantity suffers, they have the right (and have) to yank the WFH privilege.

 

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