AIBU to think I could work from home with a brand new baby?

[SanitysSake]

Just mulling over a few ideas to keep the funds coming in whilst at home.

Is it possible, or am I living in cloud cuckoo land?

Would be grateful to hear from any stay-at-home mums who also manage to work from home.

Any hints, tips, experiences, advice would be most appreciated.

In my experience, you can wfh with a child in the house from around 8 years onwards and not before. Obviously depends what you're doing for work but conference calls and babies don't mix well!!

Well many people with a new born baby struggle to eat, shower or get dressed so working as well does sound rather a challenge.
But it depends what you mean by work? Answering a couple of emails, maybe ok. Anything else may be tricky they feed constantly and don't sleep it's exhausting. I didn't open the mail for a month. But I did have twins.

It depends what you do - I did it (and still do) but you have to have the right kind of work. Will you be entitled to maternity allowance?

Under 4 months and over 7-8yrs. In between, not much hope I reckon.

I think you are, sorry.

Not really. Well it depends really, I struggling to work from home office hours if I have my DD because she's poorly or whatever. It's just really stressful!

My SIL works a few hours a day replying to emails where she can be really flexible, work in nap times etc. x

Yes your in cloud cuckoo land.

I had to go back to work when one of my dc was 6 weeks old & nearly went insane!

I think it depends on what you do and how many working hours you are hoping to do. I think it is achievable with a new born to a certain extent (assuming you get one that sleeps a lot!), but once they are a bit older and just napping I don't think it is possib

I've tried it, mine was a little older, about nine months. It was horrendously stressful. I guess it depends on your job though. I found that tasks that wouldn't have taken that long before expanded to fill every available second and I felt like I was doing everything badly. Not saying it can't be done but it wasn't for me.

If you look at any of the threads started by people with new babies, most of them don't have time to wash their hair, so yes you are being a bit optimistic I think. Also, if you work for a company there aren't many who would allow WFH whilst you were also doing childcare - either you are working or parenting, not both at the same time.

😂 😂 😂
I can barely get dressed most days!

I agree with the under 4 months and over 8

I think you can up to 6 months without too many issues. I did it really easily from 2 weeks old until 4 months and then worked around naps from months 4-6

I would say yes when they are super Tiny, no from about 5 months on unless its super flexible work in naptimes/evenings etc. Be tiring but doable if you really need to..

You can't work and look after a newborn at the same time. That is work.

I started wfh when DD1 was about 2months old. She napped twice a day for about 1.5hrs in her cot so I worked then and for another couple of hours after DH got home from work. I now have 2 DDs aged 3 and 4 and I do manage to get bits and pieces done when I have them both at home because they play very nicely together. It is possible but dependant on what you do for work and how demanding your baby is.

I wfh with a toddler BUT I only do about 16 hours a week and only when he is asleep. I don't need to make calls or anything and can pick up and put down my work as and when I want to. I took maternity leave when he was born and although they do sleep a lot I'm glad I did as obviously nights are often very disturbed and I needed the rest or just notbto be required to do anything, be that work or childcare. So I'd do it from 6-9 months onwards depending on the baby. Having work you need to complete on top of the demands of SAH with a baby or preschooler can make you very stressed and miserable.

I work from home and do school run on my lunch break. My 6 year old does homework/watch tv/kids YouTube/runs in garden if I'm on conference calls. He's very good and knows to be quiet. We chat and I can supervise while I'm not on a call.
My 3 year old goes to nursery

It depends.
I could have with dd1, she would have lain in my lap and fed happily, and she slept 3 hours during the day.
I could have with ds to a certain extent. He loved being put under the gym (neither of the others liked it at all) and in his bouncer etc. and he slept in hour bursts. So I could have done some. Although he also spent a lot of his babyhood with an ear infection, so I could have only worked when he wasn't at his worse with that.

I definitely could not with dd2. She had to be held, preferably with me standing up. Slept no longer than 40 minutes at a stretch and needed to be taken out for a look around at least a couple of times a day to settle at night.

Unfortunately you can't tell until baby comes what you're having.

Yes.
But... If you're lucky with an easy baby it could work (unlikely though, very unlikely). And you won't know in advance.
If it's only a few hours at a time, perhaps a babysitter would work? But with a (very) new baby, feeds take forever, and your routine is pretty much feed, change, find food for yourself, feed, change... (repeat), so even that wouldn't help much.

I think you'd be crazy to count on it tbh. Unless you can come up with a business model that only requires you to answer a few emails. I did some ecological survey work when ds2 was tiny. He was breastfed so had to come with me (on my back) for the survey work. That bit was ok but trying to find time and energy for the write ups was solo tough. I only tried it a couple of times.

Depends what you do. I'm a childminder abs work from home with a baby, 2 toddlers and 3 schoolies. But they ate my work and only one is mine so I get a good night's sleep.
Also depends on the character of the baby. l currently have one who I can't move more than 5 feet away from or he sounds like a banshee. You'd struggle with one like him.

Sorry, but YABU. You can't work and look after a newborn. I possibly could with my 7 year old as a one off....but not sure that's terribly helpful!

I worked from home until DS was 10 weeks, then found it impossible so went back to work 1 day a week from that point and gradually increased my hours over the next 2 years.

I've got a 6 month old and there is not a chance I could work from home.