To think I can work from home with a 1yo

[Pollypanda]

I am currently on maternity leave, returning to work in November when DS will be 1. Work have allowed me to work from home 1 day a week to help alleviate nursery costs which I’m grateful for. However, general consensus amongst family and friends is that I’m mad to think I’ll get any work done whilst trying to look after DS.

I am office based, managing a small team without much direct client contact. Most of my communication in done via email due to the nature of my industry. So I won’t be juggling client calls, meetings, etc. Any calls I do get will be from my team.

AIBU to think I can do this no problem?

I'm guessing your DS must have been a relatively easy baby so far?

There is absolutely no way I would have even considered this with DC1, once they start walking you have to have eyes in the back of your head. My DC1 is now 18 months old and is a delight but she is now a full on walking, talking toddler who requires constant attention even when she is busy entertaining herself drawing on the walls .

I can't even get a load of washing done without her interfering, I definitely wouldn't be able to do proper paid work with her around.

November is only a couple of months away, so your DS isn't going to be all that different from now, just more mobile. So imagine now, but worse. Surely this was obvious?

You're kidding yourself.
I suppose you can get work done in emergencies, but I doubt you'll be able to work more than 15-30 min without interruption.

I'd instead suggest longer 4 days in the office and a couple of hours on the one day at home.

Indeed, a 1 year old doesn't stay a 1 year old for long, they'll be up on their feet, climbing the book shelves and reducing their naps before you know it.

No chance! You'll be fine when the baby's asleep but otherwise no. At that age they're into everything, you need eyes in the back of your head.

I used to put mi e in nursery for the morning, collect them at lunchtime then they would sleep for a good 2 hours. That was as good as it got for me

Surely it is obvious you won't be able to do a full day's work while looking after a toddler? You will end up not focusing on your work.

YABU. You can't just ignore your child and work, it isn't fair on them. Put them in nursery for half the day at least so they will get some attention.

Generally the agreement to wfh is to remove the commute on that day, but the expectation is that the child will be looked after elsewhere. Unless you are only planning on working one hour a day at nap time

Nope. Won’t work. You might get bits done while DC naps but other than that, they need constant supervision at 1. They are into everything, wobbling, climbing, trashing the place, putting things in their mouth. What do you expect the child to do while you are focusing on work?

Thanks everyone, I didn’t want to drip feed but looks like that’s what I’ll end up doing sorry! I am contracted to work 6 hours a day from 09:00 - 20:30. So I have an 11.5h window to do 6 hours work.

Both sets of grandparents are retired and said they are happy to watch DS on an ad hoc basis but couldn’t commit to a set day every week hence why I am working from home for childcare.

Nursery only offer 5 half day places and they were all taken by the time DS got his place.

I reckon I could get half a day of work done. 2 hours worth during naps and 2 hours worth with Bing on repeat. But there is a limit to how long my dc can entertain themselves for, and they need to get out of the house at some point for exercise, fresh air, fun.

If you can spread the work through the day and into the evening, with maybe making up odd half hours during the rest of the week if necessary, then I'd say it's do-able.

You'll have to be strict about no extra children dropped on you or parcel taking in etc.

I’d say it depends on if you need to work within set hours.
My work is super flexible so I’ve managed the summer hols by getting up at 5/5:30 to get some work in before 4 year old gets up, checking emails randomly throughout the day, catching up a little when he has some TV after lunch and working in the evening when DH gets home if I need to. Doable but not ideal long term!

Working from home does not mean that you can look after your kids at the same time, if I did that my employers would not be happy.

Get up early and do two hours before he work.
Two hours when napping
Two hours after bedtime

Bloody hell some of these responses are a bit patronising! OP is trying to work out how to juggle her work and family, we've all been there.
I've done this OP but with an older child. It's really hard and you'd need flexible working hours to make it work around nap times with a couple of hours childcare thrown in too. It can work but only if your employer understands that you'll need to clock in/out throughout the day to do your hours.

Ive worked from home for 24 years now. I'm self employed.

My children are older now, but when my first was a tiny baby I started dipping my toes back into the water. I think she was about 3 months old when I started doing bits while she was asleep.

However, when it got to 12 months, I employed a local Childminder to have 2 days a week. This allowed me time to properly focus and get stuff done. I did work in the evenings and weekends when dh was around.

I managed it, but it all depends on your workload.

My DS is a fairly easy baby, I know I am lucky. The need to work at home is solely to reduce childcare costs. We simply can’t afford childcare 5 days a week, it would cripple us. Thank you for comments, I do appreciate the constructive criticism and it hasn’t fallen on deaf ears.

Not a chance! Toddlers are demanding and even when occupied have short attention spans. You need childcare. My work don’t allow wfh with children I. The house, unless it’s an older child as a one off.

Nope sorry, you're taking the proverbial.

Your employers will likely not be happy. You are not being paid to look after your child. A 1yo needs too much interaction for you to be able to do both simultaneously.

If you couldn't take the child to work with you, why would you think you could do this at home?

Good luck! I can't work at home with my 1 year old, I've tried. Neither can my husband, he has tried too.

No chance, sorry. Dh has ds and dd Monday afternoons when I wfh, my 'office' is downstairs and has a glass door and dd (21mo) won't leave me alone if she can see me. I often have to decamp to another room upstairs or dh has to take them out for a few hours. When dd has been ill I've told work that she's ill and I'm caring for her and that I can just about keep an eye on emails but the best time for phone calls is between 1 and 3pm when she's asleep. They accept that occasional illness happens and appreciate me juggling for a day or two just to keep a lid on things. But no way would they agree to me wfh more permanently as a childcare solution.

I think most WFH policies specify you should not be the sole carer for children, mine certainly does. You would probably have to work late at night to catch up after your child goes to bed.

I run my own business and do this, but because it is my business I can flex around LO’s needs and naps. She is a terrible napper so even then it is a struggle. As others have said I really don’t think it will work if you have to be working from home during normal office hours. You might be ok with baby doing morning at nursery, when they come home at lunch they might nap for a few hours (fingers crossed)? But there will be the times when they fight the nap for all they are worth, when they’re screaming and crying and refusing to co-operate. Or they’re teething and feel rubbish and can’t sleep. It can be very stressful if you know you should also be doing something else...

If you do end up doing this my tips would be:

• use nap times EXCLUSIVELY for working. Shower, tidy up, do all other possible prep while baby is awake
• if you have a DP, what time do they get home? Can they take over as soon as they get in so you can get your head down to work. This would help immensely
• get a playpen, put lots of fun toys in it. Then if you do need to take your eyes off of baby while you deal with something you know they’re safe. Also helped Me when prepping dinner etc
• if you have to make phone calls try and take baby out for a walk while you’re on th phone. At least thEy have a change of scenery and will be less antsy for the length of the walk/phone call.

Lastly from my experience please do not understestimate the challenge at brain-level to keep both work and looking after your child running alongside each other. This has been by far my biggest hurdle and I’ve still not cracked it. Having a 40 minute chunk of time you can solidly work and finding it takes half of that to properly get your head into whatever task you’re completing is really tough.

Honestly reconsider if you can at all afford a different solution (I would put LO in nursery for at least the morning if at all possible)

How's that going to affect you on things like conf calls?

Can you just drop the sprog & get on with work?

If I ask my staff to do something, there's generally an expectation they'll get straight on with it as there are dependencies....