To take my 2 year old to work tomorrow?

[IceCreamMum]

I’m a single mum and I don’t have any other choice as the childcare I had arranged for tomorrow has just fallen through now. I don’t know how my boss will react to me just turning up with DD, I can’t ask him as he’s not answering his phone and he won’t see my email until tomorrow morning when it will be too late anyway. I’m a member of senior management (Head of Department at a Zoo) and unfortunately I can’t work from home tomorrow, I have to be on the site tomorrow one way or another due to work commitments. Would I be unreasonable to take DD to work with me tomorrow? I don’t have any other option whatsoever and I also don’t have anyone else that I can ask for childcare this late either.

It wouldn't be a problem at my workplace and has been done several times by staff with young kids

I still can’t get hold of my boss directly though so I will have to try him again in the morning and hopefully it’s not too late by the time I get to speak to him in the morning!

I’ve had to take my kids to work a couple of times (vet) although only for a few hours, not a whole day. The receptionists/nurses have entertained them for me, or they’ve watched me doing procedures, or they’ve watched YouTube on my phone. It’s not ideal but it’s more ideal than the work not getting done… and at least the kids get some good stories - not every 2 year old has watched a chest drain being placed…🤦🏼‍♀️

I think it depends on your workplace and how feasible it is to actually get the work done - will you manage anything constructive with a 2 year old there anyway? what would happen with the work if you were sick yourself?

For the future it would definitely be worth trying to find friends/neighbours/family/nursery staff/babysitters who can be your emergency childcare - so you don’t have to be in this position again, but also so if your boss gets annoyed about tomorrow, you can demonstrate you’ve tried to prevent it happening again.

😂🐵

I think if someone else is happy to look after her while you do your meeting then it's fine as a one off emergency.

Otherwise you can't go to the meeting surely as she's too young to be left even for a minute. Unless you bring her into the meeting? If this meeting is so important that you bringing a 2 year old to sit on your lap is preferable to you not attending then I'd be very curious on earth it's about!

I'd challenge the whole "absolutely must attend" thing. If she was violently ill you'd have no choice but to stay home with her. Same if you or her were rushed into hospital. There is always a way they'd manage without you.

Totally depends on the work place.

our finance director bought his 4 dc in on Christmas Eve and ignored them while they ran riot and the chief nurse (who wasn’t a fan of dc) stopped them injuring themselves. He then got up and said “I’ll be back shortly” and we assumed he was going to the loo… nope, he disappeared into town! We have a screen with the data re bed spaces across the hospital and managed to switch it to CBeebies. He totally got away with it and the 4 of us left caring for his dc were stunned. I assume the family nanny was sick and his wife had had enough of his lack of parenting and made it his problem.

I can’t even get work done from home with a small child to look after, never mind in the workplace. I can’t see that this would work. Best to find alternative childcare somehow or take leave.

It would be fine in my role. If I had no other choice and an important face to face meeting my boss would much rather I came in for the meeting with my child than just phoned in sick. There aren’t people who can cover my role and these meetings are booked in months in advance and wouldn’t be easy to reschedule. One of our lovely admin team would probably be delighted to look after a 2yo for an hour.

Do you have any friends with uni students who are home for the hols who could babysit for the day?

Try the bubble ap. Good for emergency childcare.

How will you manage in a meeting with a 2yo?

It sounds impossibly difficult but I can see that whatever decision you make its not great.

Can you take her in and quickly run through emergency tasks, and allocate the rest to others?

Basically secure things enough to last for the day? Then your boss will see that you've made the effort but literally cannot work

Could be a good bonding activity with your colleagues, especially if dd plays ball and acts cute 🥰

OP has no intention of trying to find emergency childcare

So the colleague I was messaging who offered to have DD during my meeting has checked her diary and unfortunately she’s got her own meeting at the same time as my meeting so now I’m back to square one!

I think it will probably be fine although i’d offer to take a days leave when I arrive if they prefer.. I think if youre a parent sometimes this happens and such is life! It’s unrealistic imo to expect people to never ever have emergencies and anyway as long as no one is in danger it doesn’t make you unprofessional or a terrible person. Mumsnet likes to judge harshly and ofc you should be an excellent parent but never ever let it seep into your career! Which is unrealistic and old fashioned. Muddle through and just do your best to make the day manageable for everyone. I think it’s good for children to see workplaces to be honest! Also you work at a zoo. Epic! I’d come to work with you 😁

Our work office has a staircase that very.small children could fall through - health and safety forbid anyone from bringing a child in.

I imagine they'll be similar (or worse!) health and safety issues at a Zoo. You need to take emergency leave imo

This is the situation here too regarding my meeting tomorrow! I can’t get hold of my boss tonight though to check that he’s ok with it!

Is there anyone else you can message? If you're considering potentially turning up with her, then you at least need someone who has agreed to watch her in advance. Turning up with a child unannounced and wandering around in search of a person to agree to watch her sounds like by far the worst option.

I would say that my work is more family friendly than most places, but bringing a child into the office whilst their parent is working is a hard no because of issues with our employers liability insurance. This sounds like a circumstance where you need to take emergency leave and whatever is so important that you need to go in will have to be moved to another day.

Mumsnet is so unkind at times and full of ppl just trying to write something snarky so don't actually read the op or any replies . @IceCreamMum hope you get something sorted you've had a few suggestions that might help with short notice help.

Just because an admin person says yes, doesn't mean they are happy. It is because you are senior to them and they feel boxed into a corner.

Is this during working hours for your boss, or are you hassling them out of hours?

As PA I'd be fuming if I was asked to look after someone's kid while they went into a meeting!

That childcare facility has a contractural duty to take your child.
Call sitter.co.uk and find out how much childcare will be for the day
Tell the nursery how much it will be and they are responsible for it.

I would do it, there’s no other option and other people have done it in the past.

I dragged my kids to work on a regular basis when they were small, sometimes needs must. And that was a long time ago before parenting was as socially acceptable as it is now.