Get frigging childcare

[JuniperJuly]

Yes another one of these posts.

Emergencies dont count obviously but otherwise, no you cant do your job and look after your young child at the same time.

This morning I had a 2hr teams meeting with an external person trying to organise an event for September. It was almost impossible. Every 2 minutes it was no darling, dont stick the pencil up your bum (true story. I dont care if she is on here), or telling me to hang on a second while she dealt with her child or her child shouting down the headset and being told he is sooooo cute.

I said that its awful when you get let down by childcare and she said that she was always planning on working with him at home. But she obviously isnt working! If shes like that on a teams call what is she like normally?

Last week I was on a group call and could hear someone's baby crying. Maybe she has a nanny or something, whatever, but then it became very obvious that the person wasnt actually on the call but had dialled in and buggered off, presumably to look after the crying child.

Ive now got to send an email to the person from this morning to discuss all the things we couldnt do this morning. Im not even going to bother putting in another meeting with her.

I've half a mind to send an email along the lines of
lovely to meet your child this morning. You had your hands full with him so we couldnt discuss everything so here is what I need. Its probably easier to do via email to limit distractions"
and cc her manager in.

Would that make me a bitch? Im so annoyed at the delay and the extra work it will give me.

I work for the Council now and whilst mine are too old I could and people do bring their children to work with them.

in previous medical roles, Sales roles people can indeed bring their children to work with them. I do think they deciding factor is behaviour though of the child obviously not the employee.
Friends run their own business and happily have their employees children colouring in and on their iPad as and when required In 2025
But again, they’re good kids

I find it ridiculous that parents expect to work and look after a child/ren at the same time. Absolutely unprofessional, other than in an emergency situation. Book parental leave or annual leave!

It can still happen when they are a teenager though. Does anyone remember the BBC news interview when a teen walks into the room and the guy goes ballistic at him swearing. 😂 I wish I could link it.

Our 11yo had the first day of the school holidays at home whilst DH and I worked. That was fine as he was tired. We’ve arranged childcare for the rest of the holidays. To do otherwise is not fair on him or on our employers.

wow, have you complained?

I find this hard to comprehend. Children are not covered by employer liability in the workplace if it is not a public area or a specific work place that provides services for children. Visiting with a parent who is an employee is fine as long as the parent is supervising them and it'sa short visit, but to sit there all day on technology whilst their patent works is absolutely not, for the child either. I'm surprised that a Council does this. We have children in our workplace every now and then as part of what we do, though we do not provide a child service, and we have to notify our insurance everytime they are there.

You have to work out the cost of working to
Include holiday childcare, be that clubs, the local term or an au pair. Expecting employers to allow children as a distraction is bad enough; expecting a paid client to do the same is shocking.
I would definitely say something.

I would complain to her boss, its totally unprofessional and not fair on the kids also.

I WFH and have 2 children (8+3). I have childcare lined up for both, in an emergency I can work with the 8 year old here (for example last week school closed early so I had 2 hours with her here). She knows not to interrupt and pester but I would do all I can not to have her here when I’m working. With my 3 year old not a chance. If I had no one to look after him I’d be taking the day off unpaid.
It’s okay people saying they can’t afford childcare etc but it doesn’t mean your employer should pay you to look after your child! You don’t see children sat in a supermarket watching their parent stack a shelf or operate a checkout do you!

Likely, but two were so blatant, there was no ignoring it!

We don't know what the relationship is yet from OP. Assuming they are actually working and not on Mumsnet😂we might have to wait until the end of the wirking day to find out.
But if it's a client relationship providing a service it might be different to a member of their organisation that OP has to coordinate things with, on how it is approached.

The problem really is that she was doing something else when she should have been focussing on her meeting with you. I find it similarly annoying when we have to pause because of someones 'cute' dog. It's really unprofessional.

This working from home is nothing but a skivers charter. And CF charter too. If I was in charge they would all be back in the office everyday. Too many folk taking advantage.

I'm a bit torn on this. Life isn't fair and there are things that only the richest people can afford to have or to do. Granted, having children isn't a "luxury", but neither is it a right. If finances are tight, at least try to have children in line with your budget - so don't have five kids if you won't ever be able to afford for them to do activities, go on holiday, have decent clothes, have a reasonable amount of personal space.

I don't have children, but even before I got my cat I thought carefully about whether I could afford vet's bills and decent food for her, and I only have one partly owing to the cost implications.

things that irritate me in order of priority:

*2 hr teams meetings
*meetings when an email or teams chat would do
*lots of other things
*people doing their best to juggle impossibly competing needs and priorities of work and family life

If this was the first time and the person was apologetic, I wouldn’t copy the boss. (I mean, I could if I was very angry, but I’d say we shouldn’t really), I’d hint that it is unacceptable in the future. If not the first time or they clearly feel entitled and take the piss, I’d let the boss know.

I remember the other poster here wondering about working during a very calm August with everyone off and having no childcare for an 8 and a 10 year old - that seems ok.

Unacceptable and unprofessional.

And as for the gentle parenting, don’t even start me. My kids would have been bollocked (not that they’d be there in the first place).

Good compromise op and covers your arse.

But working within your normal contracted hours is hardly having to " to juggle impossibly competing needs and priorities of work and family life", is it?

It's not an employer's responsibility to arrange things around an employee's childcare arrangements. You can't work and take care of young children simultaneously, so a choice needs to be made.

She admitted that she was always going to WFH with the child there so she hasn't really got a leg to stand on. Thinking you can take a teams call with a small child around is ridiculous

This woman is shockingly unprofessional. It's shameless. I would send her a very professional email and cc the manager. She wasted your time and is not doing her job but the work still needs to get done. If she can't see how wrong she is, then someone needs to tell her. I don't think you should worry about her feelings as she is not your friend, she is a colleague, and you are focused on the event and the work that needs to be done. If you cater to her feelings or situation, you'd just be making this as personal as she already is.

I was once phoned up by the fire brigade to discuss my elderly aunts smoke detectors. They had been notified by a visiting nurse. As soon as the conversation started his dog barked loudly and incessantly. He went away for a bit and came back only the dog started barking again. I got so fed up and asked him if he was working or looking after his dog. I asked him to phone me back when someone was taking care of the dog.

They assume they won’t get caught. They use working hours to pick up kids, go gym, go to the shop, cook etc. this is why people cant have nice things anymore because there is always someone crossing the line. Same reason why so many businesses are bringing staff back into the office.

Don't BCC her manager in, that's an awful thing to do. If you're going to highlight it to her manager (and you absolutely should) have the balls to own it and properly copy her manager in, sneaky BCCs are an areshole thing to do.

And it's part of the reason for people with disabilities who need to be able to work from home experiencing profound barriers to employment.