WFH with a baby

[HollyIvy89]

is it unreasonable to work at home (away from office on agreed days) whilst having a young baby in the home being looked after a babysitter/nanny (not large home)

I’ve worked from home full time since the pandemic and also had a baby . I went back to work 6 weeks after having him as I couldn’t afford maternity pay but I could work from home while he was a newborn so I was fine with that : he slept most the time and I managed to juggle things up until he was about 2, then things got tricky and was impossible to be a stay at home mum and work full time especially as a single parent. And also looking after my older child too who luckily was in school most the day. (Holidays were really difficult) .
I ended up getting a childminder/nursery a few days a week for him at 2 so that I could get work done. It was amazing for him (and me).
he’s now 3 and in fulltime school nursery and I am able to work at home all day and he is able to be with other children and have that full time interaction all day that I couldn’t give him.
so mo- I think getting childcare even while you are working at home isn’t unreasonable .
I think it’s a really good idea for you both because I had to ignore my son sometimes while I was working and I felt so guilty for it.

I've a colleague who does this and she's falling behind. She insists her mum is thee looking after the baby (and I believe her) but she goes missing for long periods of time the two days a week she works from home.

Another colleague who also has small children and childcare at home insists on coming into the office so she doesn't get disturbed.

That makes her an issue, and her performance is something for management to deal with.

It doesn’t mean that having a nanny looking after a child in the house is an inherent issue.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable, but is probably not preferable. I’d prefer the separation of nursery, to completely focus. I trialed for a few months having family at my house with toddler a couple of days a week while I worked upstairs, but found it too distracting and decided to put her in nursery full time.

Its fine as long as:

• you have a completely separate room to work in (with a door you can shut) and aren't going to be disturbed, or distracted/tempted to rush off and help calm a crying baby
• you have appropriately qualified childcare who can have full/sole charge of the baby, so not a mothers help or au pair
• the childcarer is present for all of your working hours (e.g you aren't trying to get away with just having a morning nanny and hoping baby will nap most of the afternoon and you can "manage" between 3 & 5 etc

I wouldn't honestly recommend it tho, unless you have something like a garden office or study above a detached garage. Simply because if the baby catches sight of you during the day they won't settle for/bond with the nanny. Plus its incredibly difficult to be very close to your child all day and not check in, settle them for a nap, give them a cuddle or feed them. Ive done it due to a covid lockdown and it really reduced my ability to focus on my work.

My husband and I both hybrid work from home.

My 3 year old is in nursery 3 days, but at home with my mum in our house one day a week.

I absolutely cannot work in the same house as them, I have to work in the office that day. My toddler just screams the house down if she's not allowed access to me and she can hear me on phone calls when I'm working.

My husband is absolutely fine wfh that day. Toddler doesn't even try and get in to see him, despite him working in a much more accessible room than the one I have tried to work in.

It works OK in the baby stage, but absolutely not once they understand more about what's going on. Just reached an age where the gig was up and that was that !

We managed perfectly fine during Covid when nursery was closed. My mum stayed with us as she was furloughed, and she looked after DS (9 months at the time) whilst DP and I both worked upstairs.

When I had my second child, my mum looked after her one day a week and it was absolutely fine again. But I trust my mum wholeheartedly with my kids so even if I could hear DD upset, I didn’t feel the need to intervene as mum was more than capable.

Thank you all. It’s a lot to consider

So although I agree it's doable, I wouldn't recommend it if you have a choice. I worked from my sister's house in her spare bedroom when I had a little one my husband was looking after. Because although I'd love it to be the same as my husband working from home, if LO could hear my voice they'd get upset.

I actually switch my WFH days if my DP is home with DS. It's too distracting otherwise.

We have issues with people in my workplace looking after children regularly on WFH days, being unreachable, not responsive, children showing up in calls etc and we are very close to WFH being revoked 😟

i agree with this. i would work in the home office and try to avoid my daughter seeing me (my parents looked after her for a month in between nurseries). If she knew i was in the house nanny would not do and she’d cry until she could have me when she was upset or wanting a cuddle. It made it really hard to concentrate and on a couple occasions she’d run in during a meeting 😬

I think some of these responses are mad.

Wfh with a nanny is not the same as managing without childcare.

There is no reason why it would be ok for a father to wfh with their child being cared for by someone else nearby but not a mother

If you have employed a nanny to look after your child you should be able to trust them to look after your child. If you can’t trust them such that you’d feel the need to intervene if the baby cried within earshot, get a new nanny.

Employees, wfh or not, are entitled to breaks. There is nothing wrong with seeing your baby in such a break as long as it doesn’t distress the baby.

I agree that you really need to be able to separate yourself (ideally behind a closed door) so as not to get interruptions, but as long as you and the nanny are clear on the boundaries it can work really well. To me, it was one of the massive benefits of having a nanny, as instead of commuting/doing nursery drop off I could spend that time playing with my baby and then just nip upstairs.

I did this - worked in the bedroom on the top floor of our three storey house while nanny looked after twin babies and toddler downstairs. I was working freelance so only got paid for hours done and was my own boss so it worked for us - had to or I wouldn’t have been paid.

as others have said, it works well but you do need to have a room you work in with a door that shuts - ideally on a different floor to where your baby and nanny are most of the time. I’ve wfh since 1995, four years before I had my DD. We chose a house that had a room that would be my office from the outset so that helped. And we were fortunate to find a very good capable nanny.

Oh don't be so ridiculous.