My cleaner wants to bring her baby to my house…

[That80show]

Evening all,

My cleaner (she has only been once before) has a 8 month old baby and has called today to say that her child minder is no longer available to look after him so could she bring him on Friday when she cleans my house. She said that he won’t be of any bother as he will just sleep…

As a mum of a baby of a similar age I know just how demanding looking after a baby can be and highly doubt he will sleep for the 3 hours that she is at my house.
i know she has a husband but maybe he is working that day so is unable to look after their son.
On the one hand I feel bad because I know how difficult it can be to juggle motherhood and work so I was tempted to say well bring him just this once but that I won’t accept it on a regular basis.
On the other hand I can’t see her being able to focus on cleaning my house properly which I really need as I too have a young family and busy with work.

Am I being totally unreasonable in saying no I’m sorry this isn’t going to work?

Sorry,i pressed yabu by accident.
Yanbu. It's not possible to work whilst caring for a baby

One of mine slept for England and one never slept. If she has one like my sleeper it will be no bother.
She can only try and hopefully will be honest if she didn't manage to work to her usual standard because of the baby.

I don't have kids nor a cleaner, but surely she needs to find other, suitable childcare or her DH needs to take parental leave from his job?

You wouldn't able to take a baby into the office, a hospital ward, a factory, a law court or any other workplace so why is your home any different?

You can press YANBU and it’ll change your vote.

You are going to have to say no OP. She isn’t taking this job seriously.

I was once in the same situation - the whole point of me paying a cleaner was I was finding it difficult to do a good job of cleaning with my own kids around!
Plus it's not safe for the baby to be around all the cleaning chemicals.

I'd say sorry but no, but she can get back in touch once she gets childcare sorted.

It would be a no from me. You can’t work and care for a baby at the same time.

No she definitely can’t I’m afraid. It would be so unsafe- what happens when the baby starts crawling or toddling and also dropping their naps so they are awake more during the cleans? What happens when they crawl off when she’s cleaning the shower and fall off something or down the stairs or eat something they shouldn’t.. it’s unsafe and probably affects insurance, no way. And even if the baby is being watched she will get so little done it would be so distracting for her meeting their needs

Would there be possible insurance implications if the baby were to have any kind of accident in her place of work? Even if not I think it's very inappropriate.

Ever hear of "be the change you want to see in the world?" We complain employers are inflexible, that having children is hard etc etc. So why make her life harder, she's a cleaner ffs, i am pretty sure her options are limited. If you say no, she probably won't come.
Let her bring the baby but just say can she please make sure she keeps the same standard of cleaning even if it takes her longer?

In my opinion, why don’t you see how it goes. The world case scenario is she can’t complete cleaning your house. That’s not the end of the world is it?
I’ve had cleaned for a good few years. Once one cleaner asked to bring her 6 year old son with her. He was such a sweetheart. He even became friends with my son.
Anyway, like you said, you understand how difficult it is to juggle work and children. Just give it a go and if it doesn’t work out due to baby crying or disturbing then only pay her for what she’s done.

Exactly this @VikaOlson, that’s the whole point of me paying someone to come clean as otherwise I’d just do it working around my baby

Personally I'd be OK with it but for an agreed time frame until she can get other plans in order and as long as the work is getting done. She must be really desperate if she's asking you. So I'd give her a month or two grace. At that age its not ideal but equally doable if baby is able to have a nap or be worn.

I'd let her as a one off this week while she sorted new childcare but not as a regular thing.

Big difference between a 6 year old who can sit quietly watching a tablet, and a baby that will need constant supervision and could fall down the stairs or put small toys in their mouth.

give it a go if it takes longer due to baby could she be in your house longer

anywhere she could put up a playpen?

Well you only pay her for the time she actually works, if the baby sleeps solidly fine, if she only works two hours instead of three she gets paid for two or stays an extra hour. And not a regular thing unless you decide it's OK.

No, she’ll be doing both jobs badly

Personally I would say yes but I'm concerned she won't manage, then you can say you're unhappy if the standard is lower.

I would not allow it regularly however.

As a one off I'd say help another woman out.

Whilst I agree it would be nice to help her out as a one off, the difficulty for you likely comes when saying no later on, if it doesn’t then work out for you going forwards.

(Like my cleaner, who just “assumed”, (among very many other things) that she could just bring her dog into my pet-allergy sensitivity home while she worked). I had to draw a firm line at the outset, to prevent an on ongoing never-ending assumption going forwards).

Is it a one off or permanent? It’s hard out there for mums, but it wouldn’t be acceptable to bring a baby into the office because no childcare.

No, it’s completely unprofessional. You cannot bring your baby to any job.

I would give it a go. If she manages to do a good job, you haven't been disadvantaged and you get to demonstrate a bit of female solidarity.
If the standard noticeably drops and you're not happy you have reasonable grounds to look for another cleaner.

I honestly would let her take the baby. My cleaner used to bring her kids to mine during school holidays. I never minded.They were good kids and the job got done. I would have an issue if the job wasn’t completed to a good standard.