Working from home with a 1 year old?

[Evianontoast]

I'm a FTM and expecting my baby at the end of the year. I've started chatting with my mum about childcare when I go back to work because she and my dad would like to have the baby for 2 days a week. Husband gets 1 day off in the week (works Saturdays) and I will be WFH 2 days a week. In theory, that's the week covered.

HOWEVER

My question is - Is working from home possible with a 1 year old in the house? Have you managed it successfully? I'm thinking that my WFH days may need to be days she goes to nursery, as I'm not sure it'll be possible.

Thanks for your input!

Working from home whilst simultaneously caring for a child.

My employer has a policy that specific forbids it for under 5’s and for no more than 1 hour a week for over 5’s.

What sort of job do you do? I don’t really think it’s possible to work from home with a one year old, you have to watch them all the time and they don’t nap as much as when they are tiny.

No, it's not possible and could really damage your credibility with your employer. Your baby will be much happier being properly looked after

I couldn’t do my job and would need childcare.

No.

You need childcare. Odd day of sick fine. Regular no way!

No, I freelance and at that age could only work during naptime. The rest of the time DS needed my attention on him. He’s now nearly 3 and that’s still the case.

It would hard but doable with a seven-year-old but impossible with one-year-old

We were put in lockdown when my DS was 1.
Honestly, it was horrendous.
I cried many times because I couldn't concentrate, he wanted me, he would only sleep if I put him down etc.
I was being pulled from all directions.
I found it really stressful tbh.

Honestly, put her in nursery on days your home. It will benefit you both massively.

No, it’ll make you a crap parent and crap employee. Don’t do it. 4 months of this over the first lockdown when I had no other option nearly finished me.

No it's not, and if you're employed as opposed to self employed it's very unlikely your organisation will allow it- and for good reason, it isn't good for child or parent.

Thanks all, that's what I thought - good to have it confirmed by people in the know, though.

I work as an Event Manager. Some events will be online and I just can't see how I'll manage if she's needing attention while I'm on Zoom!

Massive respect to all the parents and guardians who HAD to do it during the pandemic.

It's dangerous, unfair on your child for your focus to be elsewhere and taking the piss out of your employer and colleagues

Yeah, my employer also has a policy about this. Looking after kids whilst working is a no.

My 1 year old would laugh in my face and bolt for the stairs/knife drawer/bookcase if I turned my back on her.

Terrible idea for everyone but especially your baby who deserves better. They need a caregiver’s full attention and for safety reasons need to be properly supervised at all times. It would also be stressful for you and there’s no way you’ll be able to give your job full attention and your employer is unlikely to be happy as a result. Pick a good one and nursery can be great!

No. My 1 year old spends the day trying to climb as high as possible on furniture and leap off!

I do work from home, but around 10hrs a week now only. That’s basically during naptime, weekend or evenings. I work for myself so can do 0 hours if needed some weeks

We actually managed ok during lockdown but there was the two of us and I was heavily pregnant. If you have a laid back job it’s actually fine, especially if you are prepared to do a bit of extra time if needed to compensate. I was able to do that and so my productivity didn’t suffer nor did my one year old. I wouldn’t like it to be a permanent long term set up though as it was hard but very doable.

I work full-time from home and have a 2-year old DD. In the last year since I've been back at work after mat leave, DD has been sent home from nursery several times due to illness or infections and it's been a nightmare each time. Even though DH is working from home too, sharing childcare between us and trying to work at the same time is really hard. It's extremely difficult to be fully productive and look after a child at the same time. If I learned that one of my team had a child at home while they were working, and it was a deliberate long-term choice rather than temporary or unusual circumstances, I wouldn't be happy at all.

There's another thread about this at the moment. I did 12-15 hours a week around my son. It's most difficult around this age easiest when they are young in my experience.

I wouldn't work with a baby if you have a choice.

I wfh twice. Week and my mum watches my 17 month old in the house in the other rooms. The third working day I'm in the office and I think we all find that easier. It works for us though, lucky to be able to have my mum help me with the childcare really!

Sorry I read the post wrong... could I do the childcare whilst wfh? Absolutely not, no way. Not fair on anyone involved... my colleagues, my son or me. It would just be a disaster!

I did about 10 hours around mine when they were little 1-5 however most of that I either did evenings, weekends, nap times or when older if they were in preschool. My job didn't care when I worked as long as I met my targets. I could not work 9-5 and look after a toddler.

You need 4 days of childcare.

Absolutely no way.

I WFH and have childcare sorted 4 days out of 5. A Wednesday is my 'sneaky' day - for various reasons, arranging afterschool childcare for 4 year old ds that day has been very difficult.

So he's home 3.30-5.30 while I work. I HATE Wednesdays. It's so incredibly stressful, just that 2 hours - you can bet that some event happens that's urgent in work at the same time he needs a poo/spilt a drink/wants me for something. Dodging zoom calls or meetings. Working at 200mph all Wednesday from 8-3 so I can get what I need done before he's home.

It's awful...for 2 hours and he's 4. The thought of doing that for 2 whole days with a baby 😱

Noooo, there is absolutely no way you could work with a one year old around. They will be very mobile at one year and will demand your constant attention. Apart from anything else, it would be really unfair on the child.