Is it realistic to keep a 1 YO at home while working...

[Hotyogahotchoc]

for half a day per week while two parents are both WFH?

DH and I would both be WFH. DH full day but is flexible. I would do half day. Thinking of keeping baby home that day and in nursery 4 full days.

We both have the option of making up hours earlier in the day or in the evening.

I expect I know the answer!

We did this during lockdowns but I worked 6am until 1pm then my husband worked 1pm until around 8pm. It’s pretty difficult and I wouldnt do this if I had a choice!

Yes I am wondering whether it is worth it.

I wouldn't save anything in childcare as I would be working 9/10 hours so would lose 10% of pay and it would possibly end up with it being stressful for us and not much for for DS.

Might be better to go for nursery full time and then use annual leave to have a day off whenever possible and keep baby home from nursery.

5 days in nursery just seems like a lot!

If you are happy to be working in the evening and if the child still sleeps a few hours in the day then it’s doable! I’ve done it many times when my toddler has been off ill from childminders or isolating awaiting test results, and it’s hard but manageable - she does play independently quite well though, and has s useful Peppa pig obsession 😂

You could potentially work in the afternoon if DH used his lunch break to take LO out for an hours walk and then put them down for a nap . One of you would have to work for a couple of hours in the evening to make up the childcare from 3-5.

Realistically you can’t work while caring for a young child at home.

You’d be always making the hours up in the evening/morning/whenever DH is doing the childcare. I had a 1yo last lockdown and it was impossible. As others have said it’s fine to do occasionally if they’re ill or childcare falls through for whatever reason, but for the amount of work you’ll get done when they’re around and awake, you might as well not even try.

Not really. Depends though if it's a 13 months old or a 23 month old? But still, not really.

I think that is very possible depending on your child.

Some 1 year old can entertain themselves pottering about with toys for 30 mins easily, you could have laptop next to them. Some will happily graze for 30 minutes over their lunch and you could work next to them. Some will still be on 2 x 2hr naps a day.
Others will demand attention every 30 seconds and sleep only whilst held for 10 minutes.
I think with 2 of you at home both able to flex a bit it should be doable but really depends on the toddler.

Is he a really good napper?
If your DH could work say 7-3, and you 1-5 and baby naps 1-3 then it’s doable.

If it’s only half a day and you can both work relatively flexibly through the day I would have thought this was doable, especially if baby is a reliable napper at the moment.

Example, you work 7-9, another hour when the baby naps and then another hour in the evening. Or you work an hour over tea and bath time which DH covers and he makes up the hour in the evening.

I think up to 4 hours is pretty manageable.

The main issue for me is the general level of distraction in the house when I’m in this situation.

I think for half a day it's fine if you can both make the hours you miss up quite easily.

If you can make up your half day at any point over the day, it’s doable, between you and your husband. An hour or two early while one of you has him, some evening work. I’m sure you can manage it between you and it would be much nicer for baby than 5 days a week in nursery?

You can’t work effectively while looking after a small child, and most employers would not allow you to anyway. It’s different if you are able to/allowed to flex your hours to only work while your DH isn’t working/ while baby naps/ in evening etc.

You’ll always be making the hours up so it would just be stressful

Would a child minder be an option rather than nursery?

You won’t be able to work properly if you have a toddler with you, so I’d look at whether you can not work at all that day and catch up hours during the evenings instead.

No, unless one or other of you can always make up the time in the evenings (but would you want to?). Even if they nap at 1yo, sooner or later they’ll stop napping. I think it would be very stressful.

Depends what you do for work. Do you need to be present in meetings/calls or can your organise your time yourself and make up the hours as and when.

A half day is nothing really so I'd say it's possible if you HAVE to but I don't see why you would if you have other options available to you.

Most nurseries offer a discount for full time, so 5 days may not be that much more expensive than 4 days
Put him in for 5 days and pick him up early when you’ve done your half day and spend some quality time with him

How many hours do you normally work a day?

No. Your child will not be a 1yo for long. Once baby is a walking and sleeping less, it's a full time job keeping them safe and entertained.
Just put them into nursery for 1/2 day.

Yes, I think it's entirely do-able if you've got the kind of 'responding to emails/directing others' job where you can sit on your laptop on the sofa in the sitting room while toddler plays and watches TV. I could certainly have done that for half a day once a week with my type of job, especially if I could have flexed my time and I had a DH do similar.

@Ylvamoon

No. Your child will not be a 1yo for long. Once baby is a walking and sleeping less, it's a full time job keeping them safe and entertained. Just put them into nursery for 1/2 day.

Just what I was going to say!

Will you be wfh permanently? What happens if you need to go to a face to face meeting in time to come?

Just use nursery for half the day. You won’t be as tired or stressed and you will enjoy the time with your baby even more.

I think your bag would be having a better time at nursery than with 2 half distracted parents.

Could you instead ask for compressed working hours? 4 longer days and 1 whole day off each week?

*Baby, not bag!

I did this (without dh around!) with both my DC.

With dd1 I kept her home Monday's because I knew it was my 'quiestest' day and I had the other 4 days to work hard/longer to make it up.

With dd2 it was Friday's and it was known I was only available to answer emails and any emergency. I would work late Thursday evenings to make sure I was caught up on everything.