Entertaining a 13 month old whilst working from home

[Mummysparrow]

My childminder is on holiday for 2 and a half weeks in August and despite my best attempts I have only managed to arrange childcare for 5 of those days with another childminder. All childminders local to me are either fully booked or have holiday in August as well (or both). Not family close by to help and I was hoping to get my 18 year sister to help for a few days (as she loves babysitting her nieces and nephews) but she has recently got a boyfriend so no longer interested in helping.
I work from home a few days a week and few days in office. Hubby is going to work from home when he can (mainly when I am in office) so we have no choice to have her at home whilst we work.
Any suggestions on how to keep a 13 month old occupied without just shoving her in front of the TV every single day (as she will inevitably get bored)? Sensory activities welcomed. I just need to put a plan in place so I can rotate activities that will keep her occupied for more than 5 minutes at a time.
I am really not looking forward to it but really don't have much choice. I can't really take unpaid leave as it will mean I won't have enough money to pay the next month's childcare.

Could you agree with work to make up your hours in the evening at all? And do a half day during the day?
5 minutes is a long time for a little one and there’s a reason why a lot of work places insist you have childcare in place if working from home.

but fun activities….
cheerio sand
paint in a freezer bag
blocks
ball pit

bribe your sister like mad?

If you have the kind of job that you can pick up after they're asleep, and essentially work 8pm-2am or whatever, you might be ok.

But if you're expected to be online during certain hours or take calls, I don't think it can be done.

I suspect CBeebies is your only hope of attempting it.

You don't, you take annual leave or unpaid leave. Does your employer know you are doing childcare whilst you're being paid to work?

An older child is one thing, but a 13 month old requires your attention 24/7

Can you flexi your time?
What is your child's sleep schedule?

This isn’t fair to your child or yourselves.
something is going to have to change to make it work or it’ll just end in tears all round. You will never forgive yourself if anything happened.

Get one of the little paddling pools the really cheap supermarket ones and set it up where you can see her. Use it for 'stuff containment'.

Inside the paddling pool put a plastic storage tub filled with something like shredded paper, packing peanuts, rice crispies, bubbly water...

Drop some of her little toys in there so she can rescue them, give her plastic measuring cups/jugs/spoons etc to scoop and move stuff about.

Other activities:

• water painting. Cup of water and a brush, let her paint the garden.
• if you can move around the house with your laptop then pop her in the bath or the garden and let her wash her dolls in a baby bath if you still have one or a storage tub/washing up bowl if you don't

Any friends with teenagers keen to earn some extra money? All they need to do is entertain her & watch her while she eats lunch etc, one of you will be home so they don't have to be totally responsible for her. You could try a few for a few days each.

I would work during naps and bedtime that's it. I wouldn't put her in front of the TV at all. Even if you give her some toys to play with she needs supervising. Can you take unpaid leave between you?

At that age I’d say you can only work whilst your child is asleep. It’s just not safe otherwise. And is a 13 month old really going to sit to watch peppa pig or coco melon?
covid really made people think it was ok/safe/normal to attempt to wfh with a very young child also needing looked after but it’s really not ok.
not really helpful but you need another plan. Babysitter in the house with the child while you are working in another room?

I feel for you! DS is 12mo but I’m not sure there is much that would keep him occupied more than 10-15 minutes at a time. He isn’t interested in TV but likes toys with consequences (I’m sure there’s a pro term) so “if I do this then that happens”. But new toys (or safe things to play with) are always exciting.
Can you work flexibly? Eg you work 7-3 and DH 11-7 or something? If still on 2 naps there’s a (small) chance LO naps would be 10-11 and 2-3 then there’s only 4 hours in the middle to cover and just accept those will be slow hours. Assume DD can feed herself lunch?

Can you take annual leave?
Flex your hours?
Bribe a young teen so there is someone else in the house?
Work from "home" at a not nearby relatives house so they do the care, then drive nck home for the office days.

Basically, you can't work a 9-5 day with a child that age. You need some help.

advertise locally for a "mothers help" for those 2 weeks. There will be lots of school.leavers who will be keen to earn some money. Don't even attempt to work and mind her.

Those are definitely fun activities but if I wavered my attention from any of them I guarantee we’d have:
-Cheerio dust thrown everywhere
-Broken freezer bag and eating a delicious combo of paint and plastic
-Blocks, played with for 43 seconds, now done
-All the balls thrown out of the ball pit and now I need to pick up 100 of them

Realistically 13MOs have very short attention spans and need constant supervision for their own safety.

Bribe the sister would be the best. OP can you offer to pay her what you would have paid the childminder? It would be a lot of money to an 18YO and may prove more tempting than the new boyfriend.

I hope that all the suggestions of what "you" can do mean both OP and/or DH.
Because you need to split this between you both as much as possible.
If you can flex then one of you starting early and one of you starting late and you both trying to catch up in nap times might work.
otherwise I think you (both) need to suck up unpaid leave.

This is what me and DH did during lockdown. DH worked 7am - 12pm. I worked 12pm - 5pm. Did tea, bath & bed from 5pm - 7.30pm then both worked from 7.30pm - 10pm.
It very nearly broke us but we managed.

would any of your sisters friends childmind ( with you in the house too)

Right. My child was 13 months when Covid started. I can tell you now, you cannot work effectively and if you try to, you will send yourself mad. I was fortunate in a way that everyone was in the same boat so there was less expectation of normal work. Also my partner was also working at home, so we could share the parenting.

I did the vast majority of my work while he was asleep. That meant either getting up at 5/6am and working until he woke up (don't waste time on showering), or working after he's asleep until midnight. You can't do both. Hopefully he has good long naps in the afternoon? Maybe drop the morning nap now, if not.

Schedule your work so anything you need to think about gets done when he's asleep - preferably when you're most awake. Plan to do admin and anything you can easily drop and go back to while he's awake.

Hide some toys and bring them out after a few days, so he has something new to play with.

Get a playpen or use a travel cot, fill it with books and interesting toys and put him in there when you really need to keep him safe and in one place.

If he'll watch Cbeebies, brilliant. I honestly feel like the presenters are my mates, after four months of almost constant Cbeeies in lockdown.

Good luck. It's not fun, you really shouldn't do it because you won't be doing a good job of anything, but it is do-able.

Can't be done. How much notice of her holiday did your childminder give? You have to find and pay a replacement. I'd try and find a local family with a nanny who would welcome having a temporary nanny share and you pay half of the nanny's salary plus a little bonus.

This won’t work I’m afraid. Could you take parental leave or advertise for a mothers help??

*I did the vast majority of my work while my child was asleep, not my partner. I realise that was confusing 😁

If you can do it, flexing your hours across the day works well. We did that on days we didn't have calls.

Nope - absolutely impossible. Surely there must be a teenager in the area that you could pay to come in to entertain your child whilst you work (you'll be in so available for doing meals, keeping an eye etc) - there are loads that have just finished their GCSEs that would be delighted for a week or two's work.

I honestly don’t think this is doable, I’m sorry

Op you need to pay your sister or juggle your hours.

Working with such a young child won't work, is impossible with 3 and under.
Once they turn 4 they are marginally better and can use the telly buttons.

My LO was 3 at the start of the first lockdown. Impossible.
The second lockdown he was 4 it was very stressful but do able. But far from ideal and not something you'd want long term.

I aldo suggest offering to pay your sister. Seems as though she would have done it for free in thr past so offer of payment might help.

Oh gosh what a situation.

I have to say I don't think you should be trying to work and look after a 13 month old at the same time.

I've been there. You will get short tempered and frustrated with baby when you are trying to complete a work task. Baby will not understand why mum has suddenly changed and doesn't care so will get fed up and frustrated = both of you frustrated and unhappy, for days. It's not worth it.

If your job is answering calls/ writing or logging/ numbers I think you'll really struggle.
If you do something like IT / accounts it may be you can work afternoons and evenings.
However be mindful you may make mistakes through tiredness and not feeling so 'up' for work tasks.

I would suggest you take unpaid leave and the money you have saved this month to go towards next month (or do you still have to pay cm when she takes her holiday?)

Otherwise I'd be honest with work and reduce hours to make it work at home with less pressure.