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Original poster

Taking baby to work - I just don't UNDERSTAND this

50 replies

morningpaper · 29/03/2006 12:43

I don't understand when people talk about 'taking baby to work' - what KIND of babies are these? And what KIND of job could you do this in?

Or are my screaming attention-seeking babies freaks?

One thing (of many) that annoys me about Miriam Stoppard's pregnancy book is a photograph of someone teaching music with a baby in a cradle on the floor, with the caption like "You might be able to take baby to work with you." WHAT?

OP posts:

Wills · 29/03/2006 14:53

I shared a nanny with a lady who went on to become a very close friend. she would work from home on a friday and once told me how my dd2 (18 months at the time) stormed into her office whilst she was on a conference call saying "Me wanna play seeky now jojo". Like me she works in an investment bank where most of the other people in her office would have been men who would not have found it funny. She took to having her conference calls in the toilet for a short time after that with my daughter banging on the door going "Is jojo in there?"

motherinferior · 29/03/2006 14:59

I only ever, EVER, consent to interview people similarly afflicted with small children, under those circumstances. The director of Liberty was particularly understanding.

Wills · 29/03/2006 15:01

MeggLeVache · 29/03/2006 15:08

Edwina Currie used to take both her girls with her whilst she had meetings from when they were babies.

I remember hearing this during a radio interview - it made me think that her girls must be weirdo mute robots. There's no way I could ever have been able to do that either!

Wills · 29/03/2006 15:39

Nah, they were just too scared of Edwina! (not the kids that is)

Kathy1972 · 29/03/2006 15:39

Was it my questions on the other thread that partly sparked this off morningpaper?
Maybe it's mostly academics then, as I know several women who have done it (breastfeeding during supervisions etc) but also a male lecturer who took his baby in to defuse a particularly tense meeting about curriculum reform (as no-one could be horrid to each other when she was smiling and gurgling). My dh has also taken our dd to meetings several times with great success (she helps as well if he's trying to find common ground with a group of schoolteachers or administrators).
Our baby is lovely as long as she's being held, so you couldn't do any kind of work where you needed both hands. But last week for instance I took a group of students to a museum on a study visit, which would have been perfectly fine with dd. May not work when she gets older though - it sounds like toddlers are more mentally distracting than babies....

Re commute with baby - lots of people do that as they prefer to use a nursery near work than one near home so there is no risk of travel delays making you late picking the child up from nursery.

Agree with everyone abt M Stoppard books.

Fennel, I want a string bag like that!

tortoiseshell · 29/03/2006 15:43

I work from home teaching music, children are always around. Sometimes they are cared for by parents/siblings of pupils, sometimes they amuse themselves in the next room. Have done it since before dd was born, and will continue after this little one. I've also taken dd to work in a school with me, in dire emergency.

It does depend on the little one though, and I think you could only do it if self employed - I always outline very clearly to parents what my situation is with the children, then there is no comeback.

Hattie05 · 29/03/2006 15:43

When dd was a few weeks old, i could be found catching up in the office with her under the desk in her carseat . But that was literally popping in briefly in between feeds.

edam · 29/03/2006 15:50

God, no way. Am self-employed but still need childcare - no way ds would let me sit down and concentrate on something else. I have clients - who would not be very impressed if ds interrupted them.

When I was employed, one of my colleagues brought her baby in on a day that she didn't normall work. Was catching up with her staff, having conversations, checking email, while her little girl crawled around on the carpet. I was on tenterhooks, terrified the child would try to play with the electric cables or something .. no way I could have done that with ds, just too distracting.

Original poster

morningpaper · 29/03/2006 16:05

It was partly your question Kathy, but also was reading dreadful Stoppard book recently.

I HAVE taken dd2 into a board meeting but only for 30 minutes - and it was voluntary. I wouldn't do it for something I was paid for, because I would be at most 80% concentrating on the subject in hand!

She was a nightmare anyway, and frankly I do not enjoy whipping my breasts out in a work environment.

I can just imagine myself breastfeeding in a lecture - baby screaming, arching her back, milk spraying all over my desk, me shouting "DO. NOT. BITE. MUMMY" - it would be like one of those awful dreams where you turn up to work and you've forgotten to put your clothes on...

But yes my babies are non-sleeping, breast-refusing SCREAMERS so that's my only point of reference.

OP posts:

Feistybird · 29/03/2006 16:06

I work from home and sometimes pick up DD1 from school depending on my workload (and calls), otherwse it's afterschool club.

DD2 (3) was sent home from nursery nursing some minor ailment last week and I had to feign a dead mobile when she called out in the midst of a conference call, 'Mum, wipe my bum pleeeeaaaassse'.

Kathy1972 · 29/03/2006 16:10

Ah well, our meetings are mostly a complete waste of time. Have just spent 3 hours in an exam board where I was only there to make up the numbers.

I get my breasts out anywhere. Perhaps I get some perverted thrill from it.

The trouble with Stoppard making a throwaway comment like that is that it suggests it's likely enough that you can do it for it to be worth planning for. I realise that most women aren't in a position where they can (you need a particular combination of job type and baby type) so for most people it would end up disastrously and they'd be made to feel like failures for not living up to MS's soft-focus world.

Original poster

morningpaper · 29/03/2006 16:24

I would be happy to get my breasts out anywhere if my babies were happy to stay feeding from them for more than 10 seconds

Watching me breastfeed is like an advert for Milupa

OP posts:

Original poster

morningpaper · 29/03/2006 16:26

There is not a chance in hell that I could spend 3 hours in a meeting with my baby - it's laughable

You are a lucky lady

OP posts:

TashaE · 29/03/2006 20:44

I am still on maternity leave and have recently been discussing going back part time, including some working from home. Company have been very supportive of the idea, with the proviso that they have to be satisfied that I have proper childcare even when working from home. I think this is perfectly reasonable as I don't think I could work and look after ds anyway - he would demand attention and I would be happy to give it as he is so cute!

Agree with other comments about Miriam Stoppard, although her book is not thrown across the floor as often as Gina Ford was - her tone is so patronising that despite having happy, healthy, well behaved son who eats and sleeps well, a quick dip into Gina for the odd tip ends with me feeling utterly inadequate! (Apologies to those for whom Gina works well - it just doesn't work for me :))

fisil · 29/03/2006 20:54

In the 70s my mums friend used to park her car next to her classroom and leave her baby in there while she taught!

I have taught once with ds1 with me - but it was a special Saturday session, and another member of staff took him off for most of the time.

Skribble · 29/03/2006 23:19

Dh will take our 2 kids to work occasionaly if he can, but that is only from the age of 5, they either sit and draw, borrow all the administrators McDonalds toys or he takes DVD's and they watch them on the giant screen in the training room. No way he would have taken them as babies or ever at any age to a meeting.

LeahE · 29/03/2006 23:28

I occasionally went into work with my dad (university lecturer) and drew on his blackboard in coloured chalk (it was a very big blackboard so kept me occupied for ages). Not as a baby though, but as a preschooler.

jetsetmum · 29/03/2006 23:29

When DS2 was little (under 3 months) used to take him to the office in his car seat & place him on the top of the fax machine - the rock of the fax machine used to keep him asleep & I used to pop out at frequent intervals to feed him.

I might add it is our own business - can't see an employer accepting that practice - but then I would'nt have to go into the office the day I came out of hospital either!!!!!

threelittlebabies · 02/04/2006 23:56

Have taken ds into work between ages of 18m and 2.5y, on day when only had 2hrs teaching. This is because when I took the job boss promised I could rejig schedule to 3 days, as did not have childcare for the other day, then reneged on the deal. Have had no probs with him, he was always very good but usually shceduled tutorials, paperwork, portfolio building or research etc. Sometimes a colleague and other students would help me out with him. My class only had 5 students, and they all made a huge fuss of him WON'T be doing it again when I go back though. I was lucky it worked out.

Toots · 03/04/2006 20:00

Am self-employed work at home with 3 days of childcare. Had four kids here today and had to make inspiring work calls so just trooped ahead of the action with the cordless, doing circuits - the minimum mum routine! Last year, took DDs, then 3.6 and 6 months to meeting with a two man production company on Oxford Street (oddly and charmingly like Michael and Elliot from Thirtysomething - remember that?) I was just finishing time off with dd2 - Remember saying 'Oh I'll pop in when I've been to John Lewis with my daughters'. Went OK, took a DVD. Did more work for them so they weren't put off... but with now 18month old. Nooooooo! Just felt they'd be OK, both dads, nice blokes. Quite out of character for me though.

sunandmoon · 04/04/2006 15:05

Did it once with my 8 months old DD.. and maybe not again unless it is just to say hi to my collegues!!! It was more chatting about babies then working..

jacobsmummy · 04/04/2006 16:07

I once had an interview for a bank nurse job and the staff were very understanding (or maybe desperate) and let me bring my two toddlers and a 3 week old baby with me.

At the start of the interview, everything was fine - baby asleep and the girls playing quietly under one of the desks.

Then the baby woke up and had to be popped on the boob and my daughters decided that they wanted to sit in the revolving office chairs. So basically we all had to stand up during the interview, me with one boob hanging out, and the girls spinning round and round on the chairs, sending cheesy wotsits and crayons everywhere.

I got the job though!!!!

Toots · 04/04/2006 19:30

That's really funny Jacobsmummy.

Passionflower · 04/04/2006 20:47

DH took DD3 (2yo) to work earlier this year while I took DD2 for her school admissions interview. He is a director of a trust co. I am informed that she caused great hilarity by insisting that one of the other senior directors (who is also a family friend) waved and said bye bye when she left. He was on a call to a client at the time .

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