Advice about working from home

[lysie]

I am trying to work out how much work I will realistically be able to do at home whilst caring for a 6 month old baby. I am planning to bf. I do all my work at my computer and can easily stop/start when necessary. My DH is is prepared to take over all child care when he gets home from work at 6pm (cept feeding obviously), so I could work in the evenings also.

So what I want to know is do those of you who have worked from home whilst doing childcare think that it is realistic of me to commit to 4.5 hours work a day?

I know that it is pretty unlikely that I will have a block of 4 hours when the baby sleeps but could break the work up into smaller chunks.

Let me know what you think?

I think it'll be very hard. Are you still pregnant ie baby has not been born yet? Our youngest didn't sleep through the night until she was nearly 2 and she was bf until 3 1/2. 4.5 hours might be doable but I think it's easy to underestimate how tired you might be and that babies won't just be ignored for large periods of time

i think it is impossible

i have done it when DS has been ill/other issues and it is a nightmare

a crying baby cannot be ignored in favour of an important phonecall and a client will be pissed off

TBH you can give neither your full attnetion

and with a 6 month old you will still be fairly knackered IME

Not possible, I don't think.

I work from home and have childcare to cover all of those hours.

I take it that you haven't had a baby before?! You will be shocked at how much time it takes to look after a baby; hopefully by 6 months the baby will be sleeping through the night, but there is no guarantee of this.

What kind of work do you do?

Your employer or fellow employees may not be happy that you plan to work and look after a child at the same time.

If s/e, it depends on the job and if you can do in small chunks and have the interuptions.

I cant imagine giving 100% to either the child or the work trying to do both at the same time.

4.5 hours a day? I wouldn't, no, I have to say. I'm self employed and can do odd bits when children are around but not that much, not when they're so tiny. I think you'd be absolutely exhausted trying to fit in 4.5 hours a day and care for a baby.

Personally, in your situation I'd go for at least 2/3 mornings of childcare to give you guaranteed child-free time to work.

I wouldn't pay someone to do a job while they were simultaneously looking over a child, and I can't see many other people doing so either!

Not fair on anyone - your child, whoever is paying you and you, because it sounds a nightmare trying to grab moments of work inbetween feeding and looking after a child.

Organise proper childcare or accept that paid employment isn't for you at the moment

What kind of work do you do? If it has deadlines or requires talking to people on the phone, it will be impossible. If you are an employee, your employer will not agree to you working (and being paid)while simultaneously looking after your child. If it was that easy, we'd all be bringing our babies into the office and just popping them into a drawer until they needed feeding!

While the baby may sleep a lot of the time while s/he is 6 months (although that's not a given!) in a few months, they will be 9 months old and needing more attention, then 1 year and needing even more etc. so your plan, if it worked at all, would be a very short-term solution.

Thanks for you replies I don't really have a clue as you point out, will have a re-think. Thanks

At 6 months my Ds would sleep for about 1.5-2 hours in the morning and afternoon.

It could never be guaranteed though and all babies are different so I think it would be madness to commit to someone that you could work 4.5 hours a day while caring for a baby.

NO NO NO

When I was pregnant I thought it was possible. It's not.

I tried this for the same sort of hours you are suggesting, it's a nightmare, it completely wrecked the first 10 weeks with dc1 at which point I gave up and went back to work properly, something I regret to this day. If you can avoid in any way don't do it.