Moms who work from home sometimes -- how do you handle childcare?

Question

I have a job that will allow me to work from home about 2 days a week. Once my maternity leave is up, I'm wondering how I should handle childcare on my work from home days.
Ladies who work from home, do you find,
- You can take care of your baby during the workday without help?
- You need additional assistance in the form of a nanny, mother's helper, or day care?
- If you have a spouse who also works from home, can you handle the childcare entirely between the two of you?
Please share your experiences!!

Answer

I work full time from a home office and I can’t work at all when my son is home. He’s in daycare full time. 
My husband is a teacher and so my almost 3 year old doesn’t go to daycare during summer or school holidays. After trying to work with them home I decided that I’d rent space at the local co-working hub during the summer because even though my husband is a fantastic caregiver the noise and interruptions were just too much for me to be productive. 
I’m really fortunate to be able to work from home, especially when my son is sick and I’d have to be home anyway, but I really wouldn’t recommend it as a regular plan. Childcare is a full time job - I could never do that well, and my paid job well at the same time.

Answer

My husband does not work from hone but has a relatively flexible job a lot of the time. I also have my mother down the street to help me, when my parents aren’t traveling. 
I worked from home part time my first six months after maternity leave and was able to handle it usually without too much help. My job was one I had done for years and years and I was able to do most of my job quickly and easily. Occasionally on busy days I might ask my mom to come watch my daughter and she would watch her when I had to go into the office. Back the she was still napping 4 times a day and slowly went down to 3, both of which still allowed plenty of time to get most work done. Even when she was awake, I could sit her in a swing or bouncer or let her play on the floor and get work done. 
Fast forward to now and toddlerhood and there is absolutely no way. No way in hell could I get my job done with my daughter even in the house with a my mom or a nanny (we tried that but she was constantly banging on my office door), let alone me actively watching her. I cannot bring out my laptop without her wanting to bang on it. She is into everything constantly and tantrums are relatively common. There’s just no way. I had her in daycare for a while and have since decided to take a few years off work and stay at home with her for the time being. I still do 3-5 hours/week of editing as a contractor for my old company and have a hard time finding time to do that. She only takes one nap a day and I use that to workout, so I usually have to do work in the evenings once my husband is home.

Answer

I took over inventory and ordering from my old job when I only had 1 at home, so maybe 10hrs a week, plus run into the office a couple times a month for a few hours. My son is pretty easy going and takes a good nap (used to be two), so I could do a lot of it during the day if I needed, but still preferred doing as much as possible in the evening and on the weekends. Hoping to pick it (or something else I can do from home) back up again once my daughter stops nursing ALL FREAKIN DAY, and maybe is a bit more consistent with naps (usually takes 1 2-4 hour nap and if I’m lucky, a 1 hour second nap, but sometimes doesn’t take any).

Answer

I'm trying to figure out a plan for this as well. I've been working at home since my son was born (he's 2 now) but it's become a bit of a struggle. I don't have set hours so currently I work when he naps and sleeps but that leaves little time to do anything else in the day. I'm looking into daycare for once or twice a week. 
My husband works in and out of the home  so we try to watch him while the other does their work.

Answer

My 2 year old goes to daycare. It was fine when he was younger but he got much to busy and destructive. I take suicide calls and deal with hospitals so him playing or talking is fine and fun until we get busy🤦🏾‍♀️

Answer

I work from home full time but have my son in daycare. My job is pretty demanding and my son thrives with the structure of daycare

Answer

I work from home five days a week and bartender two days! My work from home is customer service over the phone and computer!! My son is two and I have watched him the whole time and it’s been fine... I do love the mute button on my headset though lol

Answer

I cannot work with my toddler home usually. Now that she’s a bit older (3.5) she can keep herself entertained for longer periods of time. I’m a business analyst so I have a lot of conference calls and meetings all day long. When she was between 8 months and 2.5, it was really difficult because she was so needy of my attention. 
For the first 1.5 years, my MIL watched her at her house, which was 10 mins away. I would drop her off every morning. After that, she was in daycare twice a week next to my office. So she and I would commute into the office together. On my WFH days, my MIL watched her (Weds and Fri). My hubby had her on his day off on Monday. 
My husband works graveyard so if I had to have him home early (like when my MIL was out of town) and watch her, he would try and make it home by 9/10am and watch her until about 12p or 1p so I could get work/meetings done before he would go to bed for 5-6 hours. 
We made it work with our toddler, but now We are expecting a second child, and we are getting an Au Pair to come live with us. She will be taking care of both kids (although my toddler is in preschool full time now, 5 days a week from 8:30-3:30p). But she will be doing drop off and pick up for my toddler, so that will be very helpful.

Answer

Currently I'm working from home full time. I had to put the baby in daycare, I couldn't get worked done with him at home. I go pick him early, but I really need some hours to fully concentrate on my work. If my husband also worked at home, I think we could have the baby with us and make it work.

Answer

Babysitter and later daycare. I could do her odd sick day and fudge it but not every day.

Moms who work from home sometimes -- how do you handle childcare?

Let’s Glow

Glow is here for you on your path to pregnancy

25+ million

4.8 stars

20+

Getting Pregnant

Pregnancy

1st Year (Baby & You)

Baby Products