XP: Working from home and childcare

blushingbride_08

I'm starting a new job working from home. The hours are flexible and can vary from 10 to 20 hrs per week. It is project based. I totally understand that it is nearly impossible to work from home without childcare. However i cannot justify having a sitter all day or having my lo in daycare when it may be a slow day and I would be able to watch LO myself. most days i can wait to work when dh comes home. Im still trying to figure out what to do if i receive a business phone call that i need to take during the day. I dont want my lo crying in the background. My question is how do I know which hours to hire a babysitter if my hours per day are inconsistent? What would you do?

Socialworkgirl

How long do you anticipate your business calls taking? I put DD in her pack and play often if I need to take a call and go in another room or I will leave her in our living room which is pretty childproof and gated and go into our dining room and take the call. She can't see me and will usually just play on her own for awhile but I can still hear her to know what she is doing. Either of these options will usually work for 15-20 minutes with DD

Sometimes I have also put her in the stroller and taken her for a walk, but that only works if you are not going to need to take alot of notes.

Can you hire a mother's helper and just return calls that will probably take awhile when the mother's helper is there? I did some work on contract when DD was about 8-10 months old and figuring out how to take phone calls was the hardest part, but I was doing alot of phone interviews that would take about 45 minutes each. I ended up doing most of them when family was visiting. Good luck!

wesleycrusher

I work occasionally as a sub school nurse so my hours are not regular at all. We don't have any family nearby so I use a drop-in daycare.  It might help if you have a day here or there when you want to get a lot of work done.  

blushingbride_08

Socialworkgirl said:

How long do you anticipate your business calls taking? I put DD in her pack and play often if I need to take a call and go in another room or I will leave her in our living room which is pretty childproof and gated and go into our dining room and take the call. She can't see me and will usually just play on her own for awhile but I can still hear her to know what she is doing. Either of these options will usually work for 15-20 minutes with DD

Sometimes I have also put her in the stroller and taken her for a walk, but that only works if you are not going to need to take alot of notes.

Can you hire a mother's helper and just return calls that will probably take awhile when the mother's helper is there? I did some work on contract when DD was about 8-10 months old and figuring out how to take phone calls was the hardest part, but I was doing alot of phone interviews that would take about 45 minutes each. I ended up doing most of them when family was visiting. Good luck!

I'm anticipating phone calls to take about 15 to 20 mins. If they would last longer I would expect a conference call be be scheduled in advance. Sometimes it is just easier to pick up the phone instead if emailing back and forth KWIM?

dizzycooks

Do you have the ability to set hours at all?  I would find it very annoying to basically be on call all week for a total of 10-20 hours work.  If you can narrow it down to three afternoons, I would get a mother's helper and work during naptime and let the sitter play and give LO a snack when they get up.  I would guess that would get you 4-5 hours an afternoon.