? about taking LO to work for the first few months

soon2BMrsBama

Repost from Working Moms:

"I just discovered this board today so sorry if this has been discussed before (or to death), but how did you balance your work/LO time if you took LO to work for the first few months?  did you feel like LO was still getting proper attention (like tummy time, not just feeding and changing) while you kept up your workload?"

Note: The general concensus on the Working Moms board is that taking LO to work with me is a very bad idea.  As I told them, I only plan on taking LO to work until he's around 5 months, then he'll go to one for the daycares where I'm already on the waiting list.

Dr.Loretta

There is no way I could take LO to work for any amount of time. I tried WFH my first official day back while she was still with me, and it was exhausting.

We had her in daycare the following week, and it's been much easier to get things done.

While I think it's great that your workplace allows you to bring your child in to work, if that's a policy of theirs IMO they should have some sort of system/guidance in place so you can do your work while you're there.

robynlesley

Hi there! 

I take my DS to work with me.  I work for my family's business and, unfortunately, cannot afford daycare.  And here's my take on this: you cannot keep up with your workload and take care of a baby.  You will not get everything done. You just can't.

However, until your baby is mobile, it's not terrible. I did better when Aaron was younger. I wore him in the sling carrier and he slept more. Now, at nearly 10 months and crawling, it's hard to keep up with him. 

So it IS doable, but you really won't be able to give your job the full attention you did before and it's NOT easy.

I hate to say it, but it would be easier for me to do my job if DS was in day care.  That being said business is so slow (not good) that I'll be able to continue taking him to work with me for the remainder of the year.

shelby9201

Dr.Loretta:

There is no way I could take LO to work for any amount of time. I tried WFH my first official day back while she was still with me, and it was exhausting.

This!!!  I work on flex time and have a very generous WFH option too.  That being said, there was no way I could give Madison all the attention she needed AND properly execute everything I needed to do for my job.  My mother was giving me a lot of grief about putting Madison in day care, considering my job was so flexible.  To prove my point, I kept Maddie home with me for one day while my mom was visiting so that she could see what the situation was.  After a few hours of watching me juggling a fussy baby, nursing, changing diapers and general baby soothing with running reports, making calls, taking a conference call & trying to pee/possibly eat something, she was completely on board with our decision to have her in day care.

Good luck with whatever you do decide to do.

chiromommyMichelle

I took Jake from time to time when he was small.  And now he is occasionally here for a 1/2 hr or so at the end of the day when we need to swap  and my mom and DD aren't available to watch him.  It really depends on your job.  And your baby.  As a young infant, Jake was happy to sleep in the Moby for a few hours, so if I had a day covering the front desk (which is a standing workstation) it was fine.

ScoobyM

Hi - I am a full time telecommuter and my DD is here at home with me, but with a nanny.  My company actually has great flexible work options but they also have a policy that you are not allowed to work at home/telecommute if you are also responsible for the care of another individual. 

That said, I also know I would not be able to do my job if I were also taking care of DD.  Because I work remotely, I am on the phone about 90% of my day and I can't pay attention to those calls and nurse/feed/diaper/play with my daughter.  Now that she is older it is actually still proving a bit challenging because she has a tendency to run into my office unexpectedly while I'm on calls and yell, "Hi Mommy!" then cries when the nanny catches her and takes her back out.  Fortunately I work mostly with the same people who know me and that I have a toddler and think it's cute, but there are definitely some calls where that would not fly! 

Anyway, my situation is a little bit different but I agree with the previous posters that unless your job has a lot of downtime it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to maintain your existing workload and care for an infant.