r/MomsWorkingFromHome

I will be going back to work shortly, and my baby will be 3 months old. We had a sudden unexpected change in our childcare plan (grandparent was planning to retire to watch baby, but cannot financially afford to do so now) and we had to find childcare on short notice. Unfortunately, the care that can get us in only has part time available. My son will be in daycare 3 days a week, and at home with me the remaining 2.

We cannot hire in home care, as we have a stranger reactive dog in the house.

I've seen a recommendation of "stations" set up around the house to cycle the baby through during their wake windows. I am in meetings a decent chunk of the day, and while i have an understanding job, I definitely need to keep LO occupied if possible while I'm on calls. What would you all recommend? I currently have a playmat in their nursery set up for tummy time, a swing, and their bassinet for naps.

I work at a hyper-growth, fast-paced company and have been WFH with my baby girl since she was 3 months old. Between weekly syncs and nonstop ad hoc meetings, there were plenty of days we barely made it. I’d plan naps around my calendar, but she’d still wake up mid-meeting. For executive meetings, my sister would come watch her, which worked until she was about 6–7 months and realized my sister wasn’t me. I even got the OLEAP pilot earphones so I could occasionally work off camera when I needed to.

Some days it felt like all I did was feed, change diapers, and get her down for naps while trying to keep up with work. I honestly don’t know how I made it through, but I did. The hard part was that it made me a much angrier person. I’d find myself getting frustrated with my daughter or my husband—people who absolutely didn’t deserve it.

Thankfully, my husband completely changed his work schedule for me, so now I have help three days a week instead of trying to do it all five. I’ll still be solo on Thursdays and Fridays, but even those days feel so much more manageable now.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: take the help wherever you can get it. Don’t feel guilty for accepting it. Your house doesn’t need to be spotless during the day. Right now, your priorities are your job and being the best mom you can be. Everything else can wait.

my baby is 7 months and he entered daycare (a large home daycare) at 3 months and has been constantly sick. since i work from home I decided enough is enough and I want to able to work and watch him and keep him safe. how do you all handle meetings? i have scattered meetings on different days and lead some of them. give me your best tips for doing this, or what others have done in my situation?

Hello mums! I'm rejoining work after my maternity leave ends in a few weeks. My baby will be 5.5 months old then. She current only naps latched to my boob the entire time and i don't see that changing anytime soon. I just lay down on the bed with her while she nurses and naps. This has worked out this far since I had nothing else do but I'm wondering how to manage this while I'm working?

I'm a copywriter so most of my job is just reading up and writing a lot with two meetings a week. While there's not many meetings, I do have large chunks of work that need uninterrupted focus.

Have you any of you managed to WFH with a nip napping baby? Please give me any tips and suggestions! Thanks

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I have an almost 18 month old boy who is the light of my life. I work hybrid so I am home 3 days a week with him and on my 2 office days, my husband is home with him. The older he gets, the harder it seems. I don't have a super pressing job that requires 100% attention to the computer and I do try to balance work by doing easier stuff at home and more attentive work in the office and it works okay but I cant help but feel like I am failing him.

We cannot afford daycare, even for a few days a week. He was a preemie so he is slightly speech delayed but he is in early intervention and they come once a week to the house. But I cannot dedicate all of my day to tending to him, he mostly independent plays and watches Mickey Mouse clubhouse but then I feel bad for the screen time. Most days I feel I am failing as an employee or mom and some days I feel I am failing at both. Work is not aware I WFH with him and its technically not allowed. I don't know, maybe I am looking for some solidarity somewhere. It was easier when he was a newborn and a potato lol but he's so active now, wants to be held sometimes or just needs me to be in the mix w him. Anyone else deal with this situation? How are you managing it?

Just the title. I was so busy today. I wfh full time and she independently plays most of the day. The most I did to interact with her play wise was when she'd bring me a toy and I'd say "oh a cow? MOOOOOO" or if she would start fussing I would hold her while I worked. After work I usually sit in the floor with her and play but I just couldn't. I laid on the couch and watched her play with her toys. Im so depressed. I keep her fed hydrated and clean but today that was the bare minimum I did and I hate myself for it.

So I am starting a new job! I’ll be working from home with my 5 month old. It’s pretty perfect, they know my baby will be with me, hours are flexible. It will be around 20-30hr a week, with some weeks being closer to 40. The plan is to have baby at home till a year with me and then reevaluate what our needs are with him regarding part time daycare or continue at home with me.

What are your suggestions to be successful? If anyone has pictures of their home set ups, I would appreciate it.

Here is my current plan:
- baby wearing as much as possible
- walking pad for standing desk for when baby wearing
- noise cancelling headphone/set ESOP 600T
- work when baby is sleeping ie early mornings and naps
- be flexible

Thank you for all the feedback!

Hi everyone! My husband and I both work from home, and we’ve reached the point where we can no longer juggle work while watching our almost 13-month-old. We really need uninterrupted focus, but instead we end up working all day because neither of us gets enough done. We’ve tried splitting childcare between us, but it just hasn’t worked.

Today I’m interviewing a nanny for the first time, and I’d love to hear your experiences and advice!

Right now we’re thinking about 4 hours a day, 4 days a week (9 a.m.–1 p.m.), although the nanny is also available starting at 8 a.m. if we decide an earlier start would work better. A few mom friends have told me that 4 hours goes by incredibly fast, so now I’m second-guessing our plan.

If you work from home:

• What schedule has worked best for your family?
• How many hours of childcare do you have?
• Is 4 hours enough, or did you wish you’d started with more?
• What questions should I ask during the interview?
• Any other tips or things you wish you’d known before hiring a nanny?

I’m excited, but also a little nervous. This is a big step for us, and I’d really appreciate any advice from parents who’ve been through it!

Edit: many are assuming I am a “dad” and I am in fact a “mom” so just wanted to clear the air on that. Thank you to all who provided constructive guidance and advice! I got some very helpful tips :)

Iwork from home in a demanding senior leadership role for a global company. My job requires a lot of meetings, focus, and uninterrupted time.
My daughter is 8, and while she’s in summer camps and activities, they don’t cover the entire summer or even full days, so she’s home quite a bit. She spends a lot of time playing with the neighborhood girls, and they all run between each other’s houses throughout the day.

Here’s my problem: I’m working from our basement in a relatively small house, so I hear almost everything. The girls ring our doorbell multiple times a day asking if my daughter can play. If I say no, they’ll leave, but then another group comes later and the cycle starts all over again. Every doorbell ring sets my dogs barking, interrupts meetings, and breaks my concentration.
Sometimes my daughter will even try to sneak her friends into the house because she knows I’m working. If I let them stay, they inevitably get loud enough that I have to send them back outside.

One of the moms stays home full-time, and another has a much larger house with a dedicated office, so I feel like they don’t quite understand how disruptive this is for me.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to set boundaries without creating tension with the neighbors. I’ve considered:

- Asking the parents to text me before their kids come over during work hours.
- Letting everyone know our house is “closed” during the workday except by invitation.
- Putting a “Working. Please Don’t Ring the Doorbell” sign on the front door.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How did you set boundaries while still letting your kids have good relationships with the neighborhood?

I have a 3 month old baby girl and am worrying about what I will do when I go back to work. I planned to take 6 months off so I would go back end of Sept/early Oct. Original plan was MIL would watch her M/W/F and she would go to daycare T/Th. But now my hubby and I worry it is too much for his mom and I am getting cold feet putting her in daycare before age of 1.

I was thinking of pitching a WFH setup to my boss (which I know he will agree to) at least part of the week. Then I could be home most or all days while my MIL mainly takes care of her and we could get a nanny for the other two days.

The problem is that I am an attorney so my days are spent in court hearings and depositions and we live in a one bedroom apartment so I don’t have a dedicated work space. I was thinking maybe we could get a second crib or even just put a pack n play in the living room and I’ll work from my bed I guess? lol. Am I nuts for thinking that could work and I should just put her in daycare for those 2 days? For the whole week? Daycare would definitely be easier but I just don’t want to miss out on so much of this time with her when she is little and I want to be able to breastfeed and hug her whenever I can, not to mention avoid all the daycare germs.

Hi everyone,

We have long held a rule that blanket lumps promotional and research posts under “No Solicitation”. As the sub has grown, we have seen requests from Academia and Activists requesting to override this long standing rule.

We have always hesitated previously because we do not want to give the impression something is safe or vetted or otherwise imply it is a trusted source. It’s the internet. Sometimes what you get is what you see and sometimes that isn’t true at all.

Having said all of that, we want to know what the community thinks. Do we allow academic research request posts relevant to our sub? The average request is centered around questions of how remote work impacts families

Do we want to allow posts about new laws trying to be passed that impact remote workers? These requests usually pertain to specific states within the US and focus on either remote workers or remote workers who are moms

Or do we want to keep the rules as they are currently?

Let us know what you think, the poll closes in 3 days.

Thanks,
The Mod Team

Edit: 4 to 3

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I’m looking for honest advice from women who have been through this.

I’m in my 30s with kids and work a lead role that regularly demands 12-hour days. It feels like every time I meet expectations, the job asks for even more.Sometimes it's just depletion all my energy.
I want to be present for my family, but I also want to get lean, strong, and fit again.

For those of you who’ve found a sustainable balance, How did you do it all?

I’m not looking for perfection, just realistic strategies from people who’ve been in a similar situation. I’d really appreciate hearing what worked (and what didn’t).

I have a 4-month-old baby and I go back to work (remotely) in a week. I have no idea how I’m going to get anything done. I’m looking for other people’s experiences working from home with an infant.

I can barely get everything done now — cooking, cleaning, doing physical therapy with my baby (she has a flat spot we are trying to fix), doing my pelvic floor physical therapy, making sure the dog gets walked and goes to the bathroom (this is more difficult than it might seem, as we have no yard and are on the second floor), going to the gym, breastfeeding, planning meals and going grocery shopping, etc. I truly don’t know how I’m going to fit 8 hours of work into my day.

Now, she is exclusively breast fed, but when she starts solids in a couple months, that will add more complexity and time to my day (making the food, supervising her while she eats, then cleaning up the mess).

I have a pretty easy going boss and very flexible schedule, but I do have meetings daily as well.

My husband works full time in an office. He helps a lot when he is home, but he is not home during the day.

I have heard that people successfully work from home with a baby, but do you also have time to make home cooked meals and go to the gym and such?

EDIT: we don’t have any family nearby, they all live 1,500 miles away.

Both partner and I work full time jobs. Together we make a decent living.

He works outside of the home, I've worked at home since coming back from maternity leave with my first baby (2021).

I worked at home with my first until 6 months pregnant with my twins (right before she turned 3). She then started part time daycare, and after I delivered, she moved to full time.

I worked at home with my twins until they were almost 19 months old. Doing so, I almost lost my mind, and I definitely lost myself. At 18 months I took matters into my own hands, filed for state childcare assistance so we could afford daycare for 2 additional children (which we were granted because we are not married, so they based it solely off my income). I put them in daycare and life has been much better since for me. They've been in daycare for 6 months and I'm losing weight, taking better care of myself, and can actually focus on my work without 2 kids at my feet.

My partner continues to bring up having another baby. I would love another baby, but told him I couldn't do it if he expected me to work from home with the baby and I told him I couldn't stomach putting a newborn in childcare while I am 15 minutes down the road at home. Surprise surprise, he expects me to work from home with a new baby with absolutely nothing changing.

I explained that I can't continue to do it all with another baby without cutting back on my work - on top of working a full time job... I manage the house, our bills, our pets, all appts for children, the kids are at home with me anytime they are sick, and I work through lunch so I can do not only the morning drop offs before I clock in for work, but also the afternoon pickups after he gets off work. The mental load is insane. He does help at night - does the dishes, half of the cooking during the week, and bathes the twins. He is good with them on the weekend too, but the thing is on the weekend, I get no time with them because I am normally catching up on house chores while he spends time with them. Idk how I'm supposed to continue to manage this with another baby in the mix.

I have approached him more than once about cutting my hours or quitting my job to have more children, but he is against it. He says we will go broke (we won't). Would we have to cut back on spending, yes, but we would manage with thousands left over each month for spending and saving just on his salary. I've tried approaching living off his income and saving my salary for a year so we would have an even bigger cushion than we already have, he's against it.

After realizing he's totally against me completely quitting my job to have more children, I asked if we could hire help to make things more manageable for me (with or without a new baby involved). Maybe someone to pick up the kids so I actually get a lunch, or even hiring a weekly cleaner so I don't have to work all weekend catching up. He's against both - doesn't want strangers driving his kids and doesnt want strangers in his house to clean.

I am at a loss on what to do. I feel like a slave in my job, in my home and in my role as a mother. I feel like he only sees me for the children I can provide him and for the work I do as a homemaker. Which really bothers me because I love both my job and adore being a mother. I feel like my wfh job is being abused by him because I've shown in the past that I can handle taking care of children while working full time. The obvious answer is to not have another baby, but I truly want more children. A big family is something we've always agreed on, but I just can't do it again and continue to manage everything else on my plate.

Idk what I'm wanting out of this post. I think I'm just needing to vent that I feel stuck and nothing in my life is going to way I want it, even though everything and anything I want and we've talked about for years is totally attainable.

What would you do if you found out that your supervisors supervisor - who is your program manager was “pissed” when you announced you were pregnant nearly two years ago? Program manager is a gay male and most of our team is made up of women - all younger women who are also around my age and likely to start families soon.

Apparently it’s like known information by MANY on my team that he felt this way and now I feel awkward that others have known this and I’ve been oblivious. I don’t want to interact with my program manager anymore but I have to interact with him more than anyone.

He’s also treated another pregnant woman with a certain attitude of remarks but there’s no actual like proof of anything and it’s all just based on things he’s said in meetings and his tone and demeanor.

I’m pregnant again and will likely tell my team in October but now I do NOT want to tell him. He also sounds really difficult to work with. For example, he has a 1:1 with two of the managers under him (one is my supervisor) but our director STILL attends the 1:1 meetings after 3 years which tells me somethings “wrong” or “off.” Cause why is a director attending 1:1s between a program manager and unit supervisor ??

I was thinking instead of telling him I’m pregnant this time I could just meet with my program Director (after I meet with my supervisor) and tell my program Director that I’m uncomfortable telling him… and at least get a documented that I am uncomfortable? Idk if this is quite a hostile environment because he literally seems so nice in person - and he’s VERY gay and it’s very obvious so I feel like the way it kind of comes across is really nice but sometimes condescending and insincere. It’s also weird to me that someone who is gay would not support another human trying to start a family because he just got married.

Last thing, I met with someone recently who called him a snake and to be very careful. Again… News to me! He always seemed so nice maybe a little insincere and overly nice but I didn’t know people would call him a SNAKE.

Anyways.

Thoughts? What do I do?? HR?

I have to return to work in 2 weeks and I’m getting anxious about it. I wfh and my job it’s pretty flexible but I spend a lot of my day in meetings. My mom is coming to stay with us to look after 3.5 month old. I’m so scared for the transition because she only contact naps and we co sleep plus she’s just been a colicky baby. I’m just not ready to return and have to hear here cry when I’ll be in meetings and not able to sooth her. Tell me it will be ok

I hope this does not sound insane BUT

I have an 11 month old and at his 9 month checkup his doctor advised all the milestones we should be working on:

- solids especially finger food (this isnt going well)
- motor skills (he is walking!)
- sensory play (??????)
- talking/babbling (not yet)
- drinking from a sippy cup, straw cup, open cup (HATES IT)
- sleep/self soothing (Crib is lava)

I work full time 8 am to 4:30 pm and I dont know when I’m supposed to find time for all this??? Ex: multiple meals???? Breakfast is just a pouch bc I dont have time for mess and we do 1 meal of finger foods which he has minimal interest in and eats a little and throws on the floor.

So far this summer he hates water, sand, being outside. Is it my fault we havent worked on sensory stuff? I see so many Moms online setting up various bins, water tables, other activities for this.

He spends the days with grandma and he is very safe and loved. They play with toys, go for walks but my Mom is older and has just enough energy. I feel like we’re supposed to be doing more? Would he be better off in daycare?

He is healthy and active. I try to have fun with him but I feel like theres this whole checklist and I’m failing. I feel really guilty bc I’m so busy with work 😕

How are other working moms doing this? Am I being silly for feeling behind?

Looking for some advice. Sadly my maternity leave is over and I go back to work next week. I do work from home and it’s really flexible for the most part. My whole team has kids and have said they would be understanding when I came back to work etc. My husband just graduated and has a remote job he will be starting.

Any wfh parents attempt to try to handle the baby and work throughout the day? I was thinking if baby needs something dad can help etc till I get off the phone and vice versa.

My child will be 3 months and doesn’t nap much during the day (small twenty min naps) but will sleep through the night. She’s still unpredictable as far as feeding schedule during the day

I have started looking for a nanny since I don’t think we will be able to do our jobs and supervise my child once she becomes mobile.

Any wfh parents handle child care and work till the child started crawling/ walking? I’m a first time parent and don’t know what to expect. All I can do is my best and have a back up plan