Working from home with kids

I'm working from home right now and DD is at daycare. I totally thought I could keep her home with me. My boss agreed as long as I didn't tell the higher ups (she doesn't have kids).

I was so, so very wrong. I lasted 2.5 months and then her little butt went to daycare. It was a nightmare. NIGHTMARE.

Re: Working from home with kids

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by GoldenRod

Posted by NervousNell

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by MarisaK

As a working mom, commuting to NYC every day, paying a small fortune for daycare - I feel EXTREMELY strongly about this -
You CAN NOT, and SHOULD NOT be allowed to work from home WITHOUT full time child care. NO company should allow this, and I believe there should be very stringent rules and contracts put in place for a WAH arrangement, and those rules must apply to all WAH arrangements.

A company would never be able to enforce this. My whole neighborhood works from home, Mostly men. Ironically many of the women are forced to be in office

They could enforce it by asking for proof of paid childcare each month.

How would you prove that your spouse or a grandparent is watching DC for free?

There is no way they can prove or enforce. Seems like the female dominated groups must be in office while the male dominated groups (front office) WFH. I'm sure this is not an accident!!!

Re: Working from home with kids

I’m a full time work from home employee with two kids. It is difficult but it is doable. You basically need a routine and because I’ve been doing this since the kids were born, the kids get worked into the routine.

As long as my projects get done on time and I’m available during business hours, my boss has no issue. I do work after hours though to stay ahead.

Working from home with kids

Pretty impossible. There were a few months that I was able to WAH 2x a week and either DD, who was 6-9 months old at the time) went to daycare, my mom watched her, or if I didn't have anyone, my job was flexible enough that I could do my work outside of regular business hours like when DH came home or after she went to bed. As long as my work was done by the time I went back to the office, it was fine.

Working from home with kids

I know I couldn't do it with my 2 kids. Where I used to work, if you did have a regular work from home day, you had to agree to have another caregiver.

Re: Working from home with kids

Re: Working from home with kids

Working from home with kids

I WFH full time. It's impossible in my field. I have childcare for my DS. 70% of my day is spent on conference calls. I could never adequately care for a young child and work simultaneously.... I'll never forget, my sitter was running late one morning and I had an early call and it was a disaster! He was screaming! Luckily I was not leading the call and could basically go on mute but needless to say I was really unable to pay adequate attention or add value for the first 15 Minutes.

Re: Working from home with kids

Posted by LuckyStar

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by GoldenRod

Posted by NervousNell

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by MarisaK

As a working mom, commuting to NYC every day, paying a small fortune for daycare - I feel EXTREMELY strongly about this -
You CAN NOT, and SHOULD NOT be allowed to work from home WITHOUT full time child care. NO company should allow this, and I believe there should be very stringent rules and contracts put in place for a WAH arrangement, and those rules must apply to all WAH arrangements.

A company would never be able to enforce this. My whole neighborhood works from home, Mostly men. Ironically many of the women are forced to be in office

They could enforce it by asking for proof of paid childcare each month.

How would you prove that your spouse or a grandparent is watching DC for free?

There is no way they can prove or enforce. Seems like the female dominated groups must be in office while the male dominated groups (front office) WFH. I'm sure this is not an accident!!!

I'm not sure what one has to do with the other? All of the higher ups executives where I work are women, and moms to boot. There is lots of WAH going on in my office.

Re: Working from home with kids

Re: Working from home with kids

Posted by LuckyStar

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by GoldenRod

Posted by NervousNell

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by MarisaK

As a working mom, commuting to NYC every day, paying a small fortune for daycare - I feel EXTREMELY strongly about this -
You CAN NOT, and SHOULD NOT be allowed to work from home WITHOUT full time child care. NO company should allow this, and I believe there should be very stringent rules and contracts put in place for a WAH arrangement, and those rules must apply to all WAH arrangements.

A company would never be able to enforce this. My whole neighborhood works from home, Mostly men. Ironically many of the women are forced to be in office

They could enforce it by asking for proof of paid childcare each month.

How would you prove that your spouse or a grandparent is watching DC for free?

There is no way they can prove or enforce. Seems like the female dominated groups must be in office while the male dominated groups (front office) WFH. I'm sure this is not an accident!!!

I'm not sure what one has to do with the other? All of the higher ups executives where I work are women, and moms to boot. There is lots of WAH going on in my office.

Message edited 8/24/2016 2:17:38 PM.

Re: Working from home with kids

Re: Working from home with kids

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by LuckyStar

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by GoldenRod

Posted by NervousNell

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by MarisaK

As a working mom, commuting to NYC every day, paying a small fortune for daycare - I feel EXTREMELY strongly about this -
You CAN NOT, and SHOULD NOT be allowed to work from home WITHOUT full time child care. NO company should allow this, and I believe there should be very stringent rules and contracts put in place for a WAH arrangement, and those rules must apply to all WAH arrangements.

A company would never be able to enforce this. My whole neighborhood works from home, Mostly men. Ironically many of the women are forced to be in office

They could enforce it by asking for proof of paid childcare each month.

How would you prove that your spouse or a grandparent is watching DC for free?

There is no way they can prove or enforce. Seems like the female dominated groups must be in office while the male dominated groups (front office) WFH. I'm sure this is not an accident!!!

I'm not sure what one has to do with the other? All of the higher ups executives where I work are women, and moms to boot. There is lots of WAH going on in my office.

In every office I have worked (finance), the male heavy groups like front office work from home. The groups with more women must come into the office. Seems unfair. And intentional. To add, most of my area has a WAH parent and 90% of the time, it's the man that WFH.

Re: Working from home with kids

Re: Working from home with kids

Posted by NervousNell

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by LuckyStar

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by GoldenRod

Posted by NervousNell

Posted by Bebelove

Posted by MarisaK

As a working mom, commuting to NYC every day, paying a small fortune for daycare - I feel EXTREMELY strongly about this -
You CAN NOT, and SHOULD NOT be allowed to work from home WITHOUT full time child care. NO company should allow this, and I believe there should be very stringent rules and contracts put in place for a WAH arrangement, and those rules must apply to all WAH arrangements.

A company would never be able to enforce this. My whole neighborhood works from home, Mostly men. Ironically many of the women are forced to be in office

They could enforce it by asking for proof of paid childcare each month.

How would you prove that your spouse or a grandparent is watching DC for free?

There is no way they can prove or enforce. Seems like the female dominated groups must be in office while the male dominated groups (front office) WFH. I'm sure this is not an accident!!!

I'm not sure what one has to do with the other? All of the higher ups executives where I work are women, and moms to boot. There is lots of WAH going on in my office.

In every office I have worked (finance), the male heavy groups like front office work from home. The groups with more women must come into the office. Seems unfair. And intentional. To add, most of my area has a WAH parent and 90% of the time, it's the man that WFH.

OK well that's your experience. I have never experienced that and I work in a highly male dominated field.
For us it's all about your position and if your work can be done effectively from home. And even then you are expected in the office to see salespeople, clients, have meetings with your team etc. Our general rule is once a week from home only (with exceptions for if things come up like sick kids, snow storms etc)
Male or female- all the same rules

Working from home with kids

I have a mothers helper to help me when dd gets out of school. I work 2 days from home.

I work in a more female driven industry but there are def males. Same rules apply to everyone.

Everyones industry and experience is different. This is mine. Ive been with my company for almost 10 years. So its not like i was hired to work from home. I was able to work kt out with them. But when im needed for meetings or something important comes up like a conference then im on site no matter what day it is.
I go into the office at least once a week. And at least twice a month i go in twice a week.

Message edited 8/24/2016 7:25:30 PM.

Re: Working from home with kids

My DH works from home full time when he isnt traveling. I work from home 2-4 days a week. We cannot watch out kids and work -- we need to do our jobs, we just do them from home. We would be short changing our jobs and our kids if we tried to do both. When DS was little I had my mom watch him from our house so I could nurse more easily (and because he slept a lot, wasnt mobile, and wasnt interrupting). Once he got older she needed to start watching him at her house. Even with full time care its too stressful to have the kids around because they know you are there and can be noisy and demanding at the worst times. That said, this summer we had the camp bus drop older DS off appx 445 and we would sometimes let him hang out and watch tv or play independently until we were able to stop working. That would not have been capable with younger DS, who remained at my parents house until we were done.

Re: Working from home with kids

When DS1 was little DH and I each negotiated a flex schedule for my first 6 months back from leave -- we worked 3 days a week in the office each (and had a nanny those days) and 1 day "off" and 1 day WAH. We structured our days so my "off" day was his WAH day and vice versa, that way one of us could cover for the other during the inevitable call or e-mail that came up on our "off day" -- but that only worked because it was the exception to the rule and even that was stressful!

Re: Working from home with kids

My cousin "tried" working at home with her 3 year old daughter. Needless to say it was a disaster. She couldn't get her work done, missed a deadline, and her daughter hung up on her conference call.

Her boss emailed her and asked her to come in early to speak with her the next day since they had a morning meeting with a bunch of people. Well all I will say is that is the first and last time she worked from home.

Re: Working from home with kids

I have one kid, a 3-year-old, and I work from home three days a week and commute into the city two days.

My DD is in daycare while I work from home, though there have been times (she's sick, daycare closed, snowstorm etc.) where I've had to work while caring for her. Trying to juggle both is the purest form of torture and my work definitely suffers and so does my DD.

Re: Working from home with kids

Re: Working from home with kids

I work half of the time from home, but the work I do does not need to be done at a specific time. When DD was first born and sleeping most of the day, I would work mostly during naps. A few months later that was even impossible, so now I work at night, after she goes to bed, and pray she doesn't wake up. I also do a lot of work on Friday, when my husband gets home or on a Saturday morning.

Re: Working from home with kids

I work from home regularly with kids in daycare.

It makes me very angry when others are taking advantage as this prevents other companies from offering it to mature,professional people. Some do take advantage and it really is awful.

Situation OP described does not exist. Either you are not working or you are not "momming". You cannot do both on a regular set time with children that young.

Sure a random sick day I put my kid in front of the tv and do emails but honestly, I'm not really doing either role. It's impossible.

I just hate how like many things, bad apples can spoil it for the bunch.

I'm lucky as my company is very supportive. I wish everyone had this same benefit.

Re: Working from home with kids

I just started a new position with the option/potential to WAH some of the time. The employee handbook specifies that employees working from home must have childcare, as this option is not a substitute for childcare.

Re: Working from home with kids

It's not possible to WFH if your kids are at home.