Wednesday, September 14, 2011

whistle while you work

Juggling work and parenthood is a tricky thing.  Juggling work while parenting is a whole new ball game.  I am blessed beyond belief to have a boss who values the attachment between mother and child, so I am able to bring J to work as much as necessary.  He comes with me as many as four days a week or as few as two, depending on T's work schedule.

I want to ensure that I get all my work done quickly and efficiently, so that my boss continues to allow me to bring J knowing that my productivity is just the same whether or not he is with me.  I also want to ensure that J is getting the right amount of attention and stimulation he would otherwise.  Clearly, I do not want to stunt his development so that I can get work done.

When J naps, I am able to complete many tasks as he gets his (much needed) rest.  However, he takes a brief 45 minute nap at school and sometimes close to 3 hours later in the afternoon.  I would like him to reverse those, but so far I have not had the most success.

The rest of the time, J rolls around on the floor scooting towards his toys or, inevitably, the blinking light on my wireless router.  I try to self-talk about my work as I am doing it and he listens intently.  Thankfully, there are a few staff members popping in throughout the day and he has often traveled to a classroom for community time (i.e. when the children sit together in a group for stories, songs, etc.).

Right now, this is a wonderful situation.  Childcare for infants his age is upwards of 2k a month.  I am just not willing to pay that.  Likewise, breastfeeding is a cinch as I can scoop him into my arms and still use the computer at the same time.

As he gets older, I'm not sure that this will be the best environment.  It will be important that he has peers for social interaction.  He will need an opportunity to move more freely and learn to be (a tad) more independent from me.  I'm just not sure we want to spend our money this way, as this time.  Ideally, we could have a nanny-share with a family whose child is close in age to J.  How about my blogger buddies pair up with me? ;)

As it is in all situations related to parenting - you figure out what works in the now and you adapt as time goes on.  Nothing is static nor should it be.  And for this, I am thankful.

What do you do for childcare?  Does anyone else have the opportunity to bring their child to work?  Would you do this if you were able?

8 comments:

LOVE MELISSA:) said...

I work 3 days a week. We have a part time nanny who we have used for 3 years now. I was originally going to put her in daycare, but then found this wonderful lady.

N said...

Hi! We found an awesome childcare provider. She has three babies total, Jack is the oldest and her more "full-time" baby. But with my husbands school schedule he is only at Daycare from 12-6pm M-Th and then Friday he is only there for an hour or I bring him to work with me. I think the days of bringing him to work are coming to an end. I don't have my own office, so now that he is becoming more vocal and in motion I have gone from every Friday, to every other Friday and now I am down to once a month or so. We'll see what the future holds, but for now I am glad that he has interaction with other kids, we can actually afford it (hard to find) but he doesn't have to be there 12 hours a day 5 days a week, which was my original fear. A nanny-share sounds ideal!

Emily said...

I have the option to bring the baby to work with me, but found this was difficult because she doesn't value my productivity as much as I do! If I'm around, I'm generally expected to entertain her or there will be loud protests. Also, I have many meetings throughout the week and I need to be able to offer my undivided attention to people.

I can also choose to work from home, but have found this exceedingly difficult. Having a work environment that is different from my home environment is vital for me getting anything done. I experimented with this while I was on bedrest at the end of pregnancy and was not successful.

So, the baby goes to a sitter three days a week and gets interaction with four other children ranging from 15 months to eight years. The sitter is wonderful but is slightly more conventional in parenting than I am. The baby fusses to sleep for her naps (which I'm okay with), and gets driven around a lot to the other girls' practices and school events.

There is no ideal, as far as I'm concerned. I could never stay home full-time and save my sanity. I will never stop feeling a little guilty that I work while the baby has to be away from me. All in all, I'm thankful that there will be many excellent therapists to help the baby work through it all someday!!

Callie said...

Wow! That is awesome. I sometimes wish I could work, but only if I had a very similar environment as you describe.

I agree when he gets older, it may be more difficult, especially when he starts walking, but for now, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Allie said...

I hear you. I work at home so that I can be with IV. Sometimes I have to pull something off my work computer or pick up/drop off stuff to my office and I bring IV with me. My boss is all for it and would probably like us there more, but it's hard. He's only content playing on his blanket for so long, sitting in his bumbo for so long...I actually him in my office for a nap and closed the door. He slept for 20 mins and woke up in a bad mood. I had to leave because he was crying. It's not as easy as people might think...even being a WAHM and SAHM is tough - just go read one of my last post about it. HA! So I hear you - but we do what we do to be with our boys...right?

Tmuffin.com said...

This is such a great post! Juggling work and parenthood is one of the hardest things. I work from home, and I'm constantly wondering if I'm spending enough time with Little M. Right now, he's babbling on my back in the ergo and I feel like I'm not paying attention to him, even though I talk back and crane my neck backward to play peek a boo.

He's getting bigger, and I said to Big T the other day that it's too hard for me to get things done lately.

He said, "Adapt."

You're right, nothing is static, nor should it be. You just go with the flow, and in hindsight, it almost always works out.

My first son is in daycare and has been since 8 months old (but it's cheap here) and I don't know if or when I will put Little M in daycare. I do need to bring in an income, but I need to balance that with parenting too.

It's hard, but we just figure it out as time goes on. You are in such a great situation. You'll ride it out and adapt as everyone grows.

Anonymous said...

Hello, found you off another blog, your little boy is so cute and about the same age as mine :) ... I'm back to work in October but Me and my partner have jobs that work round each other so there's always one person home with Josh. Although xmas is gonna be hard with him doing loads of overtime :s ... May have to rethink this.
x x x x

Pop by and say Hi sometime :)

LOVE MELISSA:) said...

Hey there, Come check out my new blog design. If you want to swap buttons, lmk:) Hope you are having a great week.