Moms please help. How do you balance work and a baby?
Hi moms 🤍 (a bit long but I appreciate the help)
I’m currently on maternity leave from my corporate job & will be returning in mid-April. I’m really grateful for the company I work for & I truly enjoy the work I do. My role is mostly WFH & I have the option to go into the office once a week, although it is not required & is usually just for socializing with coworkers.
Now that my return date is getting closer, I’m starting to feel stressed about how I will realistically manage working while caring for my 3 month old. I breastfeed my baby every 3-4 hours & have a small stash of pumped milk, but between feedings, diaper changes, spit ups, & playtime, I honestly do not know how I will balance working & caring for baby at the same time. 🫠
Have any WFH moms figured out how to make this work? I would really love to hear what has worked for you.
Another option my husband & I are considering is asking my mom to care for our baby during the workday. The challenge is that we live 1 hour away from my parents. If we did this, I would drive to my parents house in the morning to drop off my baby & my stored breast milk, then I would go into the office to work since my company headquarters is in the same city where my parents live. At the end of the day I would pick baby up from my parents house & drive another 1 hour back home.
If we go this route, we would want to pay my mom something that feels fair to both her & us. My husband is the main breadwinner & my income is more supplemental, so we are trying to figure out what would be a reasonable amount to pay her.
For those who have had family help with childcare, what did you typically pay or how did you structure it?
Sorry for the long post. I am just feeling a little overwhelmed & would really appreciate hearing from moms who have been in a similar situation. Thank you 🤍
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You can probably manage it, but you might end up feeling torn all day, so worth considering option 2 at least part of the week to give you some focused work time. I just did a month of working from home and I mostly managed it by having my baby on rotation between different play stations (play mat, bouncer, etc., depending on what you've got) between feeds, but it was hard at times, as I felt like I wasn't giving my baby the attention she wanted. My mum helped us a few days and it was much better, as I could focus on work exclusively for at least a few hours a day.
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