Remote work is a blessing to parents living with a baby. More and more companies are offering paid parental leave. Still, it remains largely a privilege, not a right. Working from home allows you to continue making money while caring for your newborn.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that performing your roles as a parent and professional can be exhausting. Juggling family and work when the residence and the office are under the same roof is challenging enough. The situation becomes more grueling when an infant enters the picture.
What Are the Challenges of Working From Home With a Baby?
Baby care can be burdensome for all work-from-home parents, but it’s particularly difficult for mothers.
Moms have it rough because they need time to recover from the trauma of giving birth, experience body image issues, and get inadequate sleep. About 80% of mothers experience baby blues. Producing insufficient breast milk can be heartbreaking. Dealing with your infant’s various temperaments and increasing demands test your patience and drain your energy. Stress can overwhelm you, resulting in you being extra emotional.
Dads usually take a supporting role in baby care. Still, you must participate actively every step of the way and step up when your spouse needs a breather. Spending time with your child is necessary to activate your parental instincts and strengthen your bond with your little one.
Fulfilling your unique parental duties and professional responsibilities is an arduous balancing act. Both priorities are equally important, so managing just one well is a failure. Learn to cope to become a terrific parent and a productive remote worker and reap the incredible benefits from your advantageous situation.
How Can I Take Care of My Baby and Work From Home?
Parenthood doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Remote work doesn’t either. Figuring out how to balance baby care and telecommuting involves a process of trial and error. Use these 11 tips to get a handle on your situation as soon as possible.
1. Let Everyone Know About Your Situation
Be transparent to your clientele and team about having a newborn at home. This way, you can set everyone’s expectations properly when you can’t be available as usual.
Many parents with children working from home fear discrimination — a valid feeling. However, 40% of families in the United States have a child under 18 years old in the household. A significant portion of the population has been in your position at some point. Even childless individuals can empathize with you.
Reasonable clients and coworkers will understand what you’re going through and appreciate your honesty. If they know you have a solid work ethic, they’ll trust you to deliver quality work and not jeopardize them.
2. Establish a Consistent Routine
Developing a routine with an infant who occasionally doesn’t cooperate with your schedule is easier said than done. Still, it’s feasible.
Newborns spend most of their time sleeping. Your child may not know the difference between night and day, but their behavior can be predictable. They usually return to bed after you feed, burp, change, and soothe them. They snooze for two to four hours and wake up to repeat the cycle.
Use these windows to do your work and finish chores like clockwork. Your baby’s sleeping pattern evolves as their needs change — especially when they start growing teeth and crawling. Note when they begin to stay awake longer and identify their new calmest hours to tweak your routine accordingly.
Still, adapt to interruptions. Your infant may need your attention when least expected and cause you to slip out of your groove. Anticipating work disruption can reduce your frustration and help you be mentally agile.
3. Seek Flexible Work Hours
If your employer permits you to do your job outside your predetermined shift, take advantage of it. It will make your life easier and help you manage your energy more effectively.
Fair-minded companies won’t take it against you when you clock in earlier or later and take longer breaks to be with your kid. Ensure you consistently beat deadlines and maintain excellent performance to keep enjoying this privilege.
4. Have a Separate Workspace
Setting up your home office away in a quiet environment is remote work 101. It lets you focus on tasks and shield yourself from distractions when it’s not your turn to look after the baby.
5. Do Time Blocking
Dividing your workday into blocks of time is a neat psychological trick to accomplish everything you must do without overextending yourself. Use a block to concentrate on a particular set of tasks and determine when to engage in deep and shallow work.
This time management technique allows you to plan ahead, customize your calendar, and boost your productivity while you’re available for work.
6. Get a Baby Monitor
Can’t stop thinking about your baby while working? Use a baby monitor to look out for your child from a distance while on duty.
A plug-in video monitor compatible with your phone with adequate range and backup power is worth the expense. Knowing it stays on even if there’s an outage and you can easily listen and watch your infant from your workspace can give you peace of mind.
7. Consider Dictation Software
Leverage speech-to-text software to record your thoughts when bright work-related ideas come to you while you’re away from your computer. Dictation is doable with one free hand — a safe activity you can do next to your newborn.
8. Work in the Cloud
Use cloud-based apps to access your documents across multiple internet-connected devices with the same email account. The likes of Google Docs and Google Sheets turn your smartphone and tablet into your workstation’s extension. They let you review and edit docs wherever you are, track changes, and revert to older versions.
9. Use a Child Carrier
A calm baby you can safely carry around renders your two hands available for work. If your newborn is heavy enough to use a child carrier, bring them with you to simultaneously accomplish your work while standing and to monitor them closely.
It’s also a wonderful excuse to get up and move to ease the pressure of being sedentary on your neck, arms and legs. Wearing a child carrier lets you alternate between sitting and standing at work while bonding with your newborn.
10. Allot Time for Self-Care
Working from home while taking care of an infant is physically demanding and emotionally draining. Take time to relax to recharge your batteries and preserve your sanity.
Don’t feel guilty about going for a short walk, taking a long bath, writing in your journal, or meditating. It’s never wrong to prioritize your physical and mental well-being. Think of it as a requirement to sustain your strenuous routine as a loving parent and productive remote worker.
11. Ask for Help
Baby care is a full-time job. You’re bound to exhaust your bandwidth, forcing you to run on fumes. Needing assistance from others, like helpful relatives, friends and neighbors, when you have a full plate makes you human, not a lesser parent.
There’s no shame in asking and receiving all the help you can get. If it’s necessary to keep your newborn safe and healthy while keeping your employer or clients happy, do it by all means.
Be a Responsible Parent While Working From Home
Managing your parental and professional duties is taxing no matter how you slice it. When you get the hang of it using these tips, you’ll find the experience rewarding.
