We (30M and 31F) are expecting our first child in approximately a month. My wife is on maternity leave for a few months, and we are wondering what we will do after it is over.
Daycare is pricey. My wife works remotely, and I just have to be in the office two days per week. Can we care for the baby by having at least one of us work from home during the week and avoid daycare?
We are first-time parents and are unclear whether this is wishful thinking or not.
Update: rats.
If your profession requires meetings, calls, or a certain timetable… You will not be able to work from home while caring for your baby!
It’s difficult to care for a newborn while working. We are also remote, and our infant is at daycare, allowing us to focus on our careers.
I was feeling confident that I could handle both until they started crawling. Now I am convinced I need a team, possibly two teams.
My spouse used to watch our infant in the mornings while working remotely. I got to sleep in till 10 a.m. It was especially wonderful because I was the one awake at night.
It ended as soon as our guy became mobile. Ah, the good old days.
We have a laid-back infant who we put in daycare about 6 months. He became ill frequently, so he had to stay at home with me (I worked from home), and I was able to pull double duty until he was around 10-11 months old and crawling.
If OP has a laid-back baby, they could definitely work remotely for 6-10 months while keeping the baby at home. However, it is highly subjective depending on the circumstances.
But now I giggle when people ask, “If you work from home, why is he in daycare?” Ma’am, have you ever attempted completing a job with a toddler? It is impossible.
Same. I am distant, and there have been a few occasions when the baby was sick and I had to do both. I accomplished almost nothing.
You may definitely get away with it in one-off instances like illnesses, but I wouldn’t try it on a daily basis. I can’t fathom how stressful it would be for your poor wife to have to do that on a daily basis.
Or the inverse! I needed to take PTO today, so I had to send the kids to daycare even though I’d be at home. However, I will pick them up early.
Same! My husband and I both work from home, and if we had to care for our child, we would only be able to do about an hour of work.
No way. Unless you have a job that you can complete in about 75 minutes per day. If caring for a baby was not a full-time job, hiring full-time caregivers would not be as expensive.
This is really true; I work part-time from home with a 7-month-old and have been since he was two months old. 75 minutes seems about right. Only when he sleeps can I get on the laptop, which kills me because it’s so demanding. I really need that time to simply chill and replenish my batteries for the next cycle. 
I’m training a new start this morning via video call, and my mother is assisting with childcare. He has been sleeping well recently, but he is currently teething, and I only got 4 hours of sleep last night. It always happens when something major is going on. Yay!
Exactly. Would someone hire a nanny and be alright with the nanny working remotely while caring for their child? The answer is, of course not!
My son is actually a very well-tempered and generally happy infant, and I can’t even wash a cup in the sink while watching him at home some days lol!