Thursday, April 9, 2009

Bring Your Baby To Work...Everyday?

I heard a very interesting story on the radio yesterday about mothers who bring their babies to work with them full time. There are around 100 companies in the US that have implemented this kind of a program.  Obviously it wouldn't work if you are a teacher, cashier, or many other kinds of jobs...but for someone like me who basically sits in an office all day and works on the computer it would probably work out ok.  This is assuming the child is basically in a good mood most of the time and would allow me to get my work done.  I think most of the companies will make sure you have the permission of a co-worker to leave the baby with them if you have extra work to get done, need to go to a meeting, etc. Now there's a perfect job for my assistant!

I must admit that the cost of child care is one of the top concerns my husband has that is keeping me from having a baby before we are a two income family (he is still in school for another year).  We are guessing that it will cost us about $1,000 a month for a nanny/daycare 5 days a week for the baby.  I think bringing a baby into work might actually be an option for me, maybe a 2-3 days a week, and the other days with the nanny/daycare.  Hmm...I will have to forward this website to my boss asap.  For more information on babies at work programs, check out this website.

What are your thoughts?  Have any of you heard of this or tried it?

8 comments:

Lori said...

when I was going to college (way back when...lol) there was a lot of talk about companies having on-site day care centers... this makes so much sense to me! I'm not saying it should be free, but certainly a reasonable fee. Plus think about how much easier it would be on your employee if they could just go check on their child if he/she was having a tough day or what not. Plus all the commuting time between home and daycare and work. I don't understand why companies aren't/didn't jump on that bandwagon

Marcy said...

On-site daycare is one thing (and probably should be implemented!). But bringing your baby to sit in your office with you? I can see this working for the first few months, if you have a relatively calm baby that doesn't need to be entertained as much. But as soon as they're mobile, I can't imagine this working out very well. Not to mention that I have a hard time seeing how, in this situation, either the baby, or mom's work, would end up getting ignored for a large part of the day. So as a last resort, ok, but anything other than that this seems to be asking for trouble...

Alicia W. said...

We have two children(duh) both in daycare.. Brody stays with a lady that runs a small 5 kid daycare from her home and I LOVE IT! Brea goes to a larger daycare BUT they have cameras in every single room and I work for the largest hospital in SC and they allow me to bring up the site and watch her from work all day every week. LOVE THAT! I can see her with just a click of a button. It's not cheap though that's for sure. We pay out 1000.00 a MONTH for childcare. Even if we had the opportunity to bring our kids here I don't think I would only because I'm comfortable with where they are.

Dana said...

i don't think bringing your baby to work is a good idea.. how will you ever get work done? and i'm not sure how bosses will feel about this, i mean they pay to do a specific job, I'm not sure how they would feel about the mother/father working and taking care of their children.. I think that's why there is daycare.. But i do feel that companies should offer onsite daycare at a lower cost!

The Three Little Bears said...

I'd love to bring my kid to work! But I have to say, I wouldn't like other people bringing theirs. Some of them are hellions. Hate to say it, but can you imagine if you had a mom that thought it was cute that her kid screamed like a banshee just for the heck of it?

Danielle said...

It would all depend on the child. That never would have worked with Eliza. She was just too active and not happy just chillin. I think it owul dbeok a few days a week- or once in a while but not awlays. I think on site care is a good option for bigger companies.

Angela Fazioli said...

Hey Heather! I saw this article too and wanted to comment. I currently bring my almost 11 month old son with me to work daily. At 6 months pregnant my boss called me in his office and said I could bring the baby to work with me when I came back after maternity leave. I was floored. A coworker had brought her children but she is my bosses daughter so I assumed that was the only reason that it was acceptable. I never asked or hinted to that notion at all but was offered the opportunity to do so. So 8 weeks after Anthony was born I came back to work with him by my side. For the first few months it was really easy because at 8 weeks they do so much sleeping and eating that most of the day while I was working he would sleep. When he was awake if he was feeling like he needed to be held I would put him in the baby wrap or the baby bjorn and I had both hands free to work and he was content. He would wake up I'd change and feed him and he'd just lay around for awhile and play. I am also fortunate to have coworkers who are used to having babies around and love to cuddle them as well. So if I had to go to a meeting or had a crazy deadline to meet they would all help me out. My son has grown to love these people like family because he's been with them so long. At 9 months old I decided it was time to wean myself from him and bring him to my cousin 2 days a week. He's mobile now, crawling and just recently walking so keeping him in a pack n play or bouncy seat or jumper or anything for 8 hours is not easy. He communicates well though and I can tell when he's had enough. If I had to leave him at daycare at 8 weeks like most moms I would hate my job and want to quit (more then normal) but having the opportunity to bring him with me didn't make me dread work, hate work, hate my bosses and hate my life. I saw friends of mine leave their LOs at 6-8 weeks and my heart broke for them every single day. I am fortunate to say that almost everyday for a year I was the main caretaker for my child and that makes it ALMOST as good as being a SAHM. Glad you posted about this and glad I had something to offer that was different from the rest of the readers.

Carla Moquin said...

I'm the president of the Institute that maintains the site you referenced on babies in the workplace. I'd be happy to help you persuade your boss to let you bring your baby to work, and I can provide you with a lot of information on how to ensure that it will be successful... just let me know if I can help (for free--this is what we do).

Carla Moquin
(801) 897-8702
carla @ babiesatwork.org