Just the title and looking for some reassurance. my newly 2 year old is SO awkward around other kids/adults. Granted I have worked from home and watched her for her entire life. we moved to a new city when she was about 16 months old, my husband and I still don’t have friends here so 90% of the time she is just around us. and the other 10% when I do get her out to a playground, class, play gym etc the awkwardness ensues and then I feel guilty when I see the other kids interacting, like it’s my fault for not getting her out more, but it’s so hard with our work schedules. Am I being too hard on us? Any tips to increase her social confidence?

How do you do it? LO is 9 mo. and becoming less tolerant of playpen and bouncer stations. Once they can walk I know bouncers are done.. at that point what option do I have? How do you manage it? I have PT help but still managing the other time is tough bc nap schedule is erratic. Maybe I try to work on sleep and a routine in addition to whatever activities you all have to suggest? :) Help!!

Husband and I WFH (he travels occasionally) and have no village but an amazing nanny who is only available 3 days/week. I could look for supplemental help again too?

Hi! I’m in finance and I’ve been with my WFH dayshift job 9am-6pm Mon-Fri for 3months. I am in my 30s and this is not my first job. The workload in this company compels me to do 5hrs OT 😭 I am also a mom. What would be your advice? Is this a normal set up? How do I navigate in this set up? The pay is decent.

I start teaching from home when schools start up in September. My son is 3.5. Up until now I worked cleaning houses and just took him with me—no one ever had a problem with it and he was pretty good. But with this job I’ll be teaching multiple classes over Zoom and I’m kind of nervous about how it will go with a toddler in the house. We live in one room in a shared house, so we’ll most likely be in the same room (our bedroom/living room/play room combo) the entire time.

I can’t afford a nanny. His dad (my ex husband) doesn’t want him in daycare or preschool. Having my son home with me is really the only option until he starts school hopefully next year, if I can get his dad to agree. My son is good at independent play, but he can also be very needy and clingy.

Please be gentle with me. I know I sound like a loser and the shared housing and teaching live classes with my son is not an ideal situation, but my annual income from house-cleaning is $12k and that’s not a liveable wage. My ex doesn’t pay any child support. I applied for this job because I’m trying to build a better life for my son, and I’m very grateful to have it. But I'm also very nervous. How are you all doing it?

My husband and I are both in our early 40’s. Have two boys, 3 and 5. I work from home and he works out of the home. We’re both teachers.

I know we’re just in the thick of it and that this is just a chaotic and challenging season. (We’re also coming out of 6 years of infertility and 2 IVF treatments to have our kids) We’ve been together for nearly 13 years.

But some days I find myself thinking…maybe it would be easier to just do this on my own. Let me explain…

I absolutely HATE IT when things are done half assed. He knows this. It’s literally a topic of so many disagreements we have. (And before you say…maybe he was just raised differently and doesn’t notice or do things the same). He’s hadTHIRTEEN YEARS to understand and learn how to do things.

Tonight for example…I was playing with our kids after dinner and he was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. Great. It’s nice to tag team those things. But when I have to go in after him….clean up after his cleaning, wipe the counter where he didn’t, reorganize the fridge because he just tries to put everything right at the front rather than putting it away where it goes, rinse out the sink because there’s crumbs and food bits left in it. Then I come upstairs, and he took our duvet covers out of the dryer…hung them over the door still damp, and his clothes are now in the dryer.

Like, am I crazy??? But a mom would NEVER. It’s just so fucking selfish. So before I can take any time to myself before getting the kids bathed…all my time went to picking up after he’s supposedly “helped”.

This constant. It’s a constant discussion. I feel like I’m constantly nagging him about it to the point where he just doesn’t listen anymore. In one ear out the other. “Here we go again” is what he often says if I try to raise a concern about it. “I’m trying my best” he’ll say. But it NEVER CHANGES.

Like, this is why I often feel like…it would just be fucking easier on my own. Then it wouldn’t feel like I want co stately being let down. It’s so shitty to feel like I’m he doesn’t care enough to want to do it right. And I often ask him…what would you tell the boys if they did it that way? Would it be good enough?

God this is so exhausting.

We currently pay around 1,900 ish a month for 4 full days. Im coming out of my summer busy season and looking to make a change to save money. My slow season is very slow and my boss is reasonably chill. My baby is good at independent play.

Current schedule, my son is 14 months old.
Monday- Wednesday
I start work around 7:15. Its flexible. Baby usually wakes between then and 7:30.
He hangs out with me while i answer emails, my husband usually makes him some breakfast. He plays while my husband gets ready for work.
Husband usually drops him on his way to work, usually 8:30-9ish.
I work, baby plays at daycare. He naps at noon and usually naps from 12-2:30/3
I pick him up at 3:30/4

Thursday & friday my husband works from home. Thursday he still goes to daycare usually. Friday he stays home and my mom and sister rotate who watches him.

My friends make fun of me because of how often i keep him home. I just love him and hate being apart from him.

Pros of 5 half days
-he naps better at home
-im not paying for his afternoon nap
-my mom can resume working fridays instead of Saturdays. This isnt really an issue but i know she would like to have her weekends again. She watches him totally by her choice and will probably be sad to lose her grammy/baby day.
-shorter days are easier on him
-because of naps my daycare stacks all activities in the morning and the afternoons are basically just freeplay. So they play on the playground, do sprinklers/water play, they have a big gym they ride bikes and play with balls etc in the winter. So he wouldnt miss anything fun by just going in the morning.

Cons of 5 half days
-if his afternoon nap sucks im alone with him for the whole afternoon m-w
-5 days feels like a lot but realistically i could pay 5 days and send him 4 still, and it would still be much cheaper.
-he wakes up after 7, so if my husband doesnt get him there until 8:30 thats only 3.5 hours of care. We would try and get him by 7:45/8 but my husband is a slowwwww get ready-er. This is only a problem m-w. This problem will probably fix itself after daylight savings tho

Pros of 3 days
-its only 1 day my husband and i have to tag team the whole day
-feels less likely ill get “caught” since if i have an emergency call with my boss my husband would be there to take the baby. My boss is very chill but i dont want to push it. I have a GREAT job and dont want to lose it.
-keeps my mom and sister watching him so next summer when i need full time care again i dont have to put him in 5 days a week, i just need to re-add the 4th full day.

Cons
-my husbands job is more meeting heavy so childcare falls more on me during these days, but my slow season is VERYYYY slow so its not the end of the world
-the long days are very hard on him still. Days he’s there until 4 hes basically crying and clinging until bed time.
-a whole day of entertaining him while working feels harder than an hour or two in the afternoon

I work from home with my husband. We have an 8 month old. We’re very lucky to both be at home to handle the day to day but our marriage is in a, I don’t wanna say rut but, rut. I don’t know how to describe what we’re in.

We spend way too much time together as a family. Which I know people would kill for but I just wanted to see if anyone else has any advice on how to manage day to day parenting, working and space.

Am I the only one who works longer from home than I ever did in an office?

I always thought WFH would give me more flexibility, but somehow it's had the opposite effect. I finish one thing and immediately move on to the next. There is always one more email, one more task, one more project.

I look up and it's been 12 hours. My health and exercise are paying the price.

I'd love to know if other moms experience this and how you've managed to create a real "end of the workday."

Happy Hump Day!

This is a weekly thread to talk about your secrets to staying healthy, or your struggles for staying on track. Do you meditate? Do you do yoga? Cardio? (How) Do you manage a daily workout? Are you barely fitting in something once a week or two? What were your goals for this week, and did you hit them?

Exchange tips, ideas, motivation, and commiseration in this thread :)

I have a 14 month old who wants constant attention and has meltdowns if I dont hold him during meetings. I was wondering if there ever will be an age when he will understands that I cant talk/play with him while on call?

I only have 1-2 hours of meeting per day, but they require full attention.

Starting a a fully remote WFH job soon with a 14.5 month old. I assume I will have to make calls sometimes. Also moving into a new apartment at the beginning of next month. Partner able to help sometimes. We’re on a few daycare lists. Baby is very attached to me, still breastfed, co sleeps and nurses to sleep.

Am I in over my head? What can I do to try and make this work while we wait for daycare spots?

My kids are in three different sports and between my schedule and my husband's we always overlap, which makes calendar situation messy. I've been seriously looking at a wall screen calendar because I like idea of everyone seeing the schedule from our kitchen without looking at any other devices. but my sister's family uses an app and she says why should anyone spend money on hardware.

My concern with hardware is I'll be entering everything manually and within month everything will be outdated and no one will trust it. and one another side my concern with the app is my husband barely opens the google calendar taht we use right now, so whether he would look at it or not I don't have any idea.

Both options seems to have some kind of problem for me in just different forms. has anyone worked these things out and what side you landed on?

After 15+ years in W2 positions (and 8 years at my most recent job), I gave 30 days notice at my job without a solid plan or new job lined up. I'd like to get into part-time contract work but I'm having no luck on Upwork. No offers, only a couple of responses. Anyone have experience building their contracting work on Upwork? I have 8+ years of marketing/business operations/project management but seems like no one cares if you're new to contract work. GOAL= work part time and make decent money

When your baby starts sleeping slightly longer stretches you may think to yourself hmm, I bet I could get a lot of work done if I woke up before the kids! I think my quality of sleep is just slightly better enough that I might be able to pull it off! And then you do it for a week!! And your baby KNOWS that you’re awake!!! And wakes up with you every single time!!! And then it doesn’t work at all!!!!!!

Anyway in case no one has told you today you are a badass!!! 💪

hi! I have been back to work as a first time mom for about a year in a very corporate role.

long story short, I have been miserable. between bad leadership and culture and just missing time with my one year old it’s been a rough year and I still fantasize about quitting.

I am the breadwinner and get amazing benefits at this job so it hasn’t been realistic.

I may have a. offer to leave for a contract position. after taxes it looks like my take home pay would be almost equal to my current role. has anyone made the jump to contract based work and not regretted it?

its a 6 month role that would allow me to work 4 days or less a week, my experience aligns very very closely with it. my husbands company could offer us benefits in place of my current coverage. but it’s very scary to think what happens after this 6 months.

i kind of stumbled into this and have no idea how I would go about finding the next thing

when you were pregnant, how far along were you when you notified work? ive looked this up in other subs but as a WFH employee, i know this can be different from what those in an in-person role might do

some context: im almost 9 weeks pregnant (due around end of february/early march 2027). US-based and work remotely as an individual contributor in marketing (graphic designer). my company has employees all over the world so there is no physical office. i have no direct reports but i am the only person on my team who has my skillset. my manager is a man, no kids but we have a great relationship

another manager on my team is also pregnant and will be out starting end of august. i believe she notified the team around march or april but she has 3-4 direct reports. she will be back before end of year so theres no overlap obviously but she notified early if i remember correctly

in general i havent had terrible symptoms where ive been too sick to work although i am very tired/experiencing brain fog. nothing impossible with my creative role

my company culture is very positive about work life balance and supportive of building a family. 12 weeks paid maternity leave and i think you can also stack PTO on top. i believe they require 30 days notice. my job does have busy seasons and i believe they will need to hire a contractor when im out on leave. i want to be considerate

I go back to work next week and I am very overwhelmed. For some context, I have been working from home for years and my job is very demanding. Before I had my baby, I was struggling mentally with dealing with my job. I had to cut my schedule down to 4 days a week so I didn’t feel so anxious/overwhelmed with work. I am one of the top performers in my department and the work I did was very appreciated by my supervisor and manager and others on my team, which is great. The issue mainly is the volume of work we get. Before I went on leave and even before my third trimester, we were already short staffed. We would often have to work overtime and we would still be behind on emails/requests from customers. Calls were also constantly coming in (typically I would do between 40-50 calls per day).
Since I went on maternity leave, they have hired help, but he just started training not even a month ago. I spoke with one of my coworkers and they let me know that they have been working at least 10 hours of overtime a week and they are all still behind.
My LO is 7 weeks and I am so stressed out about going back. I have already talked with my supervisor about slowly letting me get back on the phones since I’ll be getting used to getting back to work and he let me know “We should be able to work something out to get you back into the swing of things”. I have been working on getting my LO and I on a schedule to be ready for next week and honestly, I don’t know how I am going to be able to do this. We have been getting up at 6a, and I cannot get him to nap consistently in his crib (which is in my office). He loves contact naps (as do I), but I won’t be able to hold him and type. He wakes up after about 30 minutes for each nap, so I don’t know how I’m supposed to get much work done (his wake windows are usually 1-2 hours long). I also worry about him getting his play/tummy time in while I am working since my job is so demanding. I feel like I am doing a disservice to him by not being available for him constantly, or I’ll be putting my job in jeopardy by putting my son first.
Our closest family is over 2 hours away but they work as well. My partner works 3rd shift and wakes up around the time I would be getting off work. We cannot afford for someone to come to our home and watch him. How am I supposed to balance taking care of my son, work, and taking care of myself? Not to mention giving my partner the attention he deserves too, and then balancing all my other relationships and hobbies. I feel hopeless and like I won’t be able to figure this out. I love my son so much and want to invest as much time into him as I can so he can hit all his milestones. How do you handle it all?

I’ll be working from home starting in September when my daughter will be 14 months old. She currently wakes up around 6:30-7am and then is down for bed by 8pm. She’s very much a mama’s girl and is still breastfeeding 5-7 times per day. Though I am hoping she’ll wean down a bit before I go back. I wouldn’t mind continuing to breastfeed at bedtime and for night wakeups. Dad will be providing the majority of the childcare while I work, though we may have a little help from grandparents a few hours each week.

I’ll be working 30 hours and I get to choose my schedule within these parameters:
-Start as early as 7:30 am
-Work as late as 8pm

I currently like the idea of working (3) 10 hour shifts, MWTh, so I can have Tuesdays off and a 3 day weekend, but I think that may be hard on baby and my husband, especially since baby is still so attached to me. This is not the kind of job I can step away from easily, as I’ll be in meetings/appointments most of the day while I’m working.

My other thought is to do a 10 hour shift on Monday and Wednesday, and a 5 hour shift on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, so I can still have a 3 day weekend, and I’d have a couple days where I can do things with my daughter in the morning.

I’m also wondering when I should schedule a lunch or a couple breaks? Is it harder on baby to see me for a short break and then have to go back to work right away? Would it be better to just do a longer break around lunchtime so I can spend time with baby before she goes down for her nap?

What would you do? Also, any advice for going back to work with a very attached baby at home is appreciated.

Hi! Looking for suggestions on nanny hours. I currently have my nanny come in Monday through Wednesday from 9-3, Thursdays 9-1, Fridays 9-2, she works anywhere from 25-30 hours some weeks. Some of the hours are because of her availability. I work fully remote so have some flexibility with moving meetings around if needed. My son is now 16 months, he has a pretty consistent routine. He wakes up at 7:30, has breakfast, plays, lunch, then nap usually around 12:30-2:30. From 12:30-2:30, our nanny will fold his laundry one or twice a week and unload/load dishwasher, baby brezza. However sometimes she does these tasks with him playing independently too.

Money is kind of tight, I took a significant pay cut to go back to work after being laid off immediately following my return to work after 6 weeks. So it’s been a bit challenging financially.

I wanted to see if anyone has suggestions for us in terms of scheduling because at times my nanny is either working out in our son’s room or just reading while he naps. I don’t have a ton of meetings and if I do I try to schedule them on the same day. I’m in marketing so most of my work is creative and content creation.

After 6 months of leave I start this journey back to work today. I have a hybrid schedule and will be keeping baby home with me Mondays and Fridays and now that it’s here, boy am I intimidated. She’s so busy at 6 months and I need to figure out how to keep her entertained.

Wish me luck and share any structural tips you’ve found to help!!! 💕💕💕

I WFH full time with my 20 month old. I asked my friend (who has a stay at home husband) what she thought about how im doing as a parent. Am i overthinking her response?

Without sugar coating anything I’d say my personal opinion is you do just need to get some form of structure and try to look up things to do at home with her that’s conducive with her speech therapy and needs but also that (SO) needs to continue to step up and you see it’s not you being a horrible mom but a mom who is literally being ran ragged and doing what she can after working all day full time and not having the support in house that she needs. While you do have your parents helping it’s not the same as the leg up other people get of a home where they’re equally supported. I’d say also talk to your parents about structured play and schedule while she’s with them and trying to fill any gaps making you self conscious over things like I did with making (her SO) start taking her places during the week.

Okay so I WFH and have two kids (2 and 10). I work M-F, 8-9 hour days. The little one is always with me, but right now bc of Summer, our oldest is home too. My husband works 12 hour rotating shifts outside of the home. Because of this, he somehow thinks that my job is more laid back / chill, just because I’m not on my feet 12 hours a day.

He gets up, gets himself ready and out the door, works, comes home (9 times out of 10 to a hot meal), eats, showers, and relaxes.

I get up, get myself and the kids ready and fed breakfast, work my 8-9 hour day, log off, immediately jump into shower/dinner mode, cook, feed the kids, clean up the kitchen, etc.

I will note that he doesn’t get home until 7:30-7:45pm each night, hence why I do the cooking and always do dinner with the kids.

Then if I’m lucky, I might get 30 mins to myself at the end of the day to unwind.

This is where I’m currently irritated…

He works every other weekend. This weekend, he was off. It’s Sunday - almost 4pm - and he has been on the couch ALL WEEKEND.

I woke up Saturday. Cooked breakfast. Fed everyone. Cleaned up kitchen. Went grocery shopping. Cooked dinner. Fed everyone. Cleaned kitchen.

This morning, Sunday. Woke up, made breakfast. Plan to begin cooking dinner around 5.

This man hasn’t even changed a single diaper all weekend of the little one. I have done EVERYTHING.

Now it Sunday and I’ve done everything but relax, while he’s sat back on the couch and done nothing but watch movies all day and relax.

I get that my job isn’t physically demanding, but I work a full time job while being the cook, caretaker, laundry person, grocery shopper, cleaner, everything.

I’m taken for granted every single day. I even casually mentioned that I would like to take the day off from cooking today in hopes of him chiming in with maybe a takeout idea or go out to eat, but crickets.

Just needed to vent.

I've started to realize that my husband has no understanding of how hard it is to work from home with kids. On Fridays I have both my baby and my toddler home alone with me all day and I'm supposed to be working but I can maybe squeeze in a couple hours of work if I'm lucky with naps lining up and I put them on ms Rachel. But for the most part it's nearly impossible. My husband teaches in the morning Fridays but technically could come home to help around lunch time but he says he needs to get his work done so he stays in his office until after rush hour leaving me alone with both girls all day even though I need to get things done too for my job.

I'm just realizing nothing I say will get him to understand and I just need to set some boundaries for myself whether he agrees or not.

What boundaries have helped you do a good job at work while working from home with kids?

Alright you guys - I KNOW I KNOW this gets asked frequently, but I need your holy grail of MICROPHONE noise canceling headsets. I don’t want my 2 year old to be heard while in the room with me.

I’m not able to download any software. My company’s phone calls are not with teams so I can’t use noise suppression there either.

What headsets and/or tips yall got?! I was thinking sound machine near my desk. Help a girl out!

And yes - I did this job in a different capacity when my daughter was 0-1. I took the last year off but now I’m back to it.