Work from Home with Baby Day in the Life

This is a day in the life of a mom who works full time from home with a baby. It’s based on real life: my life. It shows the reality of how moms are doing a lot of things and putting on a lot of hats in the process of keeping their home and work life together.

Here’s a typical day in the life of a mom with a baby on a weekday. I’ve even written a different post on tips on how to survive working from home with a baby.

Note: We only have one child and this is our first baby. I gave birth in October 2019, then went back to work from maternity leave in March 2020 after 4 months off. With the pandemic, we were then asked to work remotely full-time. I am not an actual remote worker, but current circumstances made it so.

While I would love to be a full-time remote worker, the current job I have does not have that option outside the pandemic.

Morning Routine with a Baby

Mornings are always fun in our household. What time we, the parents, wake up, is driven by the time the baby wakes up. Often he wakes up between 6 to 8 AM from his night’s sleep.

Our baby is currently 11 months old as I write this. When he was younger, around 4 months or so, he would wake up between 1 to 4 times a night and we would need to put him back to sleep by feeding him or rocking him. So moms with younger babies, I feel you. Hang in there.

For all you moms who have babies: you are sleep deprived most of the time, yet you guys manage to work full-time, juggle the home life, and function. Kudos to us!

Baby Breakfast

After the baby gets up, we change his diaper (nappies) and clothes and let him play around for a bit after he has his gulp of water. This lasts for around 30 mins and then we give the baby his breakfast.

Breakfast lasts another 30 minutes (or more). Once he eats his bread or cereal, he then gets water and milk then he can then play for another hour or so.

My husband normally takes care of the feeding while I entertain the kid and eat my breakfast. After the baby is done eating, I play with the baby while my husband eats his breakfast, often while he’s working at the same time.

Yay to multi-tasking and hands-on husbands/partners. If you have them in your support system, then good for you, life will be better. To get husbands/partners more involved, I would suggest reading the book Fair Play by Eve Rodsky, it’s great!

Milk and a walk

My husband then takes the baby out for a walk in the morning for around 30 minutes. This gives the baby his first fresh air for the day. Around this time, he normally goes out of the house between 8 to 9 AM.

If the baby wants to go outside early then I can take him out. However, if the kid does not get to go outside, then tantrums will ensue! This kid does not like to be inside the entire day.

Then starts the tricky part if I get things done before 9AM: should I log in to work early or do I do chores? Often, I choose to do chores.

Never-ending Chores

If you own a home, you’ll know that houses can be hard to maintain as compared to renting an apartment. What also needs to be done inside the home on a daily basis should also be considered. These are called invisible tasks – things that you don’t think about often but do automatically as habits.

These invisible home tasks include:

• Cleaning the dishes (or emptying and loading the dishwasher)
• Doing the laundry (includes washing, drying, folding, ironing and putting them away)
• Picking up the toys your kids left on the floor (tidying up)
• Mowing the lawn/grass/other yard work
• Money management: paying the bills, investing, checking money in the bank account, among others
• Vacuuming or mopping the floors
• Dusting stuff around the house
• Home supplies (toilet paper, paper towels, toiletries, and the like)
• And more

Normally I would have between 15 minutes to an hour before I start my work day to start on some chores. I tend to do a bit of both just to tick off some stuff from my to-do list before I do my actual work for the day.

When my husband and baby (or me) come home from the morning walk, then I spend a few minutes playing with him again, and then prepare milk as I try to get him ready for his nap.

Working 9 to 5

The milk thing is dependent on the kid, so I log in to work if he doesn’t want to nap. And then I try to whack out all that I could do within a short time period before the kid starts to cry, have a tantrum, or needs attention.

This also means that I step away from my desk a few minutes each time to play or give attention to the baby. We do not have a nanny, our day care is closed because of the pandemic, and we do not have immediate family members living with us. It is just me and my husband looking after the kid.

If my husband is not on a call, then he can take the baby during the first hour that I’m working while I try to do everything humanly possible in that first hour.

If he is on a call, then I try to do both. It’s hard, but I make it happen.

Once the baby finally naps then that gives us a break, 2 hours or more if we’re lucky to get some more of our work done.

Working parents with babies at home are superhero multitaskers

Where else can you find people who can try to squeeze as much work as they can in the hours that their babies are sleeping? Working moms and dads without nannies or help do it.

Doing it takes a lot of effort, concentration, and intense focus. While the baby is sleeping, I have one thing in my mind: do as many things as I need done from my work to do list. Once the baby is awake, it’s a whole new cycle again: feeding, playing, and looking after them, all while trying to work.

So, while the baby is asleep, that’s your time to do stuff. Ideally you would be working in a different room than your baby. It is not a good idea to work in the same room since the tapping of the keyboard can wake your baby or the baby stirring while asleep can distract you.

Conference calls and meetings

What about conference calls and meetings? How do you juggle that with the baby?

This is where it gets tricky, so I devised a scale for meetings:

The meeting that could be an email blast

Normally these meetings are done on a daily basis at set times. I normally tune out on these meetings when I am not interested in the topics that are being discussed, be it something I’m not in charge of, jibber-jabber, or dead silence as people wait for their turn to speak.

During this time, you could opt to work if the baby is sleeping or just do other stuff at home. Time could be better spent doing other things.

The training session

Unfortunately these are the meetings I have to concentrate on, so I drop what I’m doing. I try to schedule these on times when the baby is napping so it will be easier to concentrate. There’s no other way.

If, however, the baby is up, the husband and I coordinate and we decide who will get the baby if he’s not cooperating. Otherwise, I just let the baby play in the same room (usually behind me), while I watch the screen. Baby likes to watch too.

The presentation

Like the training session above, this needs my attention. Unfortunately, I have had instances when I was looking after the baby and he had a full-on meltdown while I was talking or presenting.

The people in the meeting heard how my baby can scream. It’s great if people in the same call has children so they understand. What’s not great is if you’re in a call with a majority of people who don’t have children, then it’s a different story altogether.

So if this happens to you, apologize and move on. No need to be guilty for having children. Most of the world is working from home and it’s not our fault that the US is really crappy at helping parents have affordable daycare and family leave benefits.

For the record, Europe has an option where maternity leave can be up to a year off. You may not get the full amount of money that you’re making but still, it is something. In France and Sweden, they offer free daycare. FREE.

Moving on before I start comparing and bitching about the US versus the European family benefits.

The company-wide, project, or anything update

Like the meeting that could be an email blast above, I generally tune out of 90% of what the meeting is about unless it is important. I trained myself to pretty much absorb information that’s interesting or important. Otherwise, the time could be better spent doing something else. Unless of course I need to speak in one of the segments.

I do perk up if the topic is something that interests me, like travel, or working from home.

Push Back on Meetings

I hate meetings. I really do. Most of them are time suckers and a lot of them get sent out without any agenda. If these happens and I do not have a choice but to dial in, I automatically tune out after I dial in.

Alternatively, I push back if I can answer stuff on an email. Why spend 30 minutes on a meeting when I can write something down on an email in less than half the time?

Unless of course, it is a training session or a presentation, then that’s pretty much the only reason why I find the need for meetings.

The Lunch Hour

Lunch means half your day is gone and you survived so far! You, your kid, and your partner need to have a break and get nourished.

We normally step away from our computers during lunch breaks. One partner does the lunch cooking or preparation for both the kid and the parents, while the other looks after the kid.

Then, we take turns eating and feeding the kid. For example, dad may be feeding the kid while mom eats lunch. When mom finishes lunch, she takes over the baby’s feeding while dad eats lunch.

Our lunch breaks take up to 45 minutes to an hour since babies are messy. They take forever to eat sometimes and they take even longer to clean.

I curse people who set up lunchtime meetings. You guys have no personal life. Is it that important to have a lunch meeting when you can schedule it an hour before or after? Think twice before you schedule a lunchtime meeting.

Why don’t I have a working lunch, you may ask? Well, I hate the monotony of having to stare at my computer for hours on end.

Don’t you step away from your computer to look after your kid? Yes, but I want to separate my work and my family life as much as possible. And that means lunch hour is sacred.

The Sleepy Afternoon

Oh god the afternoon. My husband needs tea just to stay awake and I need a coffee or a sweet treat just to stay alive and awake.

Luckily the baby also naps in the afternoon so it’s another hour or two to get some more work done without interruptions.

Then it’s a slog trying to get things done at work. You know that feeling when you’re in school and can’t wait until you go home? Same feeling here, can’t wait to just get things done so I can turn off the computer.

This is the optimal time for meetings for me. I may be a bit tired and sleepy but there is a lot more chance I’ll concentrate on what one is saying than in the mornings when I am just trying to check things off a list. Just don’t schedule meetings between 4-6pm. That’s annoying. Unless of course one needs to talk to other people from abroad.

Yay log off time: the evening

I log off between 5-6PM, regardless if I’m done or not for the day. The baby normally wants to take a walk or go play in the playground. It’s the perfect time to do it in Florida, when the temperatures are not so warm yet we still have enough light to play outside.

If baby does not go outside, then cue the small tantrum or he’ll just be restless for most of the evening. So, baby’s schedule comes first, and work comes later.

We feed the baby his dinner, have dinner ourselves (husband prepares in our case), and our nighttime routine kicks in.

Nighttime routine

Our baby sleeps between 8 to 9pm, but the routine starts as early as 7pm when we give him his bath, play with him, and generally try to make him tired. After his walk, he normally gets tired but he’ll get another burst of energy and will play for an hour or so.

My husband normally puts him down to sleep, while I slink away and plop in front of the TV and log in to work for a few minutes. Nothing too complex, just emails or looking at reports for my day job. If I’m done with my day job then it’s on to blog or other financial matters that need to be attended to.

Sad to say but 90% of the time, I’m absolutely shattered by the time it’s 9:30PM and would just want to rest and relax. So like many of the population, I become a zombie and just watch TV until 10ish, when I retreat to bed and start to read a book.

Bedtime

Bedtime is normally at 10:30 to 11-ish PM and would be until 7-ish AM when the baby will get up. Unless of course there will be sleepless nights in the middle. If everyone in the house is sleeping, I slink into another room and start reading if it’s the wee hours of the morning, just trying to get back to sleep.

A lot of the time, I could manage to sleep and get around 7-8 hours if I’m lucky. However, if I’m not, then I can function on 3-4 hours, but it just won’t be that easy.

Day in the life of a working mother

So there, a day in the life of a working mom. Thanks for reading through the whole post if you made it this far. Hopefully this post helped you out, or at least entertained you.

Working moms without any help at home are insanely haggard and busy. For those who can come out of the house looking all polished and poised, well kudos to you!

I wrote this post mainly to show the world how life really is like. Be patient with your co-workers who are parents to young kids. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you feel like you’re not accomplishing anything. Being a parent is a job in itself, and is much more fulfilling than anything you could ever have.

Until the next time when we cover how to travel with a baby, which is a challenge in itself!