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Yes, my company does, and it is age 12. 30%+ of the company is telecommute.
My guess is the people you know haven't read their employee handbook.
Employee handbook...that's funny. When I started at my company, we were pointed to the intranet for anything we needed to find on our own. Maybe that was the case with my friends as well and they just haven't found it yet.
Work from home with kids is pretty much impossible without one of you giving the child attention. I don't mean in terms of basic needs, but as the child grows older, you will find it impossible to have meetings, or concentrate, with the little rugrat running around asking for milk or water, or for you to play with them.
My wife can't WFH, but I can, but I usually save that for when it snows, or if I'm not feeling well, or if one of the kiddos is sick. It's just much easier for me to stay home. I've have started drafting an email, and 2 hrs later still only have 1-2 sentences written. I've been on a conference call, only to have the little guy walk up and tell me he pooped but missed the toilet. It's just a HUGE distraction, not to say kids should ever be considered a distraction. Usually I work in spurts, as they get distracted by toys, or take a nap.
Day care costs will vary based on location. Hard for you to correlate what others pay, as here in MA, day care for a young child can vary from $350-400/week. Gets slightly cheaper as they get older.
Not sure a live-in nanny would be better unless you can totally segregate yourself in a office area in the house and not come out. My wife and I have been home with MIL or siblings playing with the kids, but it's still hard to get work done because mom/dad are #1, and they usually come to you if you appear.
Good luck
Last edited by BostonMike7; 05-17-2017 at 06:28 AM..
I quit working for a bit when each of mine were babies. But I made $25k-$30k and I could qualify for unemployment. I made out better financially then continuing to work.
You can easily hire a nanny and come out ahead.
I'm essentially a product manager for internal sales & marketing applications at a Fortune 50 company. My role is half Sales Ops, half IT.
Not in the ballpark. My salary alone is 160k... before bonuses. It just doesn't make sense financially for me to take a pause for work. Part of me would love to just stay at home and raise kids for a few years (and we could live off of one income) but another part of me is really driven to keep pushing at my career (I'm 26 FWIW). I love what I do and I don't know if I would be as fulfilled without work.
160K for you, I assume your husband is also over 100K based on your 1st post. Be realistic with yourself, you are not going to take a break nor is your husband. Drop the coin, get a full-time live in Nanny to raise your kid. Out of home care will not be an option because you will be to busy to take Jr. to and from. You will not want to schedule your work around the child, so part-time in-home care is out. In the end you are going to hire someone to take car of the things that come after your career, so just start there.
A quality person will cost money, a good amount of money...as they should, they are replacing a parent.
Work from home with kids is pretty much impossible without one of you giving the child attention. I don't mean in terms of basic needs, but as the child grows older, you will find it impossible to have meetings, or concentrate, with the little rugrat running around asking for milk or water, or for you to play with them.
My wife can't WFH, but I can, but I usually save that for when it snows, or if I'm not feeling well, or if one of the kiddos is sick. It's just much easier for me to stay home. I've have started drafting an email, and 2 hrs later still only have 1-2 sentences written. I've been on a conference call, only to have the little guy walk up and tell me he pooped but missed the toilet. It's just a HUGE distraction, not to say kids should ever be considered a distraction. Usually I work in spurts, as they get distracted by toys, or take a nap.
Day care costs will vary based on location. Hard for you to correlate what others pay, as here in MA, day care for a young child can vary from $350-400/week. Gets slightly cheaper as they get older.
Not sure a live-in nanny would be better unless you can totally segregate yourself in a office area in the house and not come out. My wife and I have been home with MIL or siblings playing with the kids, but it's still hard to get work done because mom/dad are #1, and they usually come to you if you appear.
Good luck
That's a good point. I can see focus being tough with little ones in the house. About 30-40% of my day is spent on calls so definitely hard to split attention (at least the Mute button exists)
I know someone just a year older than you who has a baby who is almost a year. Her husband is about a decade older than her and they both work full time, not from home. She has a really great job and loves her career. They have a nanny who comes to their home and stays with the baby all day. I don't know how much it costs and I don't know her well enough to feel comfortable asking, but you have a great salary and with your husband's on top of it, you could probably afford it easily.
However, this nanny recently suffered an injury leaving her unable to work so now the parents are kind of scrambling. This is something to consider, the chance that the nanny could get hurt or sick and be unable to work, but the chances are probably pretty small. This person's story was the first of the kind I'd heard, but it was something I had never thought of. At that point, finding a daycare is an option; but if you go with a daycare from the get go, you wouldn't have to ever worry about the nanny being out for any reason - even a short but serious illness you wouldn't want your baby around (flu) because often daycares have multiple employees.
I personally have always thought that a nanny is a better option. I don't have kids but when I do I hope I will have the means to be able to hire a nanny who could come to my house each day. I am in school getting a professional degree so I will also want to work and have a career, and hopefully have good money as well. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to maintain your career AND have a family. I'm not going to school for a total of 7 years for nothing, just to give it up because some people still believe a mother should be a SAHM.
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I agree with BostonMike's post. I think best bet is to hire an excellent nanny IF you have your home office in a part of your home where a screaming baby can't be heard from the nursery. If your home is set up where the nanny will be kind of focused on shushing the baby rather than playing with and comforting the baby, that's a concern. There needs to be space to separate from the baby and nanny.
I don't agree with the last paragraph that the baby will prefer you over the nanny. That's true if you have a babysitter come over, or your in laws come visit and the baby has needs, etc. They go to parents first.
If you hire a nanny shortly after the baby's birth, and the nanny works in your home at least during the whole business day, the baby will prefer the nanny over you and your husband. Because that's the baby's main caregiver. If you find the baby keeps preferring you over the nanny, that's not a good nanny - there's no bonding there. So that's something maybe to think about - for some parents, it's really painful to see the caregiver be the main bond in their baby's life.
Best wishes with this decision. You're in a position where ALL options are open to you, which is a blessing.
My husband works from home and has since just before our 2nd child was born. This was also when I left work and became a SAHM for a few years. So, we were all home.
In terms of logistics, think about your home office set up and the soundproofing if you use the phone a lot or really need quiet concentration. My husband is on the phone a lot talking to clients and colleagues, and baby/toddler screaming and crying is not really what anyone should hear on the other end of the phone! His office is in the lower level and he has that floor to himself with a closed door, but he's directly underneath the living room and we have an open concept house. Noise carries. FWIW, this wasn't as much of an issue when our kids were babies, it was more in the 1 to 3 year old ages when they would shriek happily and have temper tantrums. My solution as a SAHM was to try to spend as much time as we could outside the house, especially when he had an important phone call. It mostly worked out overall, but it wasn't easy. As the caregiver, I felt like I was often shushing them when they were "just being kids" and then also having to be rather creative in finding places to go hang out with them. On the plus side, the logistics of all being home were so easy. If it snowed or one of us was sick, no problem, no one had to go anywhere You aren't beholden to daycare hours.
Also think about your hours - do you work a set time, or is it more fluid or project-based? My husband is the only one who telecommutes from his office, so he worked on a pretty strict schedule. He occasionally does some extra work at night, but not as a regular thing. When my first born was a baby/toddler, I had a demanding job in a traditional office setting. I would leave "early" at 5:30 pm and then work extra at night. That actually worked very well, since our baby went to sleep at 7. I could usually work from 7 to 9 pm with no interruptions or noise. I have another friend who used to get up at 4 am to get some very quiet work time in before her kids woke up.
My thought is that it might be nice to have in home care for the first year. That way, you can breastfeed more easily (if that's your plan) and you're so close by you can check on the baby or just say hi whenever you can take a quick break. When your baby is a bit older, you could then consider something outside the home. (FWIW, although I was a SAHM, I still sent my kids to preschool a few mornings a week once they were 3. I think it helps with learning to share and get along with other kids, and get ready for a school environment.)
The child care math will also change depending on whether you are hoping to have one child or more than one, and how far apart in age they may be. Not that you need to decide all that now, of course. But daycare is a set fee per child, whereas a nanny should be paid more if she's watching two kids, but it might not be double the price...
Good luck! (And don't take any grief about continuing to work. There are many ways to be a great parent.)
I second a nanny; however, I'm not sure that I would do a live-in. That's up to you and your needs. I personally wouldn't want that. It looks like the typical nanny on average full time in your area is around $545 a week. Very doable on your income. Of course, none of us here know what your other expenses look like. Having a nanny in your home would give your child the one on one care they need, plus they can sleep in their own crib. Nanny's will typically help with housework as well. Here's a link I found with the typical cost.
If you work from home and have a home office it shouldn't be a problem with noise. I think it would be nice to have the nanny there so you can check in on them from time to time on your break instead of having your child at a daycare.
I agree with BostonMike's post. I think best bet is to hire an excellent nanny IF you have your home office in a part of your home where a screaming baby can't be heard from the nursery. If your home is set up where the nanny will be kind of focused on shusshing the baby rather than playing with and comforting the baby, that's a concern. There needs to be space to separate from the baby and nanny.
I don't agree with the last paragraph that the baby will prefer you over the nanny. That's true if you have a babysitter come over, or your in laws come visit and the baby has needs, etc. They go to parents first.
If you hire a nanny shortly after the baby's birth, and the nanny works in your home at least during the whole business day, the baby will prefer the nanny over you and your husband. Because that's the baby's main caregiver. If you find the baby keeps preferring you over the nanny, that's not a good nanny - there's no bonding there. So that's something maybe to think about - for some parents, it's really painful to see the caregiver be the main bond in their baby's life.
Best wishes with this decision. You're in a position where ALL options are open to you, which is a blessing.
Cite please.
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You aren't beholden to daycare hours. 
