How to reconcile teleworking with a baby at home

Changes in the world of work, which have been accelerated by the recent pandemic, force many mothers and fathers to telework from home. This has its positive side since we do not have to separate from our baby when maternity/paternity leave ends. However, for many moms and dads, it has become a challenge, so they wonder how to reconcile teleworking with a baby at home.

In this article, we give you a series of tips that will help you telework with children and/or babies.

Teleworking with a baby at home

Working from home has allowed many mothers and fathers to spend more time with their children. However, reconciling both tasks remains a difficult task. Many times, work schedules are too long and company planning is not always the most ideal. Meanwhile, the baby needs constant attention: -changing her diaper, and feeding her when she needs it...

In short, reconciling teleworking with a baby at home can become a very stressful situation, especially when everyone in the house has to work.

Adapt to working with the baby

To make teleworking compatible with caring for a baby, we must adapt to the new situation. To do this, we must accept our limitations. It is very difficult to be as productive as in-person work, as well as to dedicate as much time to the baby as we would like. Accepting this reality will help you avoid frustration and maintain control.

In addition, it is essential to learn to concentrate while teleworking. Therefore, we have put together a series of tips that can help you stay focused.

Tips to concentrate on working at home

When we telework with a baby at home, the most common thing is that we try to compensate for the lack of concentration by increasing the time we dedicate to work. However, the solution to this problem should not be to increase working hours, but to be more efficient. To do this, you must improve your concentration by preventing the baby from distracting you. Let's see how.

What to do so that the baby lets you concentrate?

These tips can help you reconcile teleworking at home with a baby:

• Work while you sleep: make the most of the time your baby is sleeping.
• Routine: establish schedules so that the little one gets used to their new routine, always respecting their sleeping and eating habits.
• Tasks and activities: keep your little one entertained with tasks adapted to their level of development and that they can perform independently.
• Sensory Toys – Toys that stimulate their senses can hold their attention for quite some time.
• Communication: Communicate with the child in a way appropriate for his age, trying to make him understand the situation.
• Self-care: If you are physically and psychologically well, you will concentrate better, you will suffer less stress and your baby will be calmer.

What do I do with the baby if I work at home?

When a baby is very small, it requires constant attention, so many mothers and fathers are not able to reconcile teleworking with caring for the baby. For this reason, they resort to other solutions, such as a reduction in working hours, greater flexibility in working hours, or seeking help from other people.

You can seek help with your baby

During the first years of life, the baby should be with his father and mother. Therefore, if both parents work, the ideal may be to establish shifts to share the time that each one spends with the child. Despite this, sometimes this is not possible, so some parents choose to leave the baby in the care of a family member, take it to a daycare center, or hire a caregiver.

Breastfeeding and teleworking, how to manage it?

When the baby is still very small, working from home can be more complicated if we continue breastfeeding, but at the same time, it allows us to extend this period. For this reason, we have prepared some tips that may help you reconcile breastfeeding and teleworking.

Tips and recommendations

To reconcile teleworking with breastfeeding a baby at home, you can follow these recommendations:

• Carrying:  using a garment that, while holding the baby to your body, allows access to the chest while you have your hands free to work.
• Routine: If the baby is older, you can try to get him used to breastfeeding schedules, as long as they are not too strict.
• Breastfeeding leave: if your baby is less than 12 months old and you work in Spain, you have the right to take one hour off work a day to breastfeed your child or divide this leave into two half-hour periods. ^[1]
• Breast pumps: These devices will allow you to express your milk so that another person can feed it while you are working.
• Complementary feeding: from 6 months of age, you can start complementary feeding, which makes it easier for another person to feed him.

Important warning: Breastfeeding provides the best nutrition for babies. The pediatrician is the one who can best advise you on the care and feeding of your child, and on the foods you should add to the diet as he or she grows.