Can you work from home with a baby without childcare?
Working from home without dedicated childcare is nearly impossible if your job requires attending calls and meetings. Juggling these dual demands is unfair to both the child and the employer, leaving parents exhausted and skipping meals just to keep up. Most parents either cut their work hours drastically or give up and hire a nanny within weeks.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- This comes up 17.3× more often in r/Parenting than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Looking for fully remote roles with capped hoursDid this help you?
- 2Switching firms or industries to find better work-life balanceDid this help you?
- 3Hiring a full-time nanny or utilizing daycareDid this help you?
- 4Working late at night or during the child's naps to catch upDid this help you?
- 5Having grandparents or family members drop in during the workdayDid this help you?
- 6Splitting extreme part-time shifts with a partnerDid this help you?
- 7Relying heavily on takeout food to save timeDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Full time working mom here. I currently work at a role where I was hired remote and forced back into the office full time. I have two young kids and an in-house childcare- so going into the office has been awful.”source ↗
“I have two very young kids so work life balance is the most important to me.”source ↗
“My husband says I should be able to be the primary (and frequently only) caretaker of our child while working remotely, I say absolutely not for a multitude of reasons.”source ↗
“I WFH. I could barely deal with my dog. If you're on calls, meetings etc. WFH doesn't mean you're invisible.”source ↗
“I've WFH full time since 2014 when my oldest was 4. IMHO you must have childcare during working hours - it's just too hard to juggle it all, it's not fair to yourself, your employer and MOST IMPORTANTLY your kid.”source ↗
“I lasted 2 weeks then hired a nanny.”source ↗
“We made it work to not have any childcare from 4-6 months old with me working 20 hours a week and him working 32. It was AWFUL.”source ↗
“I lost 15 pounds in that period of time because I didn’t have time to eat. I did not want to lose 15 pounds. I was not trying to lose weight.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 13How to handle chores when your toddler demands attention
- 12How do you manage a newborn and a toddler alone?
- 12Handling childcare and bedtime routines completely alone while working
- 11How to divide attention between multiple young children
- 4How to handle school truancy when your kid is sick
- 3How to raise a puppy when you work full time alone?