[April girl]

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Can I just point out here that if work is paying your 14 weeks maternity leave, you may also be eligible for the 18 weeks paid maternity leave offered by the government, ON TOP of what your employer offers.

Just might put your mind at ease, and if your boss is happy with you going back after that, well its essentially 6 months maternity leave you have been able to take, with some form of income - hopefully your boss would continue to let you work regardless of what you choose to do

I was coming in to say the same.

[MooMoosMummy]

Hi Op,

I worked from home (initially school hours 5 days a week and then dropped it to 3 days a week), when my DS was 6 months old. My role was probably a little different as I was working in off site Admin ie. the company would contact me via email/messenger and I would do the work as required. Unfortunately this work was all immediate turn around ie. within an hour and I didn't know what work I had from one day to the next. Also I only got paid for the work that I did.

My biggest challenges were trying to manage a baby and the turn around time of the work (within the hour). If they wanted me to do work whilst he was asleep it was fine, but if something came in when he was awake, I really struggled and felt huge stress. Also due to sleep deprivation the work was taking me longer that it should (because I was SO tired). Furthermore working off site, there was no visibility of what I was doing, so I had to 'manage' the expectations of the company I was working for (I had 4 people who needed me to do work for them), and push back if I was already doing something for someone else (which I didn't always do well, I took on too much).

Eventually I had to let them know that I couldn't do the role, I felt such a failure, both at being a mum and a worker, I was not doing either well

HOWEVER, as many pp's have said, if you can manage your workload in the hours that suit you, then go for it. That would have made a huge difference in my job.

Good luck and I hope that the job works out for you

[Mrs Manager]

Both of mine went to LDC at 3 months so I could go back to work 3 days. It was hard on me being away from them but I would go next door and breastfeed and they were fine.

With DD I did try to work from hom for one of those days but it didn't work as she would just want my attention constantly, and she was a bad sleeper and would only sleep in the day on me or in the car so I couldn't work then.. my only option was to work at night which I'm not keen on.

With DS I have worked from home on the odd occassion when he has been sick, but I have only gotten about 4 hours per day done (we have to do timesheets in my profession so I can't say I was working when I wasn't)

[bungomama]

Thank you so much, everyone, hearing about your experiences has been - on the whole -very reassuring and given me some good points to discuss with my manager to make sure that if I do take up the offer it's on terms that work for both of us

[Feefifofum]

I have a 4 month old and was supposed to have started working from home 1 day a week about now. It's proved utterly impossible. I had a premmie, reflux, colicky, clingy, screaming baby who will rarely let me put her down for longer than five minutes and baps for only 20 mins, from the moment she wakes until midnight. It's all I can do to keep myself clean and fed! (i do teach one exercise class a week for my own sanity but it has often meant Daddy having an hysterical baby for the 3 hrs I'm gone). This was not at all what I expected, esp as other mums told me there'd be lots of time while baby slept. No such luck, not even in the evenings. I would not recommend locking yourself into a contract in advance, as you just can't know what your child will be like.

[trishalishous]

I personally couldnt have, as I had a difficult birth and was still on bedrest at 8 weeks.
but you could give it a shot!

[Swahili]

I couldn't have done it as both of my babies were dreadful sleepers at night and often only catnapped during the day.

[YodaTheWrinkledO...]

I'm currently in a p/t contract role which ends in July; I'm expecting my first baby in October. My manager has said that if I'd like to take on another 12-month contract (including 14 weeks paid parental leave), I can do my job from from home for the equivelent of 2 days per week, allowing me to stay home with bubs and maintain a small income, which would be very helpful since DH's salary is not huge. The catch is that I'd have to start work again after 14 weeks.

I like my job and being able to work from home and still bring in a bit of cash is very tempting, but from everything I've heard about looking after a baby (esp. your first), I'm worried that 3 months is too soon to go back, for both me and bubs.

What do you think?

Having had 2 kids, my answer would be no. It would have been no after my first child, definitely after the second. Then again, financially we were lucky enough that we didn't *need* me to work again so soon, so it wasn't actually an option we had to seriously consider.