Ahh, working from home mom. Living the best of both worlds. Is it twice as hard or easier?
Let me share you my day as a working-from-home mom.
I am blessed and lucky enough that my husband only works twice in a week, so most of the time he will be at home helping me with Alana and I can give 110% focus with work. But the day gets so hard if my husband is at work. I will have a daily meeting at 9am and Alana will wake up at 9.30am, for milk and to change diapers. Let's say if my meeting ends before 9.30am, then I can attend Alana right away. Imagine if the meeting extends until 10am, then Alana will not receiving a proper attention from her mother and it kills me inside. LOL.
To feed her via direct breastfeeding in the morning, change her diapers, wipe her face and clean her teeth. Then I will leave her on her play mat for her playtime, I can get back to work. An hour after that, she needs her breakfast. I need to prepare her food and feed her myself. I usually do not let her to feed herself if she is alone with me without my husband because then who's gonna clean all the mess? I am busy with work, so certainly not me! Hahah! Then back to her playtime until 12 noon, I will be focusing with work. Hardest part is yet to come, guys.
12 noon, her lunch time. Again, away from laptop to prepare her food and to feed her. Then breastfeed. Yes, I do not feed her with expressed BM because I am so lazy with the fact I need to pump. So yeah, direct BF is FTW! Then 1pm, her nap time. YASSSSS. I can get back to work, do daily tasks, finish my projects, reply emails and Skype chats and tackle Microsoft Teams tasks, prepare presentation slides and so on.
But not for long, Alana will wake up at 2pm and the hardest time is here. After 2pm, Alana turns into an overly attached baby. She is the most baby in the history of babies in the universe. She gets super-clingy. She wants me to hold her, all, the, time. If I ever put her on the play mat, just to go to the loo, or to the kitchen to get a glass of water, she'll bawl her eyes out.
Hence, I need to hold her on my chest to continue with my work. That is considered as easy if I don't have meetings. Imagine meetings after 3pm, for one hour. With a baby strapped to my chest, her sneaky little hands keep reaching for the keyboard or mouse. Let say I need to unmute the meeting and it is my turn to talk, Alana also wants to join the meeting and started talking and screaming and babbling. If it's just among my team members, they will think it is cute. If the meeting involves the stakeholders and members from other teams, they will think it is unprofessional. They may understand because everybody is working from home now, hearing kids' screaming at the back is kind of the new norm for all working parents, LOL, but I don't want to seem "inappropriate". That's all.
Continue with snacks and naps and playtime, 6pm is here. Finish with work, can finally prepare Alana's dinner. I usually will prepare her meals for entire week on Sundays. So I just mix the food together; for example, I have blended, cooked and prepared broccolis, carrots, rice, chickens, pumpkins all in separate containers. When the day comes, I just mix the food I want to give her on that particular day and heat it up and serve.
Changing diapers in between work is nothing, it takes only about 5 minutes. But to feed her (feeding meal and direct BF) and to attend her if she cries take more time. Alhamdulillah, my husband's shift really works in our favour so that he could basically takes care of Alana the entire day while I am working, only calls me out when Alana needs her milk.
I can focus on preparing stuff for dinner after I finish working, after 6pm. Can only start to cook once my husband's home from work at 8pm. So we usually going to have our dinner a bit late in the evening if it is my husband's working day, because I cannot leave Alana alone in her playpen while I am in the kitchen. She needs at least one of her parent to be in front of her to watch her play with her toys. LOL. Super manja this one. Manja or dependent? Hmm.
Once my husband home from work, since its Covid-19 era, he needs to go straight to the bathroom without seeing us first. After that, time to bathe Alana, feed her and at 9pm, I can only start cooking for dinner. Then dinner time and next, attend Alana for her final feeding time before she goes to bed at 11pm.
11pm, tidy up around the house, store her toys away, TV time, me time, phone time or chatting with my husband while he massages my feet. I love my 11pm time! Speaking of which, I am typing these words at 11.30pm, right now. LOL!
I have no complaints though. I may be completely knackered and no time for myself, but at the end of the day, everybody sleeps with a full tummy and at the end of the month, I get to splurge online. Kidding! I can help my husband or ease his burden, financially. We can provide more for our Alana and have a comfortable home to live in and I am thankful and always grateful for that, Alhamdulillah.
Other than that, of course, I have no transportation costs at all by staying at home and working from home. I even buy groceries online and they will send it on my doorstep. No costs of going out. Also, no costs for paying for kindergarten/play school/babysitter/carer since my husband and I can take care of Alana ourselves. Basically, this current situation really cut us some costs that we have more money to save or invest and to buy high-quality grocery products.
It is honestly a blessing in disguise for me, despite the pandemic but yes, I am super lucky to see my daughter grows up right before my eyes up until today, she is now 7 months old, without missing a single minute. It may be overwhelming but nothing beats the feeling of being present for my baby girl that I was there with her when said her first word, which was, "Ibu". InshaAllah I will be there for her first everything. Looking forward to work from home forever. LOL!
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