Bring your daughter to work day; every day? How does that even work?

This is a topic I rarely discuss with people; because it seem so irrelevant to my craftiness and life at home. In our house, this is a big deal. Why, you may ask? Because, I work 30-35 hours a week and bring my 4 year old with me everyday. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful job, working for a wonderful man; my dad. He's allowed me to get back into the workforce and still be a full time mom. He sees his granddaughter almost everyday, and I don't pay for daycare. That said, I haven't found a way to convey the way I really feel about it.

 

I appreciate that I can bring my daughter to work everyday. I also feel stressed out, overwhelmed and discouraged sometimes. My daughter has been labeled the 'productivity killer' by my co-workers (my brothers) and I understand their frustrations. She IS a productivity killer. In my office, we always have snacks, coloring supplies and my daughter has an unbelievable knowledge of tech gear. She can turn on, and load cartoons (from the internet) onto the laptop to play with. She naps in her own office (which she does have) and is learning to be quiet when I answer the company phones. Again; I KNOW I'm lucky. How many working parents have the option to not pay for daycare and see everything their child can do daily? Not many. I missed her first steps, working a corporate type job and her being in daycare. I was laid off from that job when the company closed down and she had just turned 1, I was pregnant with #2 and we made the decision for me to be a stay at home mom until they were in school based on daycare costs. After we lost him, I NEEDED something to do and my dad had the work for me. I came into work on my own schedule; cried at work when I needed to and continued with my day.

Zoe is nearing 5, and with that will start school (of some sort, that is a whole other post!) in the fall. Come October, Piper will be joining us and will start going to work with me while Zoe is in school. I'm thinking that my hours are going to HAVE to be cut back, since managing a newborn and a preschooler will be close to impossible. 

I find that 'quiet time activities' for anytime work well to manage my 4 year old's time currently. I'm probably a terrible mother, but she does watch a movie everyday while I'm at work and then we move onto the other activities.

As a mother, our struggles are all unique. Not everyone struggles with the same hardships, and many times we can't compare our hardships to anothers.

As a parent, what is something that you struggle with and how do you manage to cope on a daily basis?