My maternity leave is getting closer to the end and I'm looking at all my options. Do you work from home/ provide supplemental income from home? What do you do? Tell me about your hours, how it works with day to day family life, how much income you bring in (if comfortable sharing). I'm open to all ideas!
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I work a corp, salaried job and pre-baby worked from home one day a week. DH makes more, but I also bring home a considerable amount of income. I love working and I couldn't see myself giving it up. My mom watches DS when I'm in the office and on my busy days at home. If I'm slow, I usually watch DS and work on/off.
During pregnancy, I spoke with my boss and set up 5 weeks of wfh through the end of my pregnancy and also wfh post-leave more frequently. I've been back to work for almost a year now on a flex schedule. I work from home 2-4 days a week and in the office the other days. They're pretty flexible as my workload is a fluctuation dependent on client schedules, etc.
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I work for a very large corporation. Pre-baby, I worked from home occasionally. Post baby, I work from home usually two days a week. Three days, only if necessary, I get bored easily at home. I make a sizable amount of our total income. We have daycare for LO 5 days a week.
When I went back, I pumped three times a day in the lactation room during my day in between working. At home, I had to do the same thing. It made it tough to work, but the benefits for LO outweighed my inconveniences.
When I was near the end of my pregnancy, I was supposed to work from home up until my due date. LO arrived a couple days early, so no breather there. Next time around, I'll work from home more and have my computer with me near the end of my pregnancy. My first day back, my computer got overhauled.
ETA: I had to come into work today because our router broke. So that's one of the work from home things that happen.
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Well I SAH but I do freelance writing. I don't make a ton, but it's supplemental income for incidentals/savings and I enjoy doing something on the side. I can do it whenever I want/have the time so my perfect time to sit down at the computer is at night when it's quiet and everyone has gone to bed. I don't have a set day-hour schedule that I need to keep so I like the freedom/flexibility.
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I work from home. My job and pay is not really useful to you because I'm a lawyer which isn't something you can opt quickly to do and also it is extremely uncommon for lawyers to get to work from home (also being a lawyer sucks. So um, not recommended regardless haha).
As for the reality of it though, there is good and bad. I like the lack of the commute and the lack of pants required.
I start work at 8:30 and I wake up at 8:15 (basically out of bed, brush the teeth, make my husband's lunch/my breakfast/coffee, and I sit down to work-- woot!). I like that it is comfortable-- working on the couch beats a desk chair any day. I like that it is flexible, I can take doctor's appointments mid day or go to the grocery store or whatever, it isn't so "punch a clock" but more-- get these tasks done. I do not like the lack of human interaction. You have no idea how important lunch out with coworkers once every few weeks is until you don't have it. Or even just a 5 min "how was your weekend" chat. The first 2 years I did this I felt extremely lonely and isolated. Thank god for the internet. I do not like that my job never ends. There are no sick days or snow days because how sick would I have to be to be incapable of sitting in a robe with a laptop in bed. Also with flexibility comes accessibility. I get calls from my boss nights and weekends… always. I don't think I've ever taken a vacation where I didn't get at least one call from him. There is no real separation of work and personal life, and I often am doing some sort of work after dinner. I also dislike that people seem to think I don't work. Oh you're at home all day? HOW FABULOUS!! You must watch so much tv and your house must be spotless! Um? I am getting paid for doing SOMETHING… I just happen to do it on the couch at home. I still do have to actually work. And relatedly, the first year I lived with my husband was challenging because with my being home all day it was hard for him to not sort of think of me as a housewife. With all the associated house and cooking duties. It took a good many fights for him to really internalize that yes I am home.. but I am WORKING. I work full time and get a paycheck just like you buddy, you don't get a stay at home wife with all the wifely duties AND a spouse who brings home the bacon.
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Pre baby I work from home pretty rarely. Due to some changes with my job (my position is moving half way across the country and I have decided not to move with it) I am now working from home 4 days a week and going into the office once a week. My husband has a unique work schedule so he is home 3-4 days during the work week. When he is home, he takes care of the baby except for feedings since I am nursing. He also cares for baby on the days I go into the office. My MIL doesn't work so she is available to help out if I am too busy or need to be on the phone a lot when DH isnt working. If this was going to be a permanent thing, baby would be in daycare but since I will be losing my job in a few months we are focused on saving money now.
Right now I am working well into the evening because we are so busy. Im typically online 7-7 but I take lots of breaks to nurse and when DH is at work I take even more breaks to change LO and get him down for naps.
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I work from home, but the majority of my time is spent outside of my home interfacing with customers.
I am home all day on Monday and my day consists of analyzing data, scheduling meetings for the week, and conference calls- anywhere from 2 to 4.
During the rest of the week when I am visiting customers and my day starts early. I have about 1.5-2 hours of back office type of stuff to do before I leave for the day. When I get home I have another hour's worth of back office work to do. Some weeks I have 2-3 nights of overnight travel.
When I have a LO the baby will go to daycare the entire week even when I am home the full day a week.
I'm not comfortable posting my salary, but I am about even with my husband. We need both incomes to live.
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I work for a very large corporation as well and pre-baby, worked from home occasionally. Once I had DS, I asked specifically if I could work from home 2 days/week. They granted that for the short term, then cut it to 1 day/week. I switched bosses, and she was cool with me going back to 2 days/week. My dad or FIL come down to watch LO while I work on those two days. LO goes to daycare 2 days and my dad takes an extra day while I'm not here.
I'm in HR and make a decent salary. We could probably do it with me staying home, but I don't think I can be a SAHM.
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@autumn865: What did you do before you went on maternity leave? Are you looking to do the same thing or transition to some other type of work?
The reason I ask is that the majority of the people that I know that work from home had an office type job that eventually transitioned into working from home after proving they could do the job.
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I work in insurance and after my son I worked from home 3 days a week and 2 days in the office. When my daughter was born, I now work for the same company but on a very limited part time basis 100% from home. I work about 10-20 hours a week
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I WFH FT and have for the last three years. I'm an event producer for a company that is based out of state. My job does require some travel in the states and sometimes internationally a few times a year (usually for about a week). I am the breadwinner in our house making about 60% of our total income.
LO will be here at the end of March so this hasn't been tested in practice yet (haha) but after my maternity leave I plan to go down to PT, working from home with my parents or ILs watching her. I'll probably work 3-4 day/week, but I'm really not sure. My job has let me know they'll be fairly flexible upon my return which I'm *extermely* thankful for, as I'm sure the details of my return will change slightly as we learn what life is really like with our baby.
Also, I second @mae on all the positives and negatives when working from home. Not seeing people everyday is rough (and I'm not even a big social butterfly!) and some days I escape to a coffee shop or the grocery store just to have human interaction and make myself put on real pants.
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I WAH full time. I manage a team of business analysts. I'm salaried, I start work at 6 am, then work until 3:30 pm (I'm in an earlier time zone than my employees so I start and end earlier in the day). Then I also log in on weekends or at night when my LO goes to bed as needed. I do need full time child care, no way I would be able to work without it. I make about $45K more than the per capita income listed for my area so it's a pretty decent salary.
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@looch: pre baby I was/am a school psychologist. So if my director is willing to be flexible to figure out a work from home schedule it would be possible. It is unfornate to say that despite what my title implies a large portion of my workload is report writing, paperwork, emailing and telephone calls all of which I certainly would be able to do from home. It may require a slight change in my responsibilities (i wont be available on call for crisis situations etc.) or may require a switch to part time but we shall see what happens when I talk to her!
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I'm an auditor and work from home on days that I have to attend CPE events or DS is sick. I can probably easily work from home 5 days a week, but my boss isn't a fan of the idea so I'm in the office instead.
I've proven I'm productive while at home! Worked from home for 3 weeks due to "bed rest" later in my pregnancy (low amniotic fluid levels) and I wrapped up my work and documented in detail what's outstanding before I got induced. Heck, I worked from the hospital bed WHILE I was being induced!! And yet, my boss still requires a detail report of what I did that day if I'm working from home.... Arg.
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I work from home 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. Typical 8:00a-5:00p schedule. Before baby, I would WFH maybe once a week-- my role changed while I was pregnant, so I was able to WFH full-time. I manage a team of receptionists across the country (6 direct reports) and I'm also an events manager for our company. We are a telecommunications/video conferencing business, so we use our technology all the time for meetings, which means I still need to shower, get dressed, etc. every day (at least from the waist up
Anchorman style).My mom comes over every day to watch LO while I work. She gets here around 7, by that time C is already up and has had her bottle. She takes on her walks, watches TV, plays outside/with toys, etc. I usually prepare LO's lunch and eat with them. My mom will then nap or shower or cook while LO is napping.
I start work at 8:30 and I wake up at 8:15 (basically out of bed, brush the teeth, make my husband's lunch/my breakfast/coffee, and I sit down to work-- woot!). I like that it is comfortable-- working on the couch beats a desk chair any day. I like that it is flexible, I can take doctor's appointments mid day or go to the grocery store or whatever, it isn't so "punch a clock" but more-- get these tasks done. 
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