Just this weekend the kids and I were dawdling in my favorite local bookstore. The very friendly and knowledgeable woman who rang us up had her two young kids (and curiously her husband, too!) with her at work. Sure didn’t bother me, but then it seemed to fit the type of business - kids in a kids’ bookstore, why not? And on a (not) recent (enough) trip to Mexico, my 5-year old asked several times “how come so many mamas have their kids with them at work?”. An obvious difference compared to the stores we frequent here.
So how come we don’t have our babies at work? Or do we?
I, for one, couldn’t get a single thing done with my children in my office (truth is out: it’s actually a drab, windowless cube). I’ve tried several times on desperate, deadline-driven occasions and it’s terrible, stressful, markers flying, paper clips everywhere. Even a sleeping infant at work stressed me out the few times I did it because I feared they would wake up, like, every five seconds.
But this baby @ work thing has been getting some press lately - in Time magazine and in the Peaceful Revolution blog. What’s your take? Do-able? Desirable? Healthy for the workplace (not all, of course)? What with all the co-workers cooing (and xeroxing my son’s hands!!), who’s getting anything done? Have you brought your baby to work? Been annoyed/pleased when your office mate does? Is this just a backwards way of dealing with the paltry family leave policies we have in the U.S.?
