that remote work is most common among parents with children under five, with mothers of young children logging the highest rates of fully remote work across all demographic groups.<\/span><\/p>\nWhen I put out a call on social media asking for mothers who were working from home without external childcare to share their stories, the response was overwhelming. N<\/span>o two situations were exactly alike. Some working moms had occasional help \u2014 from family, part-time nannies, or a spouse working different shifts. Others swapped childcare with other working moms.\u00a0<\/span>There were also plenty doing it completely alone: single mothers or married women whose husbands worked long hours outside the home.<\/span><\/p>\nEveryone was cobbling together a slightly different version of this seemingly impossible arrangement. What most had in common was a deep sense of gratitude, a heaping side of guilt, and the constant urge to prove themselves.<\/span><\/p>\nThe nap time hustle is real<\/strong><\/p>\nMolly, an SEO manager and mother to an eight-month-old and a six-year-old, does the majority of her work around her kids\u2019 schedules. She describes her days as wholly dependent on them.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe nap time hustle is a real thing. Sometimes I feel like I can get more done in that two-hour nap than I can in a four-hour time span when my son is awake,\u201d she told The Daily Wire in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\nMolly checks email during school pickups. She gets back on her computer after the kids are in bed, often until 10 p.m., and is the first to admit that work-life separation isn\u2019t her strong suit.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m pretty awful about separating work and personal life right now, but I know that life won\u2019t always be like this,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\nKate, a content marketing writer for a fintech company with a 10-month-old, left a job she loved because its strict in-office culture left her no flexibility. Her new role pays more and allows her to work from wherever she wants.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhen I\u2019m on a video call, I\u2019m usually muted while [my son] throws blocks around the room at my feet,\u201d she admitted. \u201cI haven\u2019t sat at my desk in months; my laptop is often precariously balanced on a surface high enough to keep him away from the keyboard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nNap time, when it happens, is sacred. Evenings and weekends are spent catching up. She wakes at 2 a.m. sometimes \u2014 not just because of the baby, but because her brain won\u2019t stop working.<\/span><\/p>\nThese mothers are staking a claim to something that doesn\u2019t have a clean label yet: making money and achieving professional success, but also being there when the kids get home from school. Breastfeeding between meetings. Reading picture books on their lunch breaks. Being present, even imperfectly, for all of it. They\u2019re doing it by necessity, by choice, or \u2014 more often than not \u2014 some complicated combination of the two.<\/span><\/p>\nThere is a stigma associated with working from home with kids, though. One popular Instagram influencer with nearly 200,000 followers \u2014 who regularly shares her real name, profession, and work-from-home-with-kids content online \u2014 declined to be interviewed for this piece.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt makes no sense with me sharing online, but something for an article feels too official,\u201d she wrote in response to an interview request.<\/span><\/p>\nShe wasn\u2019t alone in her hesitation. Even on the social media thread where I solicited respondents, there was pushback from strangers. \u201c[Women] shouldn\u2019t be doing this,\u201d one commenter wrote. \u201cLet\u2019s not normalize this.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe judgment comes from both sides: traditional working moms can be skeptical that someone is really pulling her weight while wrangling a toddler, and full-time stay-at-home moms sometimes assume the kids are running feral. Neither is exactly right.<\/span><\/p>\nGuilt that never clocks out<\/b><\/p>\n
Unlike the influencer, dozens of full-time work-from-home moms were eager to share their strategies, triumphs, and challenges. One mom was candid with some of her tips for success.<\/p>\n
\u201cFull disclosure: I use a mouse jiggler to keep my Teams status green and computer from locking between the hours of 8:30 and 5,\u201d she told The Daily Wire. But that admission doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s a slacker.<\/span><\/p>\nIn the same breath, this mom mentioned how important it is to her not to back off responsibilities or display anxiety about her workload. As part of a small team of parents with older children who largely trust her to hit her deadlines, she says the pressure to perform at pre-baby levels is constant. Still, she recognizes her most important role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cYou are replaceable in your workplace, but the time with your children while they are young is finite and precious,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\nIf there was one word that surfaced again and again in these conversations, it was guilt. If the moms focus on work, they feel like they\u2019re neglecting their kids. If they step away to push their kids on the swings, they feel like they\u2019re shortchanging their employers \u2014 even when their in-office colleagues spent the same 20 minutes making a Starbucks run.<\/span><\/p>\nJenna, who works in tech sales and has a three-year-old and a four-month-old, described it by saying, \u201cIt\u2019s so hard trying to repeatedly explain to [my daughter] that I have to work and can\u2019t focus on her as much as I want to. And then it\u2019s simultaneously hard to really focus on work when she\u2019s constantly asking me to play. I feel guilty either way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHer employer knows her kids are at home with her and is understanding. But the voice in her head is the loudest critic. \u201cI know that I\u2019m way harder on myself about it than any of them are on me,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jessica, a director of marketing at a digital marketing agency with a two-and-a-half-year-old son, has the receipts to prove it can work.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI have seen comments on social media from people who say that it\u2019s not possible to work from home with kids without being a terrible employee \u2014 and I fully disagree,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a great working relationship with my boss, I never miss deadlines, and have received promotions and raises during my time working from home with my son.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nNot everyone is working from a home office. Laurel takes a different approach entirely: She brings her nearly two-year-old twins to the office where she works for a small vitamin and supplement company.<\/span><\/p>\nWhen she found out she was having twins, her company didn\u2019t even have a maternity policy. Faced with the high cost of living in her state, she went to her boss \u2014 who has older children he used to bring to the office himself \u2014 and they agreed to try the arrangement on a trial basis.<\/span><\/p>\nThat was almost two years ago. Now there\u2019s a dedicated room in the office with two pack-and-plays, a changing table, and a sound machine. When the twins nap, the office runs normally. When they\u2019re awake, they play in their mother\u2019s office or attend meetings with her. She advocated for more companies thinking outside the box like this.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI feel like everybody is just used to the status quo, and it\u2019s just not something that we do. But I really wish that we would, because so many moms are going through this,\u201d Laurel said of her arrangement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nShe\u2019s floated the idea of the company hiring a part-time in-office babysitter, or creating a dedicated childcare space as an employee benefit \u2014 a model she believes is more feasible than most corporate cultures are willing to consider.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat do these mothers want employers to understand? Molly\u2019s answer cuts to the heart of a disconnect that runs through nearly every story.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI love seeing the term \u2018flexible hours\u2019 on job listings, but I\u2019m not sure that most companies actually use that term correctly,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you can find a working parent that is willing to work mornings, evenings, or weekends to make sure their job gets done and gets done well, I think you\u2019ve found a really great employee.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nChallenging the status quo<\/strong><\/p>\nFor some of these women, the arrangement wasn\u2019t a lifestyle choice; it was a means of survival. Micaela became a virtual assistant after leaving an abusive marriage and being financially cut off, building a career from scratch while raising a two-year-old alone.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI feel a lot of pressure throughout the day to figure out how I\u2019m going to fit all my hours in,\u201d Micaela said. \u201cWhenever my son is asleep or otherwise occupied, I feel torn between the pressure to get my hours in, take care of my home, or take care of my own self-care.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nShe\u2019s also become an advocate for how employers think about mothers more broadly.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI think most employers undervalue mothers,\u201d she told The Daily Wire. \u201cMost moms are some of the hardest-working employees, and when employers are flexible and understanding in regard to children, it opens up the hiring pool and reduces work-life balance-related stress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSarah, a Stitch Fix stylist and Amazon content creator in Minnesota with three children ages five, three, and almost two, has two part-time jobs totaling 40 hours a week and homeschools all three of her kids.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSome days, things go sideways and you\u2019re going to feel like a failure. Some days, you\u2019ll feel like you\u2019ve totally got it all figured out,\u201d she said. \u201cThe biggest benefit is that I get a<\/span> front row seat to my kids growing up. Nobody knows them better than I do. There are only so many years of your kids being little \u2014 be there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe working from home with kids life has become a reality for millions of moms. Their children are learning independence, adaptability, and the value of hard work modeled by example. Their employers are getting employees who, by necessity, are more efficient, more motivated, and more determined to protect the life they\u2019ve built.<\/span><\/p>\nLaurel put it best in the advice she\u2019d give any mother thinking about trying this: <\/span>\u201cTry not to compare your old self to your current self because it\u2019s easy to get in your head about productivity and all that. Just try to be grateful for the experience. In the end, you will look back and realize that it was such a blessing to have that opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nNot everyone will get that opportunity. But for the women who do, they\u2019re not necessarily failing at both. They\u2019re going down the long road to inventing something new.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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