Child Care When Both Parents Work at Home

Families where both parents work from the home are rare. But there are definately advantages from the child care point of view with this set up. But for this to work successfully, and without resentment, a schedule can easily be set up to accomodate this.

Brian and Jessica from California have this unique situation. Brian is a freelance web designer, while Jessica sells Baby Gap on eBay. They have a two-year-old daughter Elizabeth. They also have the challenge of only having one computer, and a dinosaur computer which can be used for word-processing, but is too old and slow to use for either eBay or Web design.

Brian and Jessica have a set weekly schedule.

Monday: Jessica works morning; Brian works afternoon.
Tuesday: Brian works morning; Jessica works afternoon.
Wednesday: Each works one hour in the morning; remaining day is "family time"
Thursday: Brian works morning; Jessica works afternoon.
Friday: Jessica works morning; Brian works afternoon.
Saturday & Sunday: Each works one hour in the morning, remaining day is "family time"

While one works, the other is responsible for watching Elizabeth. They try to do errands such as grocery shopping and banking while they have "family" time, as it is much quicker to run into the bank while the other parent can sit in the car with Elizabeth. Grocery shopping goes much quicker when they can both attack the list together, while Elizabeth sits in the shopping cart.

Of course, their schedule is up for change, but under strict guidelines. If Brian needs to have a meeting Tuesday afternoon, he must ask Jessica first, incase she already has business plans during this time. Then he must give up his morning work time to Jessica so she can get her day's work done.

This system is build upon compromise, and on the idea that each parent has similar workload. If both must spend more that 50% of that available time working, it won't work out, and they will need to consider alternative child care. Resentment can also build if Jessica finds herself watching Elizabeth 75% of the working time, when she needs to have her 50% total. Incorporating family time is important, or else the couple could find that they are actually spending almost zero time together.

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