from Hacker News

Ask HN: Remote Dev + Stay-At-Home Parent: Who's Done It?

by implicit_none on 10/25/14, 11:05 PM with 2 comments

My wife and I recently welcomed our first child several weeks back. I have been working full-time from the home (and had been working so well before the child got here), but a reality check is about to hit hard: my wife's maternity leave is about to come to an end!

I'd love to hear from other dad's or mom's out there who have done the "stay at home parent" + "full time remote engineer"; any advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated.

  • by hkarthik on 10/26/14, 3:14 PM

    My suggestion would be to get a nanny who comes in and watches the baby while you and your wife both work.

    By being in the house, it gives you a measure of comfort/security since you are around while giving you the freedom to actually get work done since someone else is watching the baby. Also you can take the periodic breaks to check in and play with the baby. You really can't put a price on being able to get that kind of bonding time.

    My wife and I did exactly did this for a while, with the difference being that I was the parent who was working outside the home. After a few months, I also took a work from home job and we were both at home while our nanny watched the kid. We would both take breaks to check in with the nanny and handle the occasional bottle or diaper change. It worked out great.

  • by emcarey on 10/26/14, 3:46 AM

    for your wife, check out http://www.mothercoders.org/ - great organization for software engineers that are mothers. I'm sure they will have resources for both of you and it's a wonderful community of developer parents!

    My dad worked from home while my mother worked in the city when we were younger. One way they made that work was by hiring someone to do the house hold chores (cleaning & laundry) so that responsibility was covered and their focus outside of work was about taking care of us instead of the house. hope that tip helps!