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I've been remote since our youngest turned 1 year old due to the pandemic. I honestly can't imagine what life would have been like otherwise. The year I spent

I've been remote since our youngest turned 1 year old due to the pandemic. I honestly can't imagine what life would have been like otherwise. The year I spent before that I was lucky to see her at all during a day. She wasn't awake before I left (except for the inevitable screaming during the night) and we kept her up late so I could feed her a bottle before she went to bed. I think it's a huge win for equality and family life. Any boss will have to wrestle WFH out of my cold dead hands.

isoprophlex 4y ago
I'm kind of sad about missing so much when our first child was born. Why did I commute so much, wasting time stuck in a car? Why didn't I challenge the status quo? Our second kid was born a month before the pandemic hit. I was there for so many beautiful moments. With #3 on the way, you can indeed wrestle WFH from my cold dead hands.
brabel 4y ago
> I think it's a huge win for equality and family life Hm, where I live, both parents take roughly the same amount of parent leave (around 240 working days each in total - minimum 90 days for each) from work regardless of whether they work at home or anything else. That's what I would call equality.
- VBprogrammer 4y ago
  Sure. That would be a win for both men and woman by eliminating discrimination on the basis of potential for taking parental leave in the future. But even that is less than a year. By contrast WFH changes the rest of a child's experience for their whole life.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  My kids were able to breastfeed until 2 years old and ween at their pace because my wife works from home. The whole concept of women pumping and then someone else feeding their baby defrosted frozen breastmilk because they have to work is crazy. Women should have at least 1 year with their child, and if that means men need to be off for a year too, then so be it.
  - PuppyTailWags 4y ago
    Men should be off an equal time as women, not as a "so be it" measure. It's crazy that we push so much of the parenting to a single parent, effectively isolating her socially and never giving her time to be an adult or speak with other adults. Yes there's breastfeeding, but the best part of formula/pumping is that the mother can go out and actually be a human being while the dad can take over the duties with the child for a full day, night, or weekend! [edited to add: even if the mother takes up the majority of the childrearing (diapers, feeding, swaddling, talking, socializing, etc) the father should be taking up all of her previous chores, housework, social maintenance (e.g. familial obligations)!]

isoprophlex 4y ago

I'm kind of sad about missing so much when our first child was born. Why did I commute so much, wasting time stuck in a car? Why didn't I challenge the status quo? Our second kid was born a month before the pandemic hit. I was there for so many beautiful moments. With #3 on the way, you can indeed wrestle WFH from my cold dead hands.

brabel 4y ago

> I think it's a huge win for equality and family life Hm, where I live, both parents take roughly the same amount of parent leave (around 240 working days each in total - minimum 90 days for each) from work regardless of whether they work at home or anything else. That's what I would call equality.

VBprogrammer 4y ago
Sure. That would be a win for both men and woman by eliminating discrimination on the basis of potential for taking parental leave in the future. But even that is less than a year. By contrast WFH changes the rest of a child's experience for their whole life.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
My kids were able to breastfeed until 2 years old and ween at their pace because my wife works from home. The whole concept of women pumping and then someone else feeding their baby defrosted frozen breastmilk because they have to work is crazy. Women should have at least 1 year with their child, and if that means men need to be off for a year too, then so be it.
- PuppyTailWags 4y ago
  Men should be off an equal time as women, not as a "so be it" measure. It's crazy that we push so much of the parenting to a single parent, effectively isolating her socially and never giving her time to be an adult or speak with other adults. Yes there's breastfeeding, but the best part of formula/pumping is that the mother can go out and actually be a human being while the dad can take over the duties with the child for a full day, night, or weekend! [edited to add: even if the mother takes up the majority of the childrearing (diapers, feeding, swaddling, talking, socializing, etc) the father should be taking up all of her previous chores, housework, social maintenance (e.g. familial obligations)!]