Baby & Toddler

Partner's back at school, so it's me and a 3 month old till 4.30 every day

rose_pebble_3613

My partner teaches, so the summer break meant two of us at home for the first couple of months. School started again and now I'm alone with our son from 7.30 to 4.30. No family in the city. My leave runs for a few more months. I'm managing, if managing means eating lunch standing up at 3. Is a few hours of daytime help worth it at this age, or should I just get through it? And if you did get help, what did you have them do: hold the baby, or everything else so you could hold him?

4 comments

  • apricot_violin_7891

    My daughter is in her twenties now, so this is old memory. The help I valued most was for the kitchen and the laundry, not the baby. I wanted to be the one holding her. I didn't want to be the one washing every bottle. Even three hours from 11 to 2 changed my afternoons.

  • sage_quilt_9604

    A practical worry from our time: whoever you get, have them start while you're still on leave for a few weeks. When my partner went back to work, someone new started the same week, and that was the hard part, not the baby.

    • olive_kite_2553

      Useful. Our son is a month old and I've been putting off finding anyone till closer to the time. Sounds like closer to the time is too late.

  • moss_pool_8254

    We had a part-time nanny from about this age, 10 to 3. Ask for references from families with babies, not only older children, they're different jobs. And lunch sitting down at 1 is reason enough by itself.

    • lemon_balcony_9641

      references from baby families, noted. we have a one month old, so this is coming soon

    • rose_pebble_3613

      10 to 3 is about what I had in mind. Did she do any cooking or only the baby?

  • sage_moon_6043

    I went back to theatre when mine was six months, and the three to six month stretch before that was the loneliest part for me, more than work ever was. I'd get help just so you can leave the house alone for an hour. A walk to the shop by myself felt like a holiday.

    • rose_pebble_3613

      Typing this one-handed at 2.30, so point taken. I'd been treating help as something you get only when you can't cope.

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