Parenting in the Workplace

WHO I AM:

My name is Carla Moquin.  I am divorced and raising two daughters, Alpha (5) and Echo (15 months).  I have a bachelor's degree in psychology, a master's-level certification in mediation and facilitation skills, and attended three years of an online law school.  I work full time in a law firm as a legal secretary.

BABIES IN THE WORKPLACE:

In October, 2005, while trying to write articles for extra money, I stumbled onto a concept that transformed my view of parenting and work. It turned out that there are dozens of companies that allow parents to care for their babies at work every day for the first several months of life.

After a lot of research, I found and interviewed people from over thirty-five companies with current baby programs--including credit unions, law firms, schools, design firms, and public relations firms. They all raved about how many benefits these programs had for the company, the parents, the babies, and the other employees. Over three hundred babies had come to work at these businesses, and nearly all of these babies were incredibly content while they were at work.

As I did research on “normal” baby behavior in other cultures, and I learned from Echo as she learned about her world, I realized that the concept of parenting while at work has the potential to revolutionize our culture and the lives of millions of families.

I wrote most of the content for a book about babies in the workplace.  However, spare time is extremely limited given the nature of my life.  I realized that finishing the book, finding a publisher, and getting it published could take another year or more.

So, I turned to the internet to get these ideas and information out now. I want to help other people learn how to bring their babies (or older children) to work. I want businesses to understand how beneficial this can be for their workers and for their bottom line. I want to help them see that employees are more loyal and productive when they feel good about the well-being of their families.

GOALS:

This blog will include stories about these work babies, commentary and discussion of issues related to parenting at work (of babies and older children), tools to help parents and businesses to integrate jobs and kids, and other information and ideas about how we can integrate our children more harmoniously into society for everyone’s benefit.  I also plan to share thoughts on being a single parent, raising children, integrating children into society, and life in general.

I welcome your suggestions and thoughts. I envision turning this into an interactive community working together to break down the unnecessary walls that currently divide building our economy and raising our families.

Comments

[Harold Kyriazi]

Great idea! And, it seems like a great way to partially solve another large problem in our society, which is the unnatural way our children learn about society. We evolved in small, open societies (clans of perhaps 25-150 individuals), where children learned what was important in life by watching adults interact and work -- not by going to a highly artificial "school" every day during their most formative years.

[Carla]

Good point! The parenting-while-working concept does hold tremendous potential for moving us closer to this natural (and effective) method of learning. I'll be going into this in more detail, actually, as this blog gets going.