It's 11 on a Wednesday morning, and Denise Towne, production manager at Zutano, a children’s clothing company in Cabot, Vermont, is busy working at her desk. Alongside her, asleep in her crib, is Towne’s 7-month-old daughter, Morgan. When Morgan wakes up, Towne will nurse her, and then perhaps they’ll go to the cafeteria to grab lunch and chat with a few other mothers and their babies. After that, it’s back to the office where Towne works while Morgan plays in her exersaucer. When Morgan goes down for another nap at 1:30, Towne may go to a meeting or continue coordinating the company’s inventory.
Welcome to the new world of babies in the workplace. There are more than 120 organizations with baby-at-work programs, says Carla Moquin, president of the Parenting in the Workplace Institute ( babiesatwork.org )—or more than 1,400 babies who’ve accompanied parents to their jobs. While most programs allow babies up to 6 or 8 months old—or until they’re mobile, whichever comes first—Zutano is unusual in that mothers (and fathers) have the option of taking their babies to the office every day for the first full year of their children’s lives.
And how does having your baby at work, well, work, exactly? “We don’t have any day care facilities here,” explains Michael Belenky, president of Zutano. “The parent is the day care. If you’re not already in a private office, you’re moved into a private office that is big enough to have a crib. *p>Click here to read the rest of this article from HybridMom.com
