Babies in the Boardroom

Issue 128 - January/February 2005

Five women who brought their children to their jobs—with wonderful results!

Workplace policies, practices, and prejudices have tended to separate moms and babies sooner than some moms would like. The US lags behind many other developed nations when it comes to maternity-leave policy. Here, I explore a road a working mother is less likely to take—bringing her baby to the workplace. It’s true that many workplaces are no place for a baby, but that need not be true for all workplaces if the mother’s desire is there and the work culture tends toward being supportive of mothers—or could be encouraged to take a leap of faith in that direction.

While bringing your baby to work has an impact on everyone involved, it is primarily a way for a mother to respond to her natural instincts. Money can still be coming in, and baby can spend the workday near mom—in a sling or another close-to-mom setup.

Work can also be a place where a bit of what Thomas Moore would call “enchantment” can live. Moore, a former monk and now a practicing psychotherapist, praises the workplace that addresses the concerns of the soul. Using a bit of Moore’s analysis, a baby has value simply for enlivening the spirit of a place, even if the balance sheet lacks a column for this asset. A company that allows room for the well-being of its workers can reap returns in employee retention and morale—provided the work gets done.

Where will you find a “working baby”? There are probably some in your own community. Here I introduce you to a few of them. Two of their mothers run their own retail businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City’s Soho district. One is a director of the New Mexico state office for the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. One works at an organic farm near Watsonville, California, while operating her own side business. And another runs the website for Mothering magazine in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Representative of the challenges and pitfalls such choices bring, their experiences also suggest some of the lifestyle and career choices that make bringing a baby to a workplace work out.

Cath Morrison and Sarah
shop owner and entrepreneur
It may look like a play area, but it’s Karikter—the shop Cath Morrison calls work. It’s also where her daughter, Sarah, spends the workweek with her mother. It’s a boon for Sarah that her mother’s place of work is a sweet, colorful world where Babar, Bécassine, Tintin, and the Little Prince smile back at her. The extended family of the shop’s employees and business associates have watched Sarah grow from a tiny baby tucked away in her mother’s sling to a rambunctious toddler who moves inventory around randomly and plays with phones and adding machines.

Cath owns three retail shops—two in San Francisco, near Union Square, and one in New York City’s Soho. Bringing Sarah to the shop was her response to starting a family while building up her businesses. But Cath’s situation is equally an expression of her ideas on mothering. She isn’t comfortable with someone else serving as her substitute. “I want to be the one teaching Sarah the right behavior and providing for her.

I couldn’t hand her off.”

It may be playtime all day for Sarah, but Cath has businesses to run. This is tricky, given that sometimes the shops or her daughter demand her full attention. The secret is to find pockets of time for the tasks that demand more continuous attention. “I can sometimes delegate, and I get a lot of work done when Sarah is napping,” she says. “If I really need to focus, one of my employees can take her for a walk.” Taking a nap is something Cath herself would probably love to do. The day-to-day responsibility for the shops and Sarah (who travels for long stretches with her mother) makes even this exceptional woman tired. “I envy moms who get to stay at home with their kids,” says Cath.