013: Babies at Work

Parent Driven Development

Parent Driven Development

Episode 013: Babies at Work?!

00:15 Welcome, Leah Silber!

Leah is the CEO of Tilde Inc. She is also an organizer of EmberConf, RustConf and RailsConf, and Ember.js Core Team Member, a jQuery Core Team alum, author of Event Driven: How to Run Memorable Tech Conferences, and all around technophile.

01:08 KWu is Planning Her Son's 1st Birthday Party! + How Old Are They?

Don't let first birthday parties get out of hand. Not worth it. Get a cake. Let the kid smash. Also, please stop referring to your child's age in months when they turn 2.

04:05 Babies at Work: It’s Weird that it’s Weird

In August 2017, Leah wrote this blog post and it was super well received. In the blog post, she talks about a lot of the objections and concern she had at first that turned out to be unfounded. It turns out, bringing her baby to work changed the mood and culture of Tilde in a positive way -- even among self-proclaimed "non-baby people".

09:26 What About The Fussy Days?

• Working from home can be an option especially on days like vaccination days.
• Having a quiet area like a conference room or an empty office gets people through short fussy spells.
• If that doesn't work, going home is encouraged.
• Leah says that having the babies at work made actually for a much happier baby!

17:56 Nursing

• Up to the mom! Breastfeeding in public is acceptable, and there are dedicated nursing rooms/spaces to keep it legal (and more private)
• It becomes normalized! People don't even notice
  • Squatty Potty

23:53 Culture From The Core

• Stating expectations for parents/non-parents during the interview process
• Scaling as children age
• Bring the Nanny to work too!
• Older children must be up to date on vaccinations
• Becomes a routine

32:43 Does Company Size Matter?

• Just because there are 50 people in a company does not mean that the volume of babies is going to go up
• Setting a limit is an option: luck of the draw
• The bigger the company, the more space non-baby people have to stay away from the babies

35:02 Program Evolution

• Effects on Nannies
• Beneficial for dads too!

42:37 Avoiding Judgement

• Turns out, people (who aren't the child's parents) are more helpful than judgemental
• Pets are not babies...no, your dog can not come to work because my baby is here

48:31 Genius / Fail Moments

• KWu: Water coming out of the tub faucet is fascinating and acts as a baby magnet to draw them to the bathroom for a bath! (#Genius)
• Allison: Creating an insane schedule of hodgepodge childcare that involves massive amounts of logistics. (#Fail)
• Leah: Shoutout to the parents who think their kids will never walk. Her son started walking at 18 months! (#Genius)

Follow & Support

Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [e-mail]. Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
We are listener supported. Please consider Supporting us via Patreon and gaining access to our our kind Slack Community.

Panel

Allison McMillan
Katherine Wu

Special Guest: Leah Silber.