BC Business
Tips and tricks for those of you navigating an office-hours, child-minding predicament.
Last month an image (at left) of Italian Member of European Parliament Licia Ronzulli attending a voting session made its rounds of the Internet. She wore a well-cut navy business suit accessorized with her infant daughter in a sling. Ronzulli made this statement to draw attention to women’s rights, and the photo had decent traction on the mommy and women’s rights blogs. I did not however see it crop up in many mainstream business discussions online – but, baby steps.
While Ronzulli was juggling her baby and work on the world stage, I’ve been undertaking the same challenge on a much smaller scale. As the back-to-school flu has wreaked havoc on my otherwise dependable childcare situation, I’ve been faced with the dilemma of either moving meetings or bringing my munchkin along. Thanks to my incredibly understanding clients, I’ve been able to avoid last minute rescheduling and instead have begun a new chapter in project management: Business-meeting baby wrangling.
For those with a similar office-hours child-minding predicament, I present the following tips and tricks for taking your wee ones to business meetings.
No matter how child-friendly you suspect a situation may be, check with the client before bringing little Janie or Johnny along. So far, I’ve found that alerting clients to your childcare situation is a conversation that goes pretty smoothly. After all, many clients have kids and can empathize with the unpredictability they bring.
Calling to ask if it would “be ok if you bring your adorable baby girl to tomorrow’s meeting?” isn’t fair to your client. This approach puts them in the position of playing the bad guy for saying no. Instead, give the option to reschedule ¬– this lets them choose the solution that works best for them.
Choosing a time when your child will be at her best will go a long way to improve the productivity of your meeting. If the meeting conflicts with naptime, you’ll almost certainly have a cranky kid on your hands. If however you can line up your meeting for shortly after or during a nap, then great.
I’ve been fortunate to have meetings with other moms who have brought their infants/children on more than one occasion. In these cases you won’t fret over whether or not it’s OK having your kid there. Rich Patterson of Big Coast Brands shared with me an experience where a regular, kid-friendly client had some out of town and important executives unexpectedly arrive at the office. Patterson simply took that as a cue to wrap things up and moved along.
Bribes work best with the toddler set and not so well with infants, who are still immune to coercion. Every parent I spoke with about bringing their kids to work told tales of portable DVD players, candy and other treats to occupy the hands, minds and interests of their children. However, this tactic of distraction is not fool proof. Local owner of the parent-focused daily email Yoyomama, Annemarie Templeman-Kluit, recalled a time when her best diversionary tools didn’t do the job. After setting her then-three-year-old daughter up with a favourite snack and the TV – distractions that would usually serve the purpose well – she found herself on a conference call with seriously divided attention and no small degree of embarrassment as her daughter performed several ploys for attention.
Before you consider bringing your little one to a meeting, decide if the meeting is one that can survive a distraction or two – or several. I suggest rescheduling when it’s your first time meeting with a client, or if you’re engaging in uncomfortable conversation about money or other crucial project details. If however you feel that you can accomplish everything despite the distractions – and you will be distracted – then by all means, with the blessing of your client, go for it. Suzanne Siemens of Lunapads International Products has brought her sons along to shareholder meetings and board retreats, knowing that in each instance her colleagues were OK with the balancing act. (It should be noted that her husband came along for the board retreats to provide an extra pair of child-minding hands.)
Once you open the door to kidlets at meetings, it’s not likely to close. Be prepared for your client to suggest the same next time they’re in a jam. When I put the call out on Twitter for stories about bringing kids to meetings, I heard from a number of people who thought the occasional inclusion of kids in the workplace made for stronger connections with their clients. Personally, I love knowing the names of my many clients’ kids (and pets for that matter,) as it’s a part of my genuine affection for them as people.
With the days of stay-at-home moms long behind us, balancing children and work is a reality that many parents face. When you aren’t able to take a sick day to cover for gaps in childcare, sometimes the show simply must go on. Navigating your way through a presentation with baby in tow is just one of those amazing skills that some new parents have to acquire.