Babies on Board Can you take care of baby and business at the same time?

Q: I get the impression that when you're working fromhome and have small children, it's best to arrange for childcare. But one reason I brought my business home was so I could bewith my newborn. What is your opinion about this? Can I both workfrom home and take care of my daughter while she's still a babein arms?

A: As you can tell from the previousquestion, depending on one's personal style and particularbusiness, many parents work from home successfully while caring fortheir children. But your question is more specific. You'reasking about a particular age group, such as 0 to 8 months,that's often considered a time when babies need full-time adultattention. We've recently discovered a book that provides someunique insights into this question and reinforces your instinctualdesire to be with your baby during this formative time.

The book, The Continuum Concept, was written by JeanLiedloff, who spent two and a half years living with Yequana tribesin the jungles of South America. Although she did not go there tostudy the child-rearing practices of this culture, what she noticedwas so strikingly different from how we raise our children, shecouldn't help but become intrigued.

Yequana infants have an extended "in arms" period.Between birth and crawling, infants are taken everywhere, either intheir parents' arms, on their laps or sleeping alongside them.While infants are always present, they are not the constant focusof their parents' attention. Parents go about their normalactivities with babes in arms. Babies are either at rest oractively engaged in learning from the experiences going on aroundthem in the course of their parents' active lives.

Being cared for in this way, they seldom have a need to cry.They move about very little and are generally in a relaxed andpassive state. Their muscles are toned, and they're quicklyable to balance their heads and bodies, yet there is no tension orjerkiness in their arms and legs as we so often see in our culture,where babies spend long hours in beds, cribs or carriers, oftencrying and wiggling about.

Liedloff writes, "The first experiences are predominatelyof the body of a busy mother . . . [The baby] does very little atthis stage, but a great quantity and variety of experience comes tohim through his adventures in the arms of a busy person."

Liedloff has concluded that this is a natural state of being forbabies. Certainly, working from home gives today's parents theopportunity to create this kind of experience for their infants.But Liedloff goes on to say: "If a baby is held much of thetime by someone who is only sitting quietly, it will not serve himin learning the quality of life in action . . . and there will be arestlessness in him and frequent promptings from him to encouragemore stimulation."

So if we are simply sitting at the computer or doing paperworkall day, Liedloff's findings suggest our babies will be busilytrying to get our attention. These efforts are not attempts to getus to stop what we're doing and attend to them, she explains.They are efforts to get us to do something interesting and excitingfrom which they can learn about life.

So while there are many home businesses that aren't suitedto an infant's needs, there are certainly some that are. Ifyour business requires you to be at the computer for long periods,you might consider arranging for child care with an active adultwho can be with your infant during those times. But if your workfrom home requires only spells at the computer interspersed withlots of other varied activities, or if there are two people who cantrade off working at varied activities with the baby, thenyou've got a winning combination.

For more information on these unique child-rearing concepts,visit www.continuum-concept.org.