I'll counter your anecdote with my anecdote: My wife could have done it, I would wager.
Advice to Marissa Meyer:
- the baby and the nanny should be with you 24/7. I don't care who you're meeting with, you should be holding or wearing the baby.
- if the baby fusses, don't hand her off to the nanny -- start nursing her or change her yourself, no matter who you're with. You can still carry on a conversation with them, and you're powerful enough they have to pretend they're not offended -- they shouldn't be, anyways.
- invest in a standing desk and a sling. Babies love to sleep in those things, and are usually quiet even when awake. They'll be much more comfortable if you're standing rather than sitting, and it gives you the ability to rock them while working.
- have walking meetings. Great for you, the baby and the participants.
- it's your partner's (or an employee's) job to make sure that you get a proper sleep at night. The shorter the interruption at night, the easier it is to get back to sleep, and the less the interruption. Your only job is to nurse. It's your partner's job to pick up the baby when it cries, to soothe her and to change her.
If the baby is colicky, all bets are off. But most babies aren't.
And this advice is only for the first 6 months or so. By then the baby is much more awake & aware, and is probably better off in a nursery right next door. Working at 6 months is fairly well travelled ground.
Very few women have the luxury of stopping all work when their baby arrives. Heck, most of them don't even get 2 weeks off. I'm willing to bet that running Yahoo and raising a single child is easier than cooking all the meals, doing all the cleaning and looking after 1 or 2 preschool children as well as a baby, if only because Marissa will have nannies, housekeepers and secretaries.
Ah yes, once you're a parent, everyone will tell you how to raise your kid, and they will all be very sure of themselves. They will all disagree with each other. You have to get used to it.
In particular it sounds like you're an adherent of Dr. Sears. There may be benefits to his techniques. But the whole goal is to have the woman paying constant attention to the baby - which means that the woman never can pay undivided attention to anything else. This does not seem to me to be compatible with running a company, even in the best of times. (Which Yahoo is not in.)
(A random snide remark about Dr Sears. A man with 8 children advocates a child rearing technique where all of the work is done by the mom. Coincidence?)
What I was really thinking was how awesome it would be if Marissa did bring her baby to work every day for the first 6 months or so. That would really be noticeable and would hopefully do a lot to remove some of the bias against women of childbearing age as well as encourage other companies to allow this sort of practice.
As an aside, I was the one that did most of the baby-wearing. My wife has short arms and large breasts, so she was unable to do much with her arms while wearing. My daughters spent a large amount of time in a sling while I was standing up at the computer.
Advice to Marissa Meyer:
- the baby and the nanny should be with you 24/7. I don't care who you're meeting with, you should be holding or wearing the baby.
- if the baby fusses, don't hand her off to the nanny -- start nursing her or change her yourself, no matter who you're with. You can still carry on a conversation with them, and you're powerful enough they have to pretend they're not offended -- they shouldn't be, anyways.
- invest in a standing desk and a sling. Babies love to sleep in those things, and are usually quiet even when awake. They'll be much more comfortable if you're standing rather than sitting, and it gives you the ability to rock them while working.
- have walking meetings. Great for you, the baby and the participants.
- it's your partner's (or an employee's) job to make sure that you get a proper sleep at night. The shorter the interruption at night, the easier it is to get back to sleep, and the less the interruption. Your only job is to nurse. It's your partner's job to pick up the baby when it cries, to soothe her and to change her.
If the baby is colicky, all bets are off. But most babies aren't.
And this advice is only for the first 6 months or so. By then the baby is much more awake & aware, and is probably better off in a nursery right next door. Working at 6 months is fairly well travelled ground.
Very few women have the luxury of stopping all work when their baby arrives. Heck, most of them don't even get 2 weeks off. I'm willing to bet that running Yahoo and raising a single child is easier than cooking all the meals, doing all the cleaning and looking after 1 or 2 preschool children as well as a baby, if only because Marissa will have nannies, housekeepers and secretaries.