Baby Gabe - Future Entrepreneur

It's hard being a working mommy.  Especially when your infant depends on YOU as his only food source!

I've struggled in the past with juggling when to feed my kids and timing out feedings between the video editing, business expos, networking meetings, or dinner meetings with clients.  Most of the time my husband and co-owner of our production company, Drywater Productions, can go to the meetings without me.

But our brand is the husband-wife team!  Sometimes people expect to see us there together.  And for those important business networking meetings, it's to our advantage that we are able to spread out, cover more ground, meet more people.

So what about when I'm going to be gone for more than a couple hours, my baby doesn't take a bottle well (or a paci), and I have to be at the networking meeting with Stephen?

It's my big dilemma.

I've actually asked quite a few people this question: Do I take the baby, or leave the baby with a sitter?  The response has actually been divided, surprisingly.  You'd think that everyone would say having a baby at a networking gathering would be inappropriate.  Yes, there are some people who would agree that there are no children allowed at business events, no question about it.

So what do I do??

We pick and choose this battle.  It really depends on the client and networking group.  I agree that there are some meetings and jobs that we absolutely cannot have children.  Yet there are some times when it is allowed.  We've taken our newest little ones along to some meetings ONLY IF we know the client or business associate(s) really well (if we know they are ok with this), and only if we can't use a sitter.

Other times we may find someone that is able to come along with us to watch our little one for us.  When it is time to eat, I can step away for a few minutes to feed him.

Here is Baby Gabe rockin' his business attire at the latest B2B Networking meeting this past January: (Photos taken by Ideal Impressions)

Poor little guy was pooped out by the end of the night!

Here is a fun example of when we took Baby Elijah on set with us for a green screen shoot back in 2011. We knew this client very well, and we knew they would love to have a baby in the office for two days of filming. (Being one month old, he slept practically the whole time!)

I've got to say, our babies have been a HUGE hit when we do end up taking them with us.

And really, what is more adorable than a four month old all dressed up in his fancy business clothing wearing a name tag that says, "Baby Gabe - Future Entrepreneur"?!?

I guess sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do when you're a work-at-home-mommy with babies! (...but still be conscious of how and when to be professional...)