PARENTAL HEADACHE NO. 1 : Family’s Budget Restraints Mean Baby Goes to Work

Dodie McCarthy, 36, is sitting at her desk in her small branch office of Tower Insurance in Thousands Oaks. Seven-month-old Colleen is on her lap. McCarthy is lucky: Her family owns the business, and there is only one other person in her office--her sister--so no one has objected to Colleen’s presence.

Well, almost no one. The other tenants in the building sometimes get a little cranky. They bang on the walls when Colleen cries.

Clearly, McCarthy is under a lot of stress. She has been bringing Colleen to work since the baby was 9 weeks old. “I didn’t want someone else to see her roll over first, or crawl and walk or have her first tooth. I intended to bring her to work temporarily while she was young, and now I can’t afford a sitter so I’m stuck with her,” says McCarthy. Her husband Don, 35, is an elevator mechanic. Although they believe they should be able to afford child care, she is embarrassed because they are overextended with house and car payments and hobbies that include motorcycling and boating.

“Day care is so expensive,” she says. “Friends have sitters that they are paying $75 to $100 a week.” She adds: “One day a week, I work by myself because my sister goes into the other office. One those days, I don’t even want to go to work. It’s like, ‘Oh no. What if she cries and I answer the phone?’

“On days that I am here by myself, I have what you would consider major anxiety attacks. My days are numbered with her here because she is getting so active. I will have to get a sitter.”