I think it's worth considering how the physical structure of the office and how the structure of people's working time at the office makes children more disruptive than pets.
I'm not a fan of dogs in the office during the day to begin with. Maybe it doesn't make sense to have kids coming in after school, either. But if you're regularly going to have people working into the evening out of a sense of shared endeavor, integrating kids into that (maybe they can do their homework, or play video games in the corner, or just eat a shared meal there) doesn't seem crazy.
I concede that you have to plan this out in advance; you can't just take an already-running open plan office in San Mateo and say "bring your 4 year old to work any time" and have that work out.
Allow me to blow your mind: I have both kids (plural) and a dog (singular). If the point you haphazardly tried to make here was "it's impossible to care for a preschooler in a knowledge worker environment", I'm just going to say you're wrong.
Sorry man. I want to agree with you - I really do. But I cannot envision myself both focusing on work and caring for a preschooler effectively. I might be able to do one well, but the other will necessarily suffer. Humans cannot multi-task, period, and research very clearly shows that switching tasks and contexts on a regular basis hurts productivity significantly.
I think the idea of work-life separation exists for a reason. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
I'm not saying it works for every office, I'm not saying it has to work round the clock, and I'm not saying it's appropriate for every age. No office culture could have handled my daughter 10 years ago.
Every day, sure. But I've got a four year old, and when he gets busy with something (youtube lego videos...) he can be occupied for a long time without much need for constant attention.
But understood the original premise more along the line that if the office is geared for it you can integrate work and life in other ways, such as eating a family meal at the office now and again, so you maximize the time you can spend with family even when you need to work late - not using the office as permanent every day daycare.
I've worked in open-plan environments that made it a lot harder to focus than when I had to babysit my niece. You just give the kid some crayons, an iPad of Dora videos, and some fruit roll-ups and they are occupied for the afternoon. In contrast, there is little one can do to make an office busybody leave you alone, for even a couple hours.
What's really happening is that the thread is succumbing to nerdism; I made a statement that was too easily generalized, and then other people poked holes in the generalization.
I work in an office where people have had both kids and dogs in the office, on rare occasion.
I was always surprised by the kids, because they were really quiet. My own kids are very noisy and would not belong in an office, but these kids were sticking around for an hour or two between one event and another, completely unnoticed by me until I saw them. It's no skin at all off my nose and benefits my coworker in some way, so more power to him.
I'm not a fan of dogs in the office during the day to begin with. Maybe it doesn't make sense to have kids coming in after school, either. But if you're regularly going to have people working into the evening out of a sense of shared endeavor, integrating kids into that (maybe they can do their homework, or play video games in the corner, or just eat a shared meal there) doesn't seem crazy.
I concede that you have to plan this out in advance; you can't just take an already-running open plan office in San Mateo and say "bring your 4 year old to work any time" and have that work out.