RTO and No Childcare.

[Anonymous]

Dh is WFH for years now. Its amazing. He works 6-7:30. Then helps get kids off the school. Works again 8:30-4 and is done to get them from the bus and to an activity. I work 8:30-5 (very short commute) and come home and take another one to an activity. They do aftercare 2 days a week so I can have longer days. If he is RTO (unlikely) then it's goodbye to earlier activities and more aftercare and tired kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kid has been working from home since well before Covid. When she and her husband decided to have kids they lined up child care first - the grandparents when the kids were babies and a preschool/daycare once they were toddlers. It never occurred to her for a second that she could watch her kids at home herself and work at the same time. It’s not fair to anyone involved.

Time to return to reality, ladies.

Grandparents. Heh. That's not the kind of childcare most are talking about. I think you're the one not living in the real world.

Yeah, I guess. Most people I know are pretty jealous of our situation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kid has been working from home since well before Covid. When she and her husband decided to have kids they lined up child care first - the grandparents when the kids were babies and a preschool/daycare once they were toddlers. It never occurred to her for a second that she could watch her kids at home herself and work at the same time. It’s not fair to anyone involved.

Time to return to reality, ladies.

Not everybody has grandparents they can use in this way. I agree people should absolutely not be watching their kids at home while they work, but your personal example is not helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue for me is the 8-6 in office requirement. Right now, I work 8-5, pick up my kids, and then work a few more hours at home in the evening. Daycare closes at 6 and I have a 45 minute commute, so I'm not sure what I will go if the 8-6 requirement goes into effect.

Right. I think that is what the childcare threads are talking about. It’s not lack of childcare it’s the commutes along with the 8-6pm requirement. If before care and aftercare is from 7:30-6 and my commute is an hour it doesn’t work.

It works if there are TWO responsible parents. you stagger your days: DH does drop off and gets home later; DW does pickup and gets home earlier. When my kid was little and in daycare I left for work at 7:45, worked from 830-5, picked him up by 530, home by 6:15. DH dropped him off in the morning, got to the office later, and worked pretty late (maybe until 730 or so most nights).

Later on we got a part-time babysitter for after school so that made it even easier - we would stagger drop off at 8:30 and then the other just needed to be home around 6-630.

DP, but this sounds like a horrible way to live.

DH and I have both teleworked since well before COVID. Kids get off the bus at 4:10 so I work 7:30-4. DH handles mornings with them and then works 9-5ish. We don’t want our kids in childcare until 5:30 at night, that is way too long. How do they have any energy for extracurriculars after that? Or do they just not get to do them?

And one parent getting home at 6:30-7:30? That would never work for us. We are involved in coaching after school sports and days they don’t have sports they can be home to play with neighborhood kids. We don’t want our kids to have to be out of the house 9-10 hours per day for our jobs.

I get some people have no other options, but thankfully DH and I have advanced degrees and good career options. If I had to RTO full time then I’d quit and find something else. Also DH makes enough in the private sector to carry us for a while.

Yes, I think this can work out in the baby and toddler years for some families, but doesn’t work when kids need to go to activities and get help with homework.

That’s like 3-4 years until they are old enough to stay at home and do school-based activities.

I’m not going to argue that RTO doesn’t have benefits, but there are a lot of choices people make that make their work/home lives more difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another reason why 1950s America was better.

Nope. I would’ve been shunned as a single mother back then.

Yeah, and judging from your attitude now, it sure sounds great being a single mother

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another reason why 1950s America was better.

Nope. I would’ve been shunned as a single mother back then.

Why do you assume you would have been a single mother back then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue for me is the 8-6 in office requirement. Right now, I work 8-5, pick up my kids, and then work a few more hours at home in the evening. Daycare closes at 6 and I have a 45 minute commute, so I'm not sure what I will go if the 8-6 requirement goes into effect.

Right. I think that is what the childcare threads are talking about. It’s not lack of childcare it’s the commutes along with the 8-6pm requirement. If before care and aftercare is from 7:30-6 and my commute is an hour it doesn’t work.

It works if there are TWO responsible parents. you stagger your days: DH does drop off and gets home later; DW does pickup and gets home earlier. When my kid was little and in daycare I left for work at 7:45, worked from 830-5, picked him up by 530, home by 6:15. DH dropped him off in the morning, got to the office later, and worked pretty late (maybe until 730 or so most nights).

Later on we got a part-time babysitter for after school so that made it even easier - we would stagger drop off at 8:30 and then the other just needed to be home around 6-630.

DP, but this sounds like a horrible way to live.

DH and I have both teleworked since well before COVID. Kids get off the bus at 4:10 so I work 7:30-4. DH handles mornings with them and then works 9-5ish. We don’t want our kids in childcare until 5:30 at night, that is way too long. How do they have any energy for extracurriculars after that? Or do they just not get to do them?

And one parent getting home at 6:30-7:30? That would never work for us. We are involved in coaching after school sports and days they don’t have sports they can be home to play with neighborhood kids. We don’t want our kids to have to be out of the house 9-10 hours per day for our jobs.

I get some people have no other options, but thankfully DH and I have advanced degrees and good career options. If I had to RTO full time then I’d quit and find something else. Also DH makes enough in the private sector to carry us for a while.

This was when my kid was little. it was fine. 4 year olds don’t need extracurriculars. many many families in our school did the same.

Not all of us have 4 year olds. Many of us have elementary/middle school kids who cannot get themselves to activities after school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dh is WFH for years now. Its amazing. He works 6-7:30. Then helps get kids off the school. Works again 8:30-4 and is done to get them from the bus and to an activity. I work 8:30-5 (very short commute) and come home and take another one to an activity. They do aftercare 2 days a week so I can have longer days. If he is RTO (unlikely) then it's goodbye to earlier activities and more aftercare and tired kids.

Yup. Kids will suffer a quality of life drop thanks to RTO. This brought to us by the party of “family values.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just hope that maybe RTO will mean public schools abandon the "let's celebrate everyone's holidays with a day off" calendar that keeps kids out of school for half of September and October. I'm convinced it's crap like this that's the reason Harris lost.

I do think this is an issue and wish they'd be more sensible. The school calendar is ridiculous.

I have older kids and appreciate being in the house when they get home from school. I'll take a 15 minute break to see them, feed them a snack and get myself a cup of tea, and then go back to working while they do homework. I really appreciate being here to keep an eye on things and in case of emergency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue for me is the 8-6 in office requirement. Right now, I work 8-5, pick up my kids, and then work a few more hours at home in the evening. Daycare closes at 6 and I have a 45 minute commute, so I'm not sure what I will go if the 8-6 requirement goes into effect.

Right. I think that is what the childcare threads are talking about. It’s not lack of childcare it’s the commutes along with the 8-6pm requirement. If before care and aftercare is from 7:30-6 and my commute is an hour it doesn’t work.

It works if there are TWO responsible parents. you stagger your days: DH does drop off and gets home later; DW does pickup and gets home earlier. When my kid was little and in daycare I left for work at 7:45, worked from 830-5, picked him up by 530, home by 6:15. DH dropped him off in the morning, got to the office later, and worked pretty late (maybe until 730 or so most nights).

Later on we got a part-time babysitter for after school so that made it even easier - we would stagger drop off at 8:30 and then the other just needed to be home around 6-630.

DP, but this sounds like a horrible way to live.

DH and I have both teleworked since well before COVID. Kids get off the bus at 4:10 so I work 7:30-4. DH handles mornings with them and then works 9-5ish. We don’t want our kids in childcare until 5:30 at night, that is way too long. How do they have any energy for extracurriculars after that? Or do they just not get to do them?

And one parent getting home at 6:30-7:30? That would never work for us. We are involved in coaching after school sports and days they don’t have sports they can be home to play with neighborhood kids. We don’t want our kids to have to be out of the house 9-10 hours per day for our jobs.

I get some people have no other options, but thankfully DH and I have advanced degrees and good career options. If I had to RTO full time then I’d quit and find something else. Also DH makes enough in the private sector to carry us for a while.

This was when my kid was little. it was fine. 4 year olds don’t need extracurriculars. many many families in our school did the same.

Not all of us have 4 year olds. Many of us have elementary/middle school kids who cannot get themselves to activities after school.

Well you chose a school and neighborhood and activities where kids have to be driven around. We created a life where kid can walk and just do activities after school. Anything requiring a lot of parental involvement happens on the weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue for me is the 8-6 in office requirement. Right now, I work 8-5, pick up my kids, and then work a few more hours at home in the evening. Daycare closes at 6 and I have a 45 minute commute, so I'm not sure what I will go if the 8-6 requirement goes into effect.

Right. I think that is what the childcare threads are talking about. It’s not lack of childcare it’s the commutes along with the 8-6pm requirement. If before care and aftercare is from 7:30-6 and my commute is an hour it doesn’t work.

It works if there are TWO responsible parents. you stagger your days: DH does drop off and gets home later; DW does pickup and gets home earlier. When my kid was little and in daycare I left for work at 7:45, worked from 830-5, picked him up by 530, home by 6:15. DH dropped him off in the morning, got to the office later, and worked pretty late (maybe until 730 or so most nights).

Later on we got a part-time babysitter for after school so that made it even easier - we would stagger drop off at 8:30 and then the other just needed to be home around 6-630.

DP, but this sounds like a horrible way to live.

DH and I have both teleworked since well before COVID. Kids get off the bus at 4:10 so I work 7:30-4. DH handles mornings with them and then works 9-5ish. We don’t want our kids in childcare until 5:30 at night, that is way too long. How do they have any energy for extracurriculars after that? Or do they just not get to do them?

And one parent getting home at 6:30-7:30? That would never work for us. We are involved in coaching after school sports and days they don’t have sports they can be home to play with neighborhood kids. We don’t want our kids to have to be out of the house 9-10 hours per day for our jobs.

I get some people have no other options, but thankfully DH and I have advanced degrees and good career options. If I had to RTO full time then I’d quit and find something else. Also DH makes enough in the private sector to carry us for a while.

This was when my kid was little. it was fine. 4 year olds don’t need extracurriculars. many many families in our school did the same.

Not all of us have 4 year olds. Many of us have elementary/middle school kids who cannot get themselves to activities after school.

Well you chose a school and neighborhood and activities where kids have to be driven around. We created a life where kid can walk and just do activities after school. Anything requiring a lot of parental involvement happens on the weekends.

What country do you live in and how expensive is your neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dh is WFH for years now. Its amazing. He works 6-7:30. Then helps get kids off the school. Works again 8:30-4 and is done to get them from the bus and to an activity. I work 8:30-5 (very short commute) and come home and take another one to an activity. They do aftercare 2 days a week so I can have longer days. If he is RTO (unlikely) then it's goodbye to earlier activities and more aftercare and tired kids.

Yup. Kids will suffer a quality of life drop thanks to RTO. This brought to us by the party of “family values.”

Oh boo hoo. Why do you expect to have everything handed to you? It’s called a JOB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another reason why 1950s America was better.

Nope. I would’ve been shunned as a single mother back then.

Why do you assume you would have been a single mother back then?

If I married the same man, I would’ve. I am not a punching bag in any decade.

Plenty of people have been working in person for years now. You all should have plenty of money saved up from years of not having to pay for childcare because you’ve been working from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue for me is the 8-6 in office requirement. Right now, I work 8-5, pick up my kids, and then work a few more hours at home in the evening. Daycare closes at 6 and I have a 45 minute commute, so I'm not sure what I will go if the 8-6 requirement goes into effect.

Right. I think that is what the childcare threads are talking about. It’s not lack of childcare it’s the commutes along with the 8-6pm requirement. If before care and aftercare is from 7:30-6 and my commute is an hour it doesn’t work.

It works if there are TWO responsible parents. you stagger your days: DH does drop off and gets home later; DW does pickup and gets home earlier. When my kid was little and in daycare I left for work at 7:45, worked from 830-5, picked him up by 530, home by 6:15. DH dropped him off in the morning, got to the office later, and worked pretty late (maybe until 730 or so most nights).

Later on we got a part-time babysitter for after school so that made it even easier - we would stagger drop off at 8:30 and then the other just needed to be home around 6-630.

DP, but this sounds like a horrible way to live.

DH and I have both teleworked since well before COVID. Kids get off the bus at 4:10 so I work 7:30-4. DH handles mornings with them and then works 9-5ish. We don’t want our kids in childcare until 5:30 at night, that is way too long. How do they have any energy for extracurriculars after that? Or do they just not get to do them?

And one parent getting home at 6:30-7:30? That would never work for us. We are involved in coaching after school sports and days they don’t have sports they can be home to play with neighborhood kids. We don’t want our kids to have to be out of the house 9-10 hours per day for our jobs.

I get some people have no other options, but thankfully DH and I have advanced degrees and good career options. If I had to RTO full time then I’d quit and find something else. Also DH makes enough in the private sector to carry us for a while.

This was when my kid was little. it was fine. 4 year olds don’t need extracurriculars. many many families in our school did the same.

Not all of us have 4 year olds. Many of us have elementary/middle school kids who cannot get themselves to activities after school.

Well you chose a school and neighborhood and activities where kids have to be driven around. We created a life where kid can walk and just do activities after school. Anything requiring a lot of parental involvement happens on the weekends.

What country do you live in and how expensive is your neighborhood?

I chose a neighborhood with schools most of y’all would turn your nose up at. There is a range of housing available, from affordable apartments to expensive rowhouses. if you insist on a giant house in the burbs, “the best” school, and also not paying for childcare … I do not know what to tell you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another reason why 1950s America was better.

Nope. I would’ve been shunned as a single mother back then.

Why do you assume you would have been a single mother back then?

If I married the same man, I would’ve. I am not a punching bag in any decade.

Plenty of people have been working in person for years now. You all should have plenty of money saved up from years of not having to pay for childcare because you’ve been working from home.

I can see why you’re a single mother. You’re right, you’d probably be single in any era.