Schools have so many days off... What do working parents do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School is not child care

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people using " preschools" are SAHM or have Nannies. Preschools are not for working parents to have childcare. If you are using a daycare with a preschool component I am surprised they are closed that often.

+1. When we had our kids in half day preschool, we had a nanny. If you’re talking about days off at a full day daycare, you just coordinate with your spouse to use leave days to cover your kid.

[Anonymous]

What do we do? For one, we looked over calendars carefully before deciding. We chose a full day full year program, and one of the reasons we picked our school vs our other top choice was that the school was only closed one wk in August. The other school closed for 2 wks.

Super happy with our choice. They rarely close, even for minor snow events that trigger public schools to close when there's barely anything ohn the ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do we do? For one, we looked over calendars carefully before deciding. We chose a full day full year program, and one of the reasons we picked our school vs our other top choice was that the school was only closed one wk in August. The other school closed for 2 wks.

Super happy with our choice. They rarely close, even for minor snow events that trigger public schools to close when there's barely anything ohn the ground.

Seriously, if you don’t have sufficient leave to cover it or family that will help, you either pay a very expensive babysitting service or go the daycare route. Our daycare closed exactly six holidays a year and very occasionally for weather

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Working parents (without extra help) choose different programs that are not closed as much.

Exactly this. It's one of the first questions I asked of each place "what is your holiday/day off schedule?"

And I didn't want to be snarky but before signing up you really need to know basic things like calendar, etc. That ranks among the top things to know before you sign.

[Anonymous]

Grandparents fly in for the week that daycare is closed in August, parents take vacation for the week in December over the holidays (one parent can telework), and parents alternate taking leave on other teacher training days. When we are down to the wire on leave, we work out comp time arrangements with our bosses.

[Anonymous]

No idea.

What annoys me most are the obnoxious posters on this site who excoriate worried parents before snow days about how they should have a couple of back-up plans always in place.

As if most families could afford that or have a family/friends network in place.

[Anonymous]

We have an au pair. It's been life changing for our full time careers. the days off, snow days would kill us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No idea.

What annoys me most are the obnoxious posters on this site who excoriate worried parents before snow days about how they should have a couple of back-up plans always in place.

As if most families could afford that or have a family/friends network in place.

Agreed. And I bet the obnoxious posters have local family, are SAHMs or have more flexible jobs than the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School is not child care

Even if you are a SAHM, school IS childcare for small children. SAHMs run errands while their kids are in school, or do things around the house, or focus on babies. SAHMs do not wait outside the school with their car running for the entirely of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We chose a preschool which is daycare with a preschool piece. They don't close for vacation.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School is not child care

Great. So answer the question: What do working parents do for childcare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School is not child care

Great. So answer the question: What do working parents do for childcare?

It's been answered repeatedly--they choose programs that don't close as often, usually called "daycares" rather than "preschools." The curriculum is often quite similar, but a daycare program will close less often because it's also explicitly serving as child care for working parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School is not child care

Great. So answer the question: What do working parents do for childcare?

It's been answered repeatedly--they choose programs that don't close as often, usually called "daycares" rather than "preschools." The curriculum is often quite similar, but a daycare program will close less often because it's also explicitly serving as child care for working parents.

And it usually costs a lot more.

[Anonymous]

I used a Y-affiliated daycare that was rarely closed, daycares that are affiliated with hospitals (or at least draw heavily from those families) tend to be open more days.