Do you have to leave work at a certain time to make childcare pick up?

[Anonymous]

We have a pretty good set up with childcare right now, but next fall when our oldest starts K, we will both be working in downtown DC and our school is obviously near home. We do live fairly close in, but around here, that still means a commute. If I sort out some sort of parking situation then I can probably get away with leaving at 5, but I know that will be a stressful ask at work (I currently leave at 5:30 which is rarely a problem).

I don't have a killer job, it's pretty standard 40-45 hours a week, but it's not super flexible and kind of "old school" in terms of management. DH has some more flexibility and we can take turns, so I can probably leave at 5:30 a few nights a week....but I feel stressed about the whole thing.

Do you and your spouse just suck it up and do the daycare/childcare dash? The one thing I have going for me is that a bunch of people in my department have had kids in the last few years so it is somewhat accepted that people have to leave. The other situation is that a few people in leadership are now in their mid 60s and will be retiring. I have just never worked for a "flexible" company. I guess it's good that DH always has, so it is somewhat evened out. My direct boss is actually pretty great, it's just the "aura" of upper management that makes it stressful. I've worked there for many years, including pre-kids, and it's obvious I'm not a slacker but it is still stressing me out!

I guess I'm just looking for support - anyone have to leave at 5? Am I crazy for thinking about this almost 10 months before it is an issue?

[Anonymous]

I have to leave at 4:30 to do the pickup. I took a pay cut to take my job in a family-friendly organization, so I basically asked for an 8:30-4:30 schedule when I started. (My boss works about 9:30-5:30/6 so we have coverage.) Some days it's a pain in the ass and some days things come up at the last minute, but most of the time it is just no big deal. if things are still "live" when I leave, I promise to check in when i get home (around 5:45) and work after my daughter goes to bed. I'm a single mom so it's mostly me doing the pickups; my ex can't usually fill in for me at the last minute. If you act like it's no big deal and the work will get done, your boss might be ok.

[Anonymous]

I work downtown and must leave the office by no later than 4:30 to make it to the daycare before it closes at 6:00.

[Anonymous]

Ours is so crazy. We stagger our morning schedules to get everyone where they need to go. Then we have aftercare pick up, plus evening carpool for activity pick up. I do the early morning drop off and the evening carpool, so the day is long. If I had to do the aftercare pick up, I'd have to leave downtown at 4:30. 5:00 would work if traffic and Metro were reliable.

[Anonymous]

I also leave at 4:30 to do 2 different pickups. Traffic worsens at 5pm. It stressed me out initially beacuse pre-kids i left at 6:00, and with one kid i left at 5:00. but im used to it now. What is your current arrangement? Nanny or daycare near work?

[Anonymous]

I live and work in DC. If I am not walking out the door at 5PM, there is a chance that I will not be there by 6PM for pick-up. There are always uncertainties, someone who lost their parking ticket and so there is a pack-up getting out of the garage, an accident that shuts something down, if there is ever anything around the white house at rush hour - doomed!

Last year there was ana accident and it took me 70 minutes to go from work to school, less than 3 miles away.

[Anonymous]

I just started having to deal with aftercare pickup and I have to leave work at 5:15 to make the 6 pm aftercare pickup. I'm a truly single parent with no ex or family to do pickup for me and it has been stressful doing this so far (and I'm only 2 months in)....I hope it gets easier.

Before I had flexibility with downtown daycare - now that in public school, there's none..

[Anonymous]

Another single mom here. I have to leave by 5pm just in case there is an accident. If there isn't, I can usually get to school around 5:30-5:40ish. I work in a school but have very little planning time during the day so I need to stay after school for at least an hour or so to plan. I take grading home and do grades online. It can be stressful but luckily my school has plenty of people who leave soon after school ends. Today when I left at 5pm, there were only 6-7 cars left in the lot.

[Anonymous]

I deliberately took a job with a family friendly culture. There us never a question about my leaving exactly at the time I need to leave.

[Anonymous]

My daughter gets out of preschool at 3:15. I leave work at 2:45 two days a week, my husband does two days and my Mom/Dad picks her up one day. I leave at 5 the other days and am paid less the hours I leave early.

[Anonymous]

DH and I both work full time. I'm in Biglaw so I guess I work full time "plus." We've staggered our days so that i always do the morning drop-off and he picks up DD in the evening. He arrives at work early in order to leave by 5. He makes DD's dinner and puts her to bed. Sometimes he has to log in after DD's bedtime to catch up on work. Meanwhile, in the mornings, I take care of fixing DD's breakfast, dress her and take her to school. I work late in the evenings to make up for the fact that I get in pretty late.

This way we both get flexibility on one end of the day.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I leave work at 4:15 and DH leaves at 4. We both work downtown and have a 45 min to an hour commute, depending on what form of transportation we use. My office is pretty flexible about people leaving early. Next year when my kid goes to kindergarten, I'll be rearranging my schedule (still working full-time) and leaving work at 3:15. Should be interesting to see how accommodating in real life people will be.

[Anonymous]

I work 8-4:30 so I can leave with plenty of time to make pickup (even allowing for metro holdups). I usually use part of my commute time to check up on email via blackberry. As long as I get my work done, no one cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I deliberately took a job with a family friendly culture. There us never a question about my leaving exactly at the time I need to leave.

+1

[Anonymous]

Yes, absolutely. I leave work promptly at 5 PM to pick up DD. It's not an issue at my work - they're pretty flexible. I get DD home, get her dinner and bathtime, and then put her to bed. I usually go back online around 7/7:30 for an hour or so to finish up anything I missed before I left.

By the way, I worried about being judged, but no one at my work has ever made it an issue and I got the highest performance rating achievable this past cycle, so I don't think it's affected people's perception of my work. If anything, I much more effective with my time because I know that no matter what I have to be out the door at 5 PM.