What does your early elementary kid do after school?

[Anonymous]

I let my kid just have a snack and decompress playing Minecraft with older sibling.

[Anonymous]

We either stay on the playground for 30-45 minutes (I can get away with 7-330 most days unless there's a 4:00 meeting or I'm on site), or I just let him watch TV for an hour. I don't feel that bad about it. It's not every day.

[Anonymous]

My first grader likes to listen to podcasts or audiobooks on headphones and play Lego or magnatiles, or sit in our hammock in the backyard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Working parents need aftercare, for both their sanity, their child's happiness, and their employers commitment. Don't blame your kid for not being able to entertain themselves; that's not their job. It's your job to provide them the attention they need, which you can't do when you're working.

It's fine every now and then to have your kid watch a movie or set up new legos or a scavenger hunt around the yard to waste time. It's not fine every single day.

These posts really kill me. Just because you work from home does not mean you don't need childcare! Come on, create some normal boundaries and be responsible!

So wait, are you saying it's not an important skill for kids to be able to entertain themselves?

I am saying it's not reasonable to expect that to happen every single work day for 2 hours of time. And it's also not reasonable for your employer to expect for you to be half engaged every single work day for 25% of your working day.

Parents who insist that this should be happening are just setting themselves up for trouble, and I feel annoyed by them and feel bad for their kids. Don't use WFH as an excuse to not provide adequate childcare.

I agree but parents these days are cheap. And they use "poor quality aftercare" as their excuse. But really Covid taught them they could get away with it and so they continue. They have no intention of paying for aftercare, high quality or otherwise.

Well it’s chicken and egg now. We used aftercare before and it is terrible now since most middle and upper middle class families opted out, so it’s all free students so there is not enough money to staff adequately or provide any sort of enrichment. It’s basically kids sitting in the cafeteria being yelled at to be quiet.

[Anonymous]

Nothing too exciting. Most of the time the school They come back and wash up/change clothes, give me their lunch box, and any paper from their school. I keep some snack ready for them. As soon as their snack is over, they sit and do their homework or assignment (if any) under my supervision, and then get their bag ready for the next day.

Then they go outside to play with their friends in the neighborhood either in my backyard or they go biking together with some moms trudging along. Tuesday and Wednesday, tutors come to teach her piano and chess, Thursday is kicks karate. Then bath, dinner, some PBS, read a book and bedtime.

Sometimes we all walk down to an icecream place nearby after dinner with grandpa and grandma and we sit outside and eat icecream. Some times a neighbor hosts a movie night outdoors on a big screen. No hard and fast rules. Friday nights are spent with grandma and grandpa who live close by and we meet up for something fun on Saturday mornings - zoo, aquarium, museum, picnic etc. Then the kid is handed back to us.

We do not make our weekends too hectic. Saturday and Sunday, is usually a birthday party or something. In our circles, we do not have drop off parties yet, so one of us will go with her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Working parents need aftercare, for both their sanity, their child's happiness, and their employers commitment. Don't blame your kid for not being able to entertain themselves; that's not their job. It's your job to provide them the attention they need, which you can't do when you're working.

It's fine every now and then to have your kid watch a movie or set up new legos or a scavenger hunt around the yard to waste time. It's not fine every single day.

These posts really kill me. Just because you work from home does not mean you don't need childcare! Come on, create some normal boundaries and be responsible!

So wait, are you saying it's not an important skill for kids to be able to entertain themselves?

I am saying it's not reasonable to expect that to happen every single work day for 2 hours of time. And it's also not reasonable for your employer to expect for you to be half engaged every single work day for 25% of your working day.

Parents who insist that this should be happening are just setting themselves up for trouble, and I feel annoyed by them and feel bad for their kids. Don't use WFH as an excuse to not provide adequate childcare.

I agree but parents these days are cheap. And they use "poor quality aftercare" as their excuse. But really Covid taught them they could get away with it and so they continue. They have no intention of paying for aftercare, high quality or otherwise.

Well it’s chicken and egg now. We used aftercare before and it is terrible now since most middle and upper middle class families opted out, so it’s all free students so there is not enough money to staff adequately or provide any sort of enrichment. It’s basically kids sitting in the cafeteria being yelled at to be quiet.

So use a private one not the crappy school one, which was always lord of the flies.