Elementary drop off and working parents

[Anonymous]

At our school aftercare and beforecare are both full. I am still on a waiting list from last April. Many parents use other providers for before/after care. There is a Karate place that busses the kids to/from school and there is also a church that has a before/after program. There are probably others but whether due to difficulty in getting spots or our SACC kinda sucking (they put everyone together including K-6th) almost all of the people we know use a third-party provider.

[Anonymous]

My one staff works from home three days a week and her husband works from home two days a week. They dont work from home on same day. Problem solved.

Another women a single mom I work with our office is literally next door to townhomes. She literally lives like 100 feet from office. She walks kids to bus and at work a few seconds later, she then takes a 15 minute break around 3pm to go to bus stop outside office and walks kids home, sets up snacks and back at work. Her kids a bit older 8 and 10.

I had another single mom working for me with a young child when I worked in Bethesda who livedin Reston. Our office was literally next door to a preK to 8th grade Catholic school. She drove to work her daughter, she she drop off at school, she sometimes have lunch with her and did afterschool, she pick her up and drive home together.

My old town we had a nice retired lady who lived across from elementary school. She used to let parents drop off kids as early at 630am, she watch them, even could make breakfast and her house was like 50 feet school entrance at start of school she walk them across the street. She do it at end of day too if you wanted.

My wife ended up on bedrest with third kid for three months. I went to hire her but for two kids morning and night plus I had to bring kid there did not work. I found a nice retired German women on a low income who was a widow in local paper. I hired her to walk kids to school, pick up kids from school, go supermarket for wife and prepare breakfast and lunch and since she was only there 830am to 330 pm on school days easy for her and we provided meals for her too. She was like $600 a week cash. But for that price she did not do much else. And she brought her dog too. She was poorer than I though as we also let her take home leftovers for dinner. She was very happy getting three meals a day plus $600 a week cash for a job at 70. And I gave her $1,000 bonus when it ended. Was only three months but was nice to help. She literally just kept wife company while kids in school or read a book 3-4 hours a day.

But I dont see how it is works problem. My two sisters became teachers to avoid this problem. And a lot of nurses work other shifts to avoid this. Plus my old school alot of Dads who were Cops, Fireman, worked at Airport did drop up and pick up.

[Anonymous]

DH and I worked staggered schedules. My office core-hours were 10-4. I did the morning drop-off. DH did the evening pick up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I worked staggered schedules. My office core-hours were 10-4. I did the morning drop-off. DH did the evening pick up.

So you work 10-630pm??

[Anonymous]

Sorry OP we put our kids in before care for an hour before school started. I shifted my schedule early, my husband shifted late.

[Anonymous]

Maybe there is a more popular before and after care program that does drop off and pick up. I am in Maryland but all the fancy gyms here do it here and those are pretty popular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My one staff works from home three days a week and her husband works from home two days a week. They dont work from home on same day. Problem solved.

Another women a single mom I work with our office is literally next door to townhomes. She literally lives like 100 feet from office. She walks kids to bus and at work a few seconds later, she then takes a 15 minute break around 3pm to go to bus stop outside office and walks kids home, sets up snacks and back at work. Her kids a bit older 8 and 10.

I had another single mom working for me with a young child when I worked in Bethesda who livedin Reston. Our office was literally next door to a preK to 8th grade Catholic school. She drove to work her daughter, she she drop off at school, she sometimes have lunch with her and did afterschool, she pick her up and drive home together.

My old town we had a nice retired lady who lived across from elementary school. She used to let parents drop off kids as early at 630am, she watch them, even could make breakfast and her house was like 50 feet school entrance at start of school she walk them across the street. She do it at end of day too if you wanted.

My wife ended up on bedrest with third kid for three months. I went to hire her but for two kids morning and night plus I had to bring kid there did not work. I found a nice retired German women on a low income who was a widow in local paper. I hired her to walk kids to school, pick up kids from school, go supermarket for wife and prepare breakfast and lunch and since she was only there 830am to 330 pm on school days easy for her and we provided meals for her too. She was like $600 a week cash. But for that price she did not do much else. And she brought her dog too. She was poorer than I though as we also let her take home leftovers for dinner. She was very happy getting three meals a day plus $600 a week cash for a job at 70. And I gave her $1,000 bonus when it ended. Was only three months but was nice to help. She literally just kept wife company while kids in school or read a book 3-4 hours a day.

But I dont see how it is works problem. My two sisters became teachers to avoid this problem. And a lot of nurses work other shifts to avoid this. Plus my old school alot of Dads who were Cops, Fireman, worked at Airport did drop up and pick up.

Not one person here is saying it's work's problem.

Plenty of us had this easily figured out when telework was allowed. Now many of us are banned from telework and work doesn't like the hours we're working to try to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our local elementary schools start at 9am.

We tried before care, but it was almost empty and kid found it depressing. Too young and too far to walk to school on own (no bus).

How are working parents handling this? Do they get to work around 930/945? Have a crazy short commute so 845 drop off and get to work by 9? Hiring nannies or local grandparents for mornings?

My career has definitely suffered by being the morning drop off; somedays I dont get until 10 which hurts.

Are there other kids that walk to school on your street or nearby? Could you form a walking group if they are all young and rotate who walks them each day? Similar to a car pool.

[Anonymous]

what happened to latch key kids? I was on my own to and from school starting in 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:flex schedule. Mostly I do dropoff/pickup, sometimes DH

Your career doesnt suffer from missing the first 2 hours of workday (we start many meetings at 8am — i dial in but am the only person remote for these meetings).

Sometimes I do calls/meetings at drop off and definitely at pick up. My career doesn't suffer.

[Anonymous]

i changed my job to a flexible, remote job so i could always be there for drop off/pick up, sick days and holidays

mommy tracked myself hard, but its really helpful in this season of our lives

[Anonymous]

We switched to a Catholic school with an 8 a.m. start. It is MUCH better than the 9 a.m. school start before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I worked staggered schedules. My office core-hours were 10-4. I did the morning drop-off. DH did the evening pick up.

So you work 10-630pm??

Not pp, but yeah, I did this for years. More like 9:30-6:30. Hated it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:flex schedule. Mostly I do dropoff/pickup, sometimes DH

Your career doesnt suffer from missing the first 2 hours of workday (we start many meetings at 8am — i dial in but am the only person remote for these meetings).

Sometimes I do calls/meetings at drop off and definitely at pick up. My career doesn't suffer.

How do you contribute to meetings with the chorus of kids running and car traffic noises? What industry are you in, are working moms common?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what happened to latch key kids? I was on my own to and from school starting in 2nd grade.

Thats how you get CPS called on you.

We tried to get our DS to walk home in 2nd and school policy was too young. Really only 5th grade get to.

We don’t like them walking alone in morning because drivers are rushing to drop off and getting to work. When we were kids far fewer parents were driving their kids to school and most moms weren’t driving to work. On top of that, we have WAY more rushing delivery drivers at all hours.