Facetime at the office -- kids pickup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think facetime is that important. But 3:30 is WAY too early to leave. I still have a lot of meetings in the 4pm hour. I would be upset if my coworkers were all leaving that early. What about putting the kids in aftercare?

This is yet another reason it's ridiculous for the schools to have a significantly shorter day than working parents. Schools need to go until 4 or 4:30 to accommodate parents.

School is not daycare, loser.

Why can't people understand that?

And what would a kid absorb after that much learning time? I can't get adults to absorb more than 7 hrs of information in a training day.

I think a longer day would be great as long as the kept the instructional time the same but break it up with lots of recess time and a longer lunch. Their day would be so much more productive if the kids (and teachers!) could have more breaks during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think facetime is that important. But 3:30 is WAY too early to leave. I still have a lot of meetings in the 4pm hour. I would be upset if my coworkers were all leaving that early. What about putting the kids in aftercare?

This is yet another reason it's ridiculous for the schools to have a significantly shorter day than working parents. Schools need to go until 4 or 4:30 to accommodate parents.

School is not daycare, loser.

Why can't people understand that?

And what would a kid absorb after that much learning time? I can't get adults to absorb more than 7 hrs of information in a training day.

I think a longer day would be great as long as the kept the instructional time the same but break it up with lots of recess time and a longer lunch. Their day would be so much more productive if the kids (and teachers!) could have more breaks during the day.

I'd love this idea. No more official "instruction" but more free play, arts, music, recess and a longer lunch. Sounds like a dream school day. And much better than what the majority of these kids are going home to: TV, no adult present and lots of screentime. DCUM is typically upper middle class or upper class. You forget that there are lots of poorer kids who don't have opportunities to play outside after school (in the street around the apartment complex?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really depends what industry you're in and how much your company values work/life balance. I work at a tech firm where they value that and there are people who come to work at noon and stay until 8 or 9pm, or work from home three days a week, because that's the schedule that works for them.

But at some places that wouldn't fly. You need to be able to read your company, your industry. Litigation lawyer? Probably won't work. Software developer? No problem.

This. It's why I like my tech contractor job. We have people who come 6-3 and those who do 11-7 etc. as long as your manager and customer can reach you and you do your work and attend meetings when you need to no one cares about the FaceTime. I like being in the office as it lets me bounce ideas off people and draw stuff on the whiteboard together but when I get down to really working on something I do it by myself anyway and makes no difference what time it is as long as it's by the deadline.

[Anonymous]

Pp again and we have managers who keep the 6-3 hrs as well. They are in email the rest of the day for urgent matters though but they have certainly not been penalized for leaving early. They all sis out in their 10-15 years of long hours and travel and built up their reputation for getting stuff done.

[Anonymous]

Silly question, but what about after-school activities? Do people with after care or clamoring for after care or longer school days have kids that do sports or dance or swimming or karate? Lots of those things start for us at around 5. Sometimes earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Silly question, but what about after-school activities? Do people with after care or clamoring for after care or longer school days have kids that do sports or dance or swimming or karate? Lots of those things start for us at around 5. Sometimes earlier.

Our Karate picks the kids up from school, so do many other after school activities.

[Anonymous]

No one gives a shit about facetime at my office. It wouldn't hurt you as long as you got your work done.

[Anonymous]

Well, studies show I've heard that men looking committed to their kids HELPS them and women being committed to kids hurts their career. But 330 is really earlier regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Silly question, but what about after-school activities? Do people with after care or clamoring for after care or longer school days have kids that do sports or dance or swimming or karate? Lots of those things start for us at around 5. Sometimes earlier.

My kids each do a couple extracurricular activities at school during extended day. DS soccer and baseball is usually at 6 or later. DDs fencing is at 6:30 a couple times a week. Girl Scout meetings are at school during extended day. Boy Scout meetings are on the weekend or after 7pm. If they wanted to do a regular activity that started earlier, they wouldn't do it, unless it was something they did with a friend who had a parent available to drive. It's really never been an issue for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I get to the office at 7, and am available by phone and email anytime.

But consensus is 3:30 is too early? Kids being in aftercare till 5 seems like crazy long day.

Ok, new question, how do I ramp up my career so DW can stay home? I came from a small town and my parents were barely lower middle class -- I really have no idea how to hustle especially now that we have kids? I worked hard early on but I thought a salary of 70k was amazing, bc my parents home cost less than that. There's been a hard lesson on how life is in 'real' world outside my dying home town.

We want to prioritize our kids, but need to have money to live off, and around here that means two working parents for those of us without 'BIG' career...

It's not. tens of thousands of kids do this everyday. Some even to 6pm. Kids often beg to be able to continue playing with their friends even after you show up to pick them up.

Ridiculous. Just because many kids have to stay at aftercare late to accomodate their parents' work schedules, doesn't mean this is good for them. They've already had a long day at school. They need to have downtime and alone time - neither of which they can get if they're staying at aftercare until 6pm.

Depends on the kid. What my DS needed was time to run around and play with his friends. He couldn't do that when he came straight home from school because all his friends were at extended day. He was begging me to go back to work so he could go to extended day. I did eventually, when youngest was in K, and he was thrilled.

This. My 6 year old gets mad when I pick her up early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I get to the office at 7, and am available by phone and email anytime.

But consensus is 3:30 is too early? Kids being in aftercare till 5 seems like crazy long day.

Ok, new question, how do I ramp up my career so DW can stay home? I came from a small town and my parents were barely lower middle class -- I really have no idea how to hustle especially now that we have kids? I worked hard early on but I thought a salary of 70k was amazing, bc my parents home cost less than that. There's been a hard lesson on how life is in 'real' world outside my dying home town.

We want to prioritize our kids, but need to have money to live off, and around here that means two working parents for those of us without 'BIG' career...

It's not. tens of thousands of kids do this everyday. Some even to 6pm. Kids often beg to be able to continue playing with their friends even after you show up to pick them up.

Ridiculous. Just because many kids have to stay at aftercare late to accomodate their parents' work schedules, doesn't mean this is good for them. They've already had a long day at school. They need to have downtime and alone time - neither of which they can get if they're staying at aftercare until 6pm.

Depends on the kid. What my DS needed was time to run around and play with his friends. He couldn't do that when he came straight home from school because all his friends were at extended day. He was begging me to go back to work so he could go to extended day. I did eventually, when youngest was in K, and he was thrilled.

This. My 6 year old gets mad when I pick her up early.

My kids gets mad when I don't let them have seconds on ice cream. Just because they choose doesn't mean it is best for them (and we use aftercare every day).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I get to the office at 7, and am available by phone and email anytime.

But consensus is 3:30 is too early? Kids being in aftercare till 5 seems like crazy long day.

Ok, new question, how do I ramp up my career so DW can stay home? I came from a small town and my parents were barely lower middle class -- I really have no idea how to hustle especially now that we have kids? I worked hard early on but I thought a salary of 70k was amazing, bc my parents home cost less than that. There's been a hard lesson on how life is in 'real' world outside my dying home town.

We want to prioritize our kids, but need to have money to live off, and around here that means two working parents for those of us without 'BIG' career...

It's not. tens of thousands of kids do this everyday. Some even to 6pm. Kids often beg to be able to continue playing with their friends even after you show up to pick them up.

Ridiculous. Just because many kids have to stay at aftercare late to accomodate their parents' work schedules, doesn't mean this is good for them. They've already had a long day at school. They need to have downtime and alone time - neither of which they can get if they're staying at aftercare until 6pm.

Depends on the kid. What my DS needed was time to run around and play with his friends. He couldn't do that when he came straight home from school because all his friends were at extended day. He was begging me to go back to work so he could go to extended day. I did eventually, when youngest was in K, and he was thrilled.

This. My 6 year old gets mad when I pick her up early.

My kids gets mad when I don't let them have seconds on ice cream. Just because they choose doesn't mean it is best for them (and we use aftercare every day).

Oh give me a fucking break. When it's time to go it's time to go. I surely will not stay in the office longer in order to give my 6 y/o more playing time. I was just pointing out that she doesn't like it.