Office fed parent - summer schedule hacks?

[Anonymous]

Way back when I was in college I worked at Visa Credit Card, I was right next to Barlays US Headquarters and American Express and and Citigroup had offices all within a mile of each other.

This is many years before people had Nannies, Camps or childcare help and no before or after care at schools. We had lots of dual income couples with kids. They just worked different shifts.

My Boss at Visa she worked second shift and her husband worked first shift at Citigroup. As easy as that. And my office job out of college a lot of working Moms husbands were Fireman, Cops, Contractors, worked second or third shifts.

And most of Men wives were teachers or nurses.

You both cant work the same exact hours in person Monday to Friday as Parents of Kids unless you get child care or pay a lot for services.

It is why my sister was a part time Speech Pathologist in school. Her hours were 10am to 2 pm daily. 15 minute break. She was home for kids while husband worked full time in person.

My other sister was Breadwinner her husband was a semi stay at home dad. They had 3 kids.

It is myth you both should be allow to work in person 5 days a week in a big job, go to conferences, happy hours, work dinners, travel for work. If you have more than one kid something has to give.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your DH needs to make more money if he want to have a job with so much traveling. Summer is a two-man job, so you need to either afford a nanny or he needs to pick up and actually do one of the slots.

+1
Traveling is a luxury with kids - time to yourself. But it costs a lot at home. It's a deduction in net salary that has to be realistically considered.

Going through this now with my DH. I’m the low paid GS-13 fed and he’s the breadwinner consultant and heavy traveler (travel has been intense the past 5 months). We have before and after care AND a babysitter who picks them up and helps me with the nightly routine from 5:30 - 8:30 pm, 3-4 nights a week. It sucks, but throwing money at the problem is the only thing that seems to make this somewhat tolerable. DH better be getting a damn good bonus or a large increase in comp this year! Good luck OP!

So you can’t watch your school aged kids, at all, without help? Crazy!

[Anonymous]

I haven't read the responses, but it sounds like OP is too cheap for camps with before and after care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Way back when I was in college I worked at Visa Credit Card, I was right next to Barlays US Headquarters and American Express and and Citigroup had offices all within a mile of each other.

This is many years before people had Nannies, Camps or childcare help and no before or after care at schools. We had lots of dual income couples with kids. They just worked different shifts.

My Boss at Visa she worked second shift and her husband worked first shift at Citigroup. As easy as that. And my office job out of college a lot of working Moms husbands were Fireman, Cops, Contractors, worked second or third shifts.

And most of Men wives were teachers or nurses.

You both cant work the same exact hours in person Monday to Friday as Parents of Kids unless you get child care or pay a lot for services.

It is why my sister was a part time Speech Pathologist in school. Her hours were 10am to 2 pm daily. 15 minute break. She was home for kids while husband worked full time in person.

My other sister was Breadwinner her husband was a semi stay at home dad. They had 3 kids.

It is myth you both should be allow to work in person 5 days a week in a big job, go to conferences, happy hours, work dinners, travel for work. If you have more than one kid something has to give.

Some of us know how to Capitalize and thus have enough human capital to get jobs with the Flexibility to allow us to Coordinate with our Spouses to Pick up our Children from Camp or Pay a Nanny.

[Anonymous]

I just love Feds acting like they're the only people that have to work in person five days a week. Many of us have been doing this for our entire careers, without any sort of Covid break or flexibility, and we know about the importance of after care and carpooling, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your DH needs to make more money if he want to have a job with so much traveling. Summer is a two-man job, so you need to either afford a nanny or he needs to pick up and actually do one of the slots.

+1
Traveling is a luxury with kids - time to yourself. But it costs a lot at home. It's a deduction in net salary that has to be realistically considered.

Going through this now with my DH. I’m the low paid GS-13 fed and he’s the breadwinner consultant and heavy traveler (travel has been intense the past 5 months). We have before and after care AND a babysitter who picks them up and helps me with the nightly routine from 5:30 - 8:30 pm, 3-4 nights a week. It sucks, but throwing money at the problem is the only thing that seems to make this somewhat tolerable. DH better be getting a damn good bonus or a large increase in comp this year! Good luck OP!

So you can’t watch your school aged kids, at all, without help? Crazy!

I’m sure she can but wisely is insisting that her DH not foist it all on her due to his “big job.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just love Feds acting like they're the only people that have to work in person five days a week. Many of us have been doing this for our entire careers, without any sort of Covid break or flexibility, and we know about the importance of after care and carpooling, LOL!

STFU. Most private sector white collar workers have a lot of flexibility that Feds do not have anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, spouse needs to limit travel as much as possible and shoulder the load.

One thing I have not seen mentioned is that I'd take my kids to camps near work (I'm also in office) and pay for before and/or after care to maximize my time in the office.

+1
Used a camp near work with before and aftercare. Then I could work a full day and the commute with with my kid. But it did mean my kid couldn’t do the 9-3 camp near home that all his friends did. Such is life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re allowed to work at home a couple of hours a day and have maxi flex and credit hours, how is this an issue?

Just get your butt out of bed at 6, work until 8, the. drop them off at camp. Get to work by 9:30 and leave at 3:30. Bill a credit hour later at home if you want.

Hi- we're feds. We don't have any telework whatsoever. My agency doesn't have maxi flex, nor have I ever seen a credit hour.

OP said she had maxi flex, credit hours, and situational telework. I mean, if you can’t make that work, you need to try harder.

Yes. Sorry OP, but we’ve spent $5-$8k per child each summer for extended day summer camp. It’s expensive but it’s the only way to do this with two full time working parents. That you haven’t had to do this yet is a privilege. At least for us, you need to book most popular programs by January or February at the latest. Kids are expensive. There’s no life hack for that.

Yep. Budgeted 10k every summer pre-telework, including us each taking separate weeks off to have a “vacation” (with some overlap over July 4th weekend for family time). There are affordable county run camps still, which was our fall back if cost or availability was an issue, and they have after care. They aren’t amazing but they’re safe. FCPS SACC has low cost school run programs as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just love Feds acting like they're the only people that have to work in person five days a week. Many of us have been doing this for our entire careers, without any sort of Covid break or flexibility, and we know about the importance of after care and carpooling, LOL!

I missed the part where it says Feds are the only ones. OP is asking as a Fed. Sure, provide your input if it’s helpful.
Your badge is in the mail for your martyrdom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just love Feds acting like they're the only people that have to work in person five days a week. Many of us have been doing this for our entire careers, without any sort of Covid break or flexibility, and we know about the importance of after care and carpooling, LOL!

Yes, but....more people needing aftercare and beforecare and the like will increase the price due to demand. It makes it more stressful on a macro basis, for everyone. And because of the cost, there is more demand for lower cost camps which actually needles out lower income workers who had a traditional 9-5. On top of that, traffic is worse because of these policies, which means you need to build in even more time.

The kneejerk Fed hate is so short-sighted.

Also, I REALLLLLLY hate the carpool suggestions. A sedan with two carseats cant carpool. Imagine having to buy a SUV or Minivan just because you have to carpool because work-life balance from the B-class bros is non-existent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My office allows 2 weeks LWOP without having to justify up the chain. That could possibly buy some time.

I don’t want to take LWOP. Who is going to do my work while I’m out?? I’m also a supervisor and I don’t want my employees out more than they need to be. Haven’t you heard- we’re all critically understaffed. I would prefer to let employees leave at 3:30 and then they can telework for 2 more hours later. My team is high performing and I can track their work output, which is more important to me than their hours.

OP asked a question looking for options and I provided an answer. And who cares about critical understaffing. That's the administration's problem IMO.

+ 1000. People not wanting to burn up their LWOP because they want to save it for vacation or they're not allowed to use it in certain ways, fine. This notion of "omg how will they ever manage without me for an hour" just reeks of self-importance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love Feds acting like they're the only people that have to work in person five days a week. Many of us have been doing this for our entire careers, without any sort of Covid break or flexibility, and we know about the importance of after care and carpooling, LOL!

Yes, but....more people needing aftercare and beforecare and the like will increase the price due to demand. It makes it more stressful on a macro basis, for everyone. And because of the cost, there is more demand for lower cost camps which actually needles out lower income workers who had a traditional 9-5. On top of that, traffic is worse because of these policies, which means you need to build in even more time.

The kneejerk Fed hate is so short-sighted.

Also, I REALLLLLLY hate the carpool suggestions. A sedan with two carseats cant carpool. Imagine having to buy a SUV or Minivan just because you have to carpool because work-life balance from the B-class bros is non-existent.

We fit 3 car seats in our Honda fit back row.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the responses, but it sounds like OP is too cheap for camps with before and after care.

Actually most of the better run camps don’t have aftercare or it’s lord of the flies style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love Feds acting like they're the only people that have to work in person five days a week. Many of us have been doing this for our entire careers, without any sort of Covid break or flexibility, and we know about the importance of after care and carpooling, LOL!

Yes, but....more people needing aftercare and beforecare and the like will increase the price due to demand. It makes it more stressful on a macro basis, for everyone. And because of the cost, there is more demand for lower cost camps which actually needles out lower income workers who had a traditional 9-5. On top of that, traffic is worse because of these policies, which means you need to build in even more time.

The kneejerk Fed hate is so short-sighted.

Also, I REALLLLLLY hate the carpool suggestions. A sedan with two carseats cant carpool. Imagine having to buy a SUV or Minivan just because you have to carpool because work-life balance from the B-class bros is non-existent.

We fit 3 car seats in our Honda fit back row.

Also most camp age kids dont need car seats. Maybe boosters. If you have babies they arent going to camp.