How are you making child care/school decisions without knowing what employers expect?

[Anonymous]

How are you making child care or school decisions for next year if your employer hasn’t made their expectations known? Right now we have to decide between half or partial day preschool and commit for the next year. I have no idea what my company’s expectations will be next year and if at some point I will be expected back in the office. And of course the trajectory of this virus is so unknown that it’s entirely possible we could all be on lockdown again when there is a resurgence. I find it stressful to make such a tremendous financial commitment with so many unknowns and know millions of working parents are grappling with this. If you are in the same boat with two working parents and young/school age kids, how are you and your spouse deciding what to do next year?

[Anonymous]

I would not financially commit to a full year of preschool. Things will likely shut down again. We are likely going to enroll our soon to be 3 y/o in part time preschool (5 y/o will go to K 2 days per week), but we’re bracing for things to shut down. I would pay partial rate for a while for preschool, but it doesn’t make financial sense for our family to pay full price for an extended period of time for childcare we cannot use. Childcare is already a huge portion of my salary and at times it doesn’t even feel worth it to work.

It cannot be the responsibility of families to keep childcare providers afloat. If our government can bail out airlines they should bailout the childcare industry that our economy so relies upon.

That is a long way of saying we are preparing to be flexible and will not sign any long term contracts. We’re also hoping to continue to be granted full time work from home ability and expanded hours to get work done. If things change then I fear I could very realistically end up getting pushed out of the workforce which sucks. It was hard enough being a dual working family before the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

We are praying that our employers will allow us to keep WFH.

[Anonymous]

It’s not my boss but my coworkers who have definitely pressured me to choose to go back to the office. The non-parents and parents of older kids in my department have started complaining and making comments about those of us with young kids not “carrying our load”. DH can continue to work from home or go in on a staggered schedule as is everyone.

We hired a good nanny for our rising first grader and 2.5 yr old. Our older child is in private school and the school hasn’t announced it’s plan and we just decided to keep our toddler home from preschool for the next year.

[Anonymous]

If your employer isn't giving any clues, then I think it's all about how risk adverse you are, whether you have other options and whether you need to work. I feel for you. A couple of my staff are in the same boat. I think they are not arranging child care and I think they will end up scrambling. But, they have parents who can and will step in if need be. It won't be ideal and I know they will hate it having family living with them full time, but that's what works for their budget.

Our employer is definitely planning on return to work full time and has agreed to a one month notice so families can find child care. But, I don't think the one month will really help much since child care is going to be hard to find.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like your concern is that you won't need preschool for childcare if society shuts down again, is that accurate? I'm not sure exactly what variables you're dealing with.

People working from home mostly need/want full day childcare so they can work effectively. So whether employers are open or closed is not really the question because I need childcare either way. The question is whether the *childcare* is open. I'd ask the preschool what their refund policy is if they close.

[Anonymous]

We have assumed the worst. We will need to go back into work while DD’s preschool will close with the next surge. We have my parents isolating now so they can drive up and move in with us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not my boss but my coworkers who have definitely pressured me to choose to go back to the office. The non-parents and parents of older kids in my department have started complaining and making comments about those of us with young kids not “carrying our load”. DH can continue to work from home or go in on a staggered schedule as is everyone.

We hired a good nanny for our rising first grader and 2.5 yr old. Our older child is in private school and the school hasn’t announced it’s plan and we just decided to keep our toddler home from preschool for the next year.

Wow this surprises me. All my coworkers with older kids constantly tell me they have no idea how I’m managing with 2 under 5. I guess your coworkers must be much older to have completely forgotten how hard young kids can be even without a pandemic and full time job to deal with.

[Anonymous]

You should expect that employers expect you to be in the office

[Anonymous]

I really do not think my employer (law firm) will force parents into the office until school is back full time. If I’m wrong about that, I will use up all my vacation time and then take a leave of absence.

[Anonymous]

I’m telling my employer that this is what the child care situation is and here is what I will need to accommodate it and here is what I will produce as a result.

I’m not going to wait for them to cook up some half-baked rule that I have to try to get an exception to after the fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not my boss but my coworkers who have definitely pressured me to choose to go back to the office. The non-parents and parents of older kids in my department have started complaining and making comments about those of us with young kids not “carrying our load”. DH can continue to work from home or go in on a staggered schedule as is everyone.

We hired a good nanny for our rising first grader and 2.5 yr old. Our older child is in private school and the school hasn’t announced it’s plan and we just decided to keep our toddler home from preschool for the next year.

Wow this surprises me. All my coworkers with older kids constantly tell me they have no idea how I’m managing with 2 under 5. I guess your coworkers must be much older to have completely forgotten how hard young kids can be even without a pandemic and full time job to deal with.

PP here and yes, they say stuff like that but also add things like “... well with your lack of a commute... “ and “I wish I could be in yoga pants all day” and “luck you! “. I understand it. I do. And if I were working from home with no little kids here this would be a dream job.

[Anonymous]

I'm assuming my employer will expect me to work at full capacity, even if I'm still doing it from home. That means full-time childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not my boss but my coworkers who have definitely pressured me to choose to go back to the office. The non-parents and parents of older kids in my department have started complaining and making comments about those of us with young kids not “carrying our load”. DH can continue to work from home or go in on a staggered schedule as is everyone.

We hired a good nanny for our rising first grader and 2.5 yr old. Our older child is in private school and the school hasn’t announced it’s plan and we just decided to keep our toddler home from preschool for the next year.

Wow this surprises me. All my coworkers with older kids constantly tell me to my facethey have no idea how I’m managing with 2 under 5. I guess your coworkers must be much older to have completely forgotten how hard young kids can be even without a pandemic and full time job to deal with.

[Anonymous]

Have you asked your employee their plans for the fall and beyond?