Reply to RTO and No Childcare.

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "RTO and No Childcare. "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are a lot of women employed FT in professional careers really saying they have no childcare? That's not what I've seen on DCUM. People are often talking about the extra time for commuting and difference of being out of the house. So like a 10yp may come home from school and not have childcare from 4-5pm because they can entertain themselves while parent works. But the parent may not want them actually alone in the house. It's a childcare gap. Same with the mornings before school opens - I would need beforecare to RTO and it might not be available this school year (already full). Or preschool may close at 5pm but with commute I'd get home later than that, etc.

WFH necessitates childcare if you have a real job but can be for fewer hours, or you cover the occasional days off and breaks without always taking PTO etc [/quote]

This. If you work FT you either have childcare or older kids -- you aren't working with a toddler in the house. But childcare options are better and easier with RTO -- you can find childcare near your house without worrying about commute or getting stuck in traffic or on public transportation when you need to be picking up.

RTO is also a godsend when you have a sick kid or there's a random day off from school. A kid with a fever and a cough can just spend the day watching TV or in bed (rest is what they need anyway) -- you can get lots of work done while home with them. With RTO you will likely need to take the day off of work because it's near impossible to find last minute childcare for a sick child. And on random days off school our options are much better with WFH -- we've coordinated with friends to each take a portion of the day off with the kids so the kids are covered all day without anyone having to take a full day off. Sometimes the school has childcare options but it's not always all day.

If employers really want RTO then this is what they need to offer for parents to help:
- Onsite childcare for infants/toddlers
- Start/stop flexibility to accommodate drop-off and pick up
- WFH options for sick days and random off days from school[/quote]

I have been RTO for years.  I offer all 3 of the above to my team. We have childcare on site although it’s a different building and there are other options since some people complain on site childcare is too expensive.

I offer flexibility and WFH with sick kids / family/ emergency as long as people get their work done.

I’m a mom so I get it,  but my spouse also does childcare pickup.  It shouldn’t be solely on the woman.  I have a team member who refuses to let her husband do anything and she has 3 kids and 2 dogs and according to her she is the main earner.  Share the responsibility.

One member of my team needed countless flexibility - leaving early for about a month (2:45 PM).  I told her as long as she signed back on and was available by phone and did her work it was fine.

That didn’t happen so I had to talk with her again and say when you
leave at 2:45 to pick up your kids that doesn’t mean you can sign off at 2:45 especially not when you roll in at 9:15/9:30 and take a lunch. She had countless vacation and sick days she could take or take partial days if she didn’t want to sign back on.

I recommended looking for other childcare which didn’t seem to be happening (school aged kids).  She has a nanny for her youngest but refused to pay the nanny more $ to watch her two oldest after school.  I almost had to take away that flexibility but after two discussions the childcare issues were resolved.

We’re adults and it’s fine if occasionally you drop the ball but you can’t expect it to be an every day occurrence. During Covid people got used to producing less work and having more time in their own. If that is your goal, fine, but then you might make less $ or be competing against a lot more people for those certain roles.

If you’re offered that flexibility don’t then take it for granted.

Same thing with WFH with sick kids.  That’s fine if you actually work, otherwise use your sick leave.  We are front facing so it’s not just me nitpicking.

I grew up with a single mom (dad died) who worked all the time.  We were in aftercare and had a babysitter in the summer because she couldn’t afford camp. We had a neighbor who only worked PT and had a daughter in our class so our mom paid her to watch us some days after school.

The other days (when after care was not available) she paid a high schooler to watch us.  My mom figured it out and didn’t complain.  I learned to cook, clean, and do my own laundry at a young age.  My mom to this day hates WFH- everyone she interacts with who WFH she says it takes them 2-5x longer to get the work done than pre Covid.

There are so many options people just don’t want to pay for them.  Growing up we lived in a small old house and owned one old car and took one vacation a year.  I played one sport a season and only on a weekend, we didn’t go out to eat, and didn’t wear name brand clothes.  We figured it out.  I also knew I needed to work hard so I could get a scholarship for college and paid my own way for undergrad and grad school.

Many schools offer after care, hire a high schooler, or offer to pay a SAHP to watch your kids after school.  Also, many schools have clubs so sign your kid up for a club and you and another parent switch off over who will do the pick up.  Or do a carpool situation.  If more people worked together when they had WFH options maybe your neighbors would be willing to help you out more when you RTO.

If you aren’t happy look for a new role.  It’s really that simple.  If you want that pension and excellent healthcare benefit even after you retire (which no one else gets) then suck it up and stop complaining.  My MiL retired mid 50s and gets a 6 figure pension and her healthcare paid for.  She had a really crappy 20 years but her husband who owned his own business ended up having financial issues and if it weren’t for her pension they would be totally screwed.

[/quote]

Your employee needs to leave early once a MONTH and it's such an enormous deal that you wrote multiple paragraphs about it??

Yes life has been and still is very hard for many people. Most are not aspiring to that though.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics