Reply to If your child goes to after school care

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have 2 bous who love sports. We tried after care for one year and it was misesrable. We moved to an AuPair so our boys could play with their friends at the playground, come home, do homework, relax, and then go to their sports practice.  Often between the 2 boys each season they play one travel sport and one rec sport, so basically running 2 sports each (total of 4 ) each season.

Yes thr AuPair is expensive, but my bottom line can take a hit so that my job doesnt have to intrude on their childhood. To put it honestly, a child in aftercare is keeping adult like work hours. That one year, my boys were hotribly exhausted and DH and i were always in a frantic rush. No more of that. [/quote]

Well, good for you if you can afford it. Unfortunately for a lot of us who do after school care, this is not the case. Just realize that you are one of the lucky ones.[/quote]

And, PP's kids' experience of aftercare as exhausting and "adult like work hours" is not every kid's experience of aftercare.  My kids love it there and ask to stay for it even on days I work at home because they want to play with their friends.[/quote]

They might like it, but they are keeping adult like work hours. Don't delude yourself. It's simple math. These kids are grinding away.[/quote]

My quibble is with defining it as "work" hours.  Yes, they are there until 5-5:30 but my kids aren't "working" at aftercare, "grinding away" (what kind of aftercare program are your kids in?!)  They get a snack, maybe spend  15 minutes on homework, run around with their friends, start a soccer game, create something in the art room, and/or find a cozy spot to read in the library, depending on the day.  It's what kids should have time to do -- unstructured, lightly supervised play with their peers.  When I happen to pick them up early they complain because they aren't working, they are playing and it's more fun there than at home with only each other to play with.  Maybe other schools are more regimented at aftercare but that's not the experience at our school.  [/quote]

These kids are exhausted. They don't get any downtime.  Just calling a spade a spade.  You do what you have to do, but to suggest that it is somehow ideal is laughable. If it were so ideal, then parents would spend the money and send their kids to aftercare even if they didn't work or even if they had access to home care. Parents have no shortage of money to do so if this was somehow an advantageous  arrangement.[/quote]

Run along and make daddy a martini.[/quote]

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