Reply to New OPM memo on RTO

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6? [/quote]

My kids were not yet school aged when COVID started so they were still in daycare/preschool. But even before COVID DH and I both teleworked multiple days per week so that at least one of us was home. Usually the commuting spouse would do morning drop off since they had to head out anyway and then the teleworking parent would do pickup so the kids didn’t have to be there past 5.

I think a lot of parents of school aged kids teleworked at least hybrid before COVID. It’s not like March 2020 marked the invention of WAH. For those who need longer hours, they use aftercare, but staffing has gotten harder in the childcare sector so spots are limited with long waitlists. Or maybe if you’re lucky you can find a martial arts type place that has a van to do school pickup and take them to do activities.

I also think a lot of the parents were just not in the workforce or were underemployed. I guess this administration thinks that is preferable to go back to.

My kids a now in extracurriculars starting as early as 4:30/5. To keep them in we’d have to take leave some days, use carpools, stagger hours, not really sure yet … thankfully my DH’s private sector job has been remote since 2018 and his colleagues are scattered across the country with no office to go to, so I guess he would have to take on more of the kid shuffling at home if I go back 5 days (holding out hope my agency’s CBA holds). I would try to jump ship out of government quickly though if forced to commute 5 days/week.[/quote]

The schedule and juggling you describe is very normal. My husband is 5x/week and I am remote and do more juggling, but I can’t do it all while working during the day, so we have a nanny who helps after school with driving while I am working. Millions of people do this and it is not fun, but it is the norm. [/quote]

Let me guess, either you don’t live in the DC area, or your husband is a high earner in the private sector. My husband and I are both feds and would not be able to afford a nanny to drive our two elementary aged kids to activities.

As others have mentioned camps alone offer garbage hours and after care to add on another $200 to a camp week that already costs $500 is cost prohibitive.

Our kids were 2 and 5 when Covid hit and we sucked it up and maintained our work performance and duties even though it felt impossible. We had no help. This feels like a real “f you” after we have been dedicated career civil servants over many years for different administrations.

We don’t have a problem with returning to the office, but, the extremism is the issue. Why strip people of flexibilities they had prior to Covid? Why suggest total eradication of telework? If we can even keep 1-2 days per week that will help most people feel like they can stay a little sane and manage all of their work/life balances and priorities. [/quote]

Its tone deaf to act like this is a brand new and insurmountable problem. Many people are working in person for the last few years, many of them have kids, and many of them are not high earners.

Before and after care exists for a reason. If you cant flex your schedule you use it. And stop signing up for activities that start before 6pm.[/quote]

By elementary school, every family I knew had a spouse who worked part time or SAH (or was a teacher).  That’s what you have to do to avoid having kids in aftercare till 6 or to manage any after school activities. [/quote]

Exactly. It’s what I did, and honestly I took a major career hit. And apparently a bunch of government employees never had to take this hit because they’re paid while they watch their kids. And now it’s ending.[/quote]

I [i]am [/i]the person who took the career hit, genius. I took a mommy-tracked, WFH job so that I could be available as soon as school got out.

And no, DH is not a high earner so that we can just hire a nanny. We are regular people trying to make it work in this area. We already stagger schedules and limit activities and all the other obvious advice that people have thrown out here. [/quote]

If you consider a Fed job mommy tracked, you are supporting Trump and Musks narrative. These are professional jobs, not a hobby for when kids are at school [/quote]

NP- "mommy tracked" just means that you only work 40 hours. Sometimes you have flexibility to shift your schedule depending on issues like school half days, the zillion snow days, sick kids (when my kids are sick, they are SICK and just sleep all day while I telework). Being mommy tracked doesn't mean I don't work hard. It just means that I don't work 60 hour weeks. In exchange, I'm also not paid a high salary like I work 60 hour weeks. I get paid for the 40 that I did.

Maybe this push to return to the office will be the impetus for society to rethink our public schools. Public school schedules are insane and are not working for most families. Too short of hours, too many snow days (or "cold days" like we've had this week) and the end times are way, way too early. Kids need more education and need to be in school until 4 at least. Most of us wouldn't need to mommy track if schools ran normal schedules 5 days a week like 9-4.[/quote]

We’ve had decades of dual working parent households with zero reforms to help working parents. I’m here for it, but not optimistic that fed RTO will start an educational revolution. [/quote]

DP. I don’t think it should be on schools to fix the stress points work working parents. It’s already hard enough to hire teachers (many who are working parents themselves). Over the past couple decades we’ve tacked on things like active shooter drills and handling IEPs with inadequate resources without substantial pay increases. Now they need to fix childcare for us, oh and don’t forget to prep for ICE raids.

I 100% think we need a working parent revolution, but having the Trump administration set such a hostile agenda toward working parents is a huge step backwards, and I can’t imagine asking locally funded school districts to become the stopgap to keeping society functioning and kids cared for.[/quote]

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