Reply to Anyone have two working parents and no childcare (other than school during normal hours)?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You answered your question in your post.

You have flexible jobs.
Kids can do activities after school sometimes.
Kids can entertain themselves while you work from home after school.
Other things you listed.

What is the issue? [/quote]

She has a FT nanny now. She has no idea how much the nanny’s doing. Kids will be needy if “entertaining themselves” after school almost every day. 
It’s weird that she doesn’t just get a normal amount of care, such as a sitter. Or aftercare. [/quote]

Actually, I do know exactly how much she's doing, which is why I'm trying to be realistic about not hiring someone to take her place.  I'm not expecting my kids to entertain themselves after school every day.  A lot of people have suggested after care, so it's good to know that kids seem to really like that.  It's not an option we've ever used before so I don't know much about it.  I never said I wouldn't use that option.  Also, sorry you think it's "weird" that I wouldn't get a sitter, but part-time sitters are incredibly hard to find, at least ones that are really reliable.  And payment is not an issue.  We pay our current nanny $30/hour ($45/hour for overtime) so I'm not cheap.[/quote]

Two parents working with flexible schedules and no after care here. I pick my son up from school and he comes home and does homework, plays, and chills out. I don't have to work when he is home so that is not an issue for us but he is old enough that he can play by himself if he needs to. Kids need to learn how to entertain themselves. They should not need a Nanny/Babysitter/Parent to entertain them after school.

I leave work at 2:30, have about 30 minutes to myself before I get my son. If the weather is good, we stop at the park with some of his friends. He plays for 30 minutes when we get home an does homework, if he ha any, when I make dinner. Eat, play, shower, brush teeth, read, bed. Two nights a week he has an activity, Scouts or a sport. Three days a week he has an after school program that he does and I don't have to get him until 4:30. He chooses those programs and really enjoys them. There are actually activities Monday - Friday that we could enroll him in so we would be picking him up at 4:30 every day.

This works for us because

1) My job is very flexible and lets me come in at whatever time I want. The building is half full when I get here at 6:30 because a good number of people are in at 5 or 5:30 to beat traffic.
2) My job does not allow me to work more then 40 hours or from home. The contract is very clear on both points. I am expected to get my work done at the office in 40 hours. If something does come up and I need to work more hours, I have to get permission and I get over time pay. The only time this has happened, for me, has been when I have traveled, which is about once or twice a year.
3)  My commute is 15 minutes with traffic. We live close to where I work.

I am well aware that not everyone has the above situation but I know other families who work a similar schedule and make it work.

OP: I know the Y in our area allows you to buy 10 days of aftercare that can be used in case of an emergency. They ask that you give them 24 hours advanced notice so they have your child on the bus roster but I know that the Y bus goes to our school to pick up kids. I suspect that we could call at 1 or 2 and get DS on the list if we needed to. We bought the days when DS was in K and never used them so we have not bought them since then. Those days don't cover sick days or snow days so they would cover any day that one of us could not pick him up on time. 
[/quote]

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