Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 14:02     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
One spouse works remote flexible (also with less pay). We live near the ES and love it! But, yes, the bus would give extra supervised time.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:42     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DH and I both flexed our schedules. I went in early so I could leave early enough to pick up from aftercare. DH went in later after dropping kids off at school and then worked later.

I think most of the parents we know did some version of this. Those who can't use the before-care.

And, yes, PSA for working parents looking at buying a house. Zero value in being walkable to an elementary school. But we're walkable to the HS and MS and that is awesome.


Agreed. Walkable to an elementary school is awful. We are like 5 houses down from our school, on the same side of the street. My kids are not allowed to walk home alone until 4th grade, even if they're together or with their older sibling. I've adjusted my work hours to be there (telework), but occasionally I have meetings and it would be nice if they could come home by themselves. Everyone I know has a bus stop that's further and those kids are allowed to just walk home alone- why not my kids?!?!?! I absolutely would not buy a home near an elementary school if I had to do it over. Buses also give you an extra 30 min on each side, which really helps school hours match work hours.


This is such a sad statement about our country and what we value. Not that PP who is reacting to reality re most workplaces and their demands. But there are SO many benefits to bring walkable to school in an ideal world. Seeing other parents at dropoff, developing community, just basic exercise. But now bus rides is preferable because it extends the school day in terms of parents being able to work during that additional time.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:25     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We both work shift work.our friends stagger their schedules so one goes in late and the other one goes in early.
One friend hired a sitter for 2 hours every morning. Paying for childcare is part of parenting if you both work. Maybe see if a friend with kid at same school is interested in watching your kid ( for pay)


So they dont get hole until like 7pm? Thats part of what is impacting us.

We looked for a sitter, they are flaked after a month. No one wants these hours unless you are paying 40 hrs because it means they cant work many other jobs easily.

We already pay $400 for aftercare.

And we would happily pay another $400 for before care if it wasn’t so depressing, but Im sure they suffer from same problem of hard to hire people for those hours.

It would be simpler to just start school earlier. Even 30 minutes would be amazing.

I dont need childcare; my kid stays home fine by themselves even all day. I just need school to not actively thwart my work schedule.

920am?? That seems intentionally disruptive to working parents. Thats awful!


Listen, I am a working mom and I have endless empathy for how hard it is. However, this attitude doesn't help. No school is setting its hours to intentionally harm working parents. I know you are probably venting but this kind of extreme language alienates those who would otherwise be empathetic because you seem unreasonable.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:14     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
It sucks!!!! There is not a great solution other than before/aftercare. DH and I stagger our schedules and are kind of stuck in jobs that are more flexible. It is probably a better economic decision in many cases to throw all of the family's resources into one job with a lot of earning potential and have the other partner be SAH or remote but that is a hard set up to find and assumes a lot of things.

For my family, elementary school has been way harder from a logistics perspective than the daycare years.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:14     Subject: Re:Elementary drop off and working parents
You’re lucky you have before care as an option. Not every school has space for every kid. My kid goes to before care. He’s the first one there. He has no choice. I have to be at work by 7:30.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:13     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How much is before care? We only need 30 minutes of aftercare 3x a week and it's $400 a month for the county aftercare. Just another reason parents are broke.
But it’s extremely reliable. If it’s in your kid’s school you don’t have to worry about someone else transporting them. It’s all there in the same building. Use as much or as little as needed from week to week. It’s your spot. The make seemingly lifetime friends with the other playmates there. They work late and early and used to include snow days and teacher workdays. We never needed to search on care.com. The before care and after care was a given. Yes, it’s money out, but it was perfect coverage in the long run. Just pay it for elementary and keep the kids safe. Middle school starts a different era.


2 kids. $400 before care and $400 aftercare= $3200 a month. That's insane. I'm glad others can just pay for it.


($400+$400)*2 = $1600

Also, is it really $400 for both before and aftercare? At our school in Arlington it's $253 for mornings and $374 for afternoons if you are full price. That's $627 x 2 kids = $1254. It's still a lot of money, but a lot less than $3200 and definitely less than you were paying for daycare before the kid entered kindergarten.


I checked because I was curious, and our MCPS school is $725 for before and aftercare (we only use before), which is decently close to $800. (Obviously the original math was wrong, and you're right that it's a lot less than daycare, which is the main reason we only have one kid)
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:12     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Use before-care and/or take turns doing the morning drop-off. Calendar who takes which days so you can schedule accordingly.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:10     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Agree with others to just use the before care. Your kid will adjust.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 13:02     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
dc doesn't do buses, so walkable is fine. our school only offers aftercare.

i work 10 minutes away from the school so i basically have to drop them off by 8:45 and leave work exactly at 05:30. no real flexibility at all but i can just barely make it work... as long as i can bike. spouse picks up if my work runs over.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 12:49     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How much is before care? We only need 30 minutes of aftercare 3x a week and it's $400 a month for the county aftercare. Just another reason parents are broke.
But it’s extremely reliable. If it’s in your kid’s school you don’t have to worry about someone else transporting them. It’s all there in the same building. Use as much or as little as needed from week to week. It’s your spot. The make seemingly lifetime friends with the other playmates there. They work late and early and used to include snow days and teacher workdays. We never needed to search on care.com. The before care and after care was a given. Yes, it’s money out, but it was perfect coverage in the long run. Just pay it for elementary and keep the kids safe. Middle school starts a different era.


2 kids. $400 before care and $400 aftercare= $3200 a month. That's insane. I'm glad others can just pay for it.


($400+$400)*2 = $1600

Also, is it really $400 for both before and aftercare? At our school in Arlington it's $253 for mornings and $374 for afternoons if you are full price. That's $627 x 2 kids = $1254. It's still a lot of money, but a lot less than $3200 and definitely less than you were paying for daycare before the kid entered kindergarten.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 12:27     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:Our local elementary schools start at 9am.

We tried before care, but it was almost empty and kid found it depressing. Too young and too far to walk to school on own (no bus).

How are working parents handling this? Do they get to work around 930/945? Have a crazy short commute so 845 drop off and get to work by 9? Hiring nannies or local grandparents for mornings?

My career has definitely suffered by being the morning drop off; somedays I dont get until 10 which hurts.


I'm sorry and I remember these days when my daughter was young. Wait until you get to summer camp scheduling - the hours are always 9-3:30 or 4:00 so summer is very stressful because they cannot stay later than that. The system is not set up for working parents. I sacrificed salary for a short commute and flexibility (including remote work two days a week) when my daughter was young. Have never regretted it, as it removed a lot of stress from our lives.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 12:24     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How much is before care? We only need 30 minutes of aftercare 3x a week and it's $400 a month for the county aftercare. Just another reason parents are broke.
But it’s extremely reliable. If it’s in your kid’s school you don’t have to worry about someone else transporting them. It’s all there in the same building. Use as much or as little as needed from week to week. It’s your spot. The make seemingly lifetime friends with the other playmates there. They work late and early and used to include snow days and teacher workdays. We never needed to search on care.com. The before care and after care was a given. Yes, it’s money out, but it was perfect coverage in the long run. Just pay it for elementary and keep the kids safe. Middle school starts a different era.


2 kids. $400 before care and $400 aftercare= $3200 a month. That's insane. I'm glad others can just pay for it.


Pretty sure you got the math wrong.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 12:24     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:Our school starts at 8:45am, and we can walk the kids and be home to start work at 9.


Uh, yes if I WFH this would not be a problem, obviously.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 12:20     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Anonymous wrote:flex schedule. Mostly I do dropoff/pickup, sometimes DH


Your career doesnt suffer from missing the first 2 hours of workday (we start many meetings at 8am — i dial in but am the only person remote for these meetings).
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2026 12:11     Subject: Elementary drop off and working parents
Our school starts at 8:45am, and we can walk the kids and be home to start work at 9.