Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:One thing you might want to do is make arrangements with other parents who are last minute pick upers. If someone is running late, they can text someone else in the group to get their child. It saves a lot of late fees and gives you peace of mind knowing that if you can't make it, your child won't be stranded. One of my back ups was one of the end of the say staff members. I had to pay her $10 per hour, but on that one occasion when something went really wrong (I lost my car keys), she took my child to her house and fed her dinner.
how does this work with car seats? I'm expecting my first and thinking about back-up care and it seems like the need for a car seat makes it impossible for other people to pick up your kid in an emergency (assuming kid is under a certain age).
Anonymous wrote:One thing you might want to do is make arrangements with other parents who are last minute pick upers. If someone is running late, they can text someone else in the group to get their child. It saves a lot of late fees and gives you peace of mind knowing that if you can't make it, your child won't be stranded. One of my back ups was one of the end of the say staff members. I had to pay her $10 per hour, but on that one occasion when something went really wrong (I lost my car keys), she took my child to her house and fed her dinner.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You made a choice.
You chose your career. You chose a job that is not going to work with your current daycare situation. Now you have to work your child and your childcare around your job. Not complicated.
BS
Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a single WOHM and this has been tough. Some ideas:
1) Be waiting outside the door of the daycare when it opens. Mine opened at 7 AM, I was in the parking lot at 6:55 AM every day. I started my commute from there.
2) I got to work at 7:30 and was on a core schedule of 7:30 - 4 PM. I try to leave around 4 PM to be SURE I can make it to daycare pick up. Most days I made it in 30 minutes. It's unusual but there really are times that the commute, due to some horrible problem, has taken two hours to get home. I never once was late for pick up.
3) Get back online as soon as you get home
4) I don't do this but I hear it works - if you are sending a general email updating people about something, or sending out a "deliverable", post-time it for delivery to the others in your office at say, 5:15 PM. Helps reinforce your constant "presence" at work. See this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/upshot/the-24-7-work-cultures-toll-on-families-and-gender-equality.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
"When women tried the same strategy, it usually didn’t work. When a man left at 5 p.m., people at the office assumed he was meeting a client, Ms. Reid said. When a woman left, they assumed she was going home to her children."
I do this as I often leave at 4 and am home by 5.
The sending of late night emails also depends on your company culture/audience:
http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/03/send-not-send-after-hours-email-question.html
Anonymous wrote:You made a choice.
You chose your career. You chose a job that is not going to work with your current daycare situation. Now you have to work your child and your childcare around your job. Not complicated.