To ask honestly, how many children are in wraparound every day? Especially reception

Personally, I’d stick with three days at least until they’ve had a few terms in Reception. Once they’re older, I’d say after school club is probably more fun for them than coming straight home so work whatever hours you prefer. But when starting school, I’d avoid it being (almost) every day if I could.

It’s one of those parenting situations where plenty of kids do it and the kid will certainly be fine. But I want better than fine for my kids if I can make it happen.

That’s an interesting comment because it goes against all the studies done around wrap around care. Which shows that it actually helps children by providing a routine, helps social development.

Theres really no reason to try and make mothers (note mothers, it’s never fathers is it?) feel guilty about working full time.

Why? Mine has a great time at breakfast and after school club, they are the best bits of his day! Plus he has energy for 3 activities after 3 nights a week! 😂

OP it's really hard to juggle children and work these days so don't be too hard on yourself. I would do shorter days to avoid after school club if I didn't think it was working for my child so I'm still thinking of that as a possibility.

My youngest DC is due to start reception and we're planning to put them in after school club so 8:30 to 5:45 every day. It does seem like a lot but they've been in nursery for 4 days a week for similar hours since they were 1.

This - I didn’t have a choice. She loved it and got a nice meal every day as that school had ‘hot snack’ eg beans on toast or bacon and sausages and beans !

Why do you need to speak to teacher? That’s what parent evenings are for.

Mine went every day. Hasn’t done any harm, both happy kids, academic high achievers, don’t hold any grudges for being in childcare (nursery, wrap around, holiday clubs).

My DC has never been. Both DH and I have always worked FT but very flexibly so I start early and DC goes to after school club for 30 mins but never before care. When younger had a nanny. Will have an after school nanny in the fall. If I’m honest, I don’t love the idea of DC going to before and aftercare. I think the programs are fine but often kind of chaotic and low staff numbers which wouldn’t be great for our DC. Most of my friends have DC in wraparound care unless they have Nannies/au pairs. We are pretty high income though and well aware we’re extremely lucky to have had the choice. I think if DC had always been in a formal childcare setting (nanny when little) then I probs wouldn’t think twice about it.

Mine have been either at a Childminders or at after school club 4 days since reception. No breakfast club though.

Mine went to breakfast club most days and after school club 3 days I think. On school holidays she would go to various clubs.

She liked breakfast but not after school club but needs must. She enjoyed most of the school holiday clubs.

Its hard but try not to feel guilty.

@anothertwix a lot of babies are in nursery full time from 6~12 months old onwards.
Thats not different.
Its fine.

None of mine got the chance our school doesn't offer it! No childminders either I must be in some sort of vortex where everyone has grandparents that do pick up and drop off and clearly all the summer holidays 🫠

Every child is different you can only try and see what your little one can cope with/if they like it. My 7 year old would struggle everyday with added school time out the house however my three year old and 10 year old would absolutely love it.

I genuinely don't know how parents are suppose to manage now with the COL too. It's not adding up the working hours and childcare options. Something needs to change.

ds' school had no breakfast club, but five out of the seventeen in his year were in ASC five afternoons a week., so just under a third.

He loved it. As an only child, it gave him two and a half hours to tear around, burning off energy with his little 'tribe'.

So just under a third.

Presumably they are off with you in the school holidays though? That is different to doing wraparound full time and then holiday clubs as well. My two usually have to do clubs in May half term and the first couple of weeks in August, they are shattered by the time we go on holiday.

OP plenty of dc do wraparound full time but if you (shared with DH) can at least do drop off it will give you an opportunity to speak to the teacher and make it a bit less full on for dc. The other option is doing a few less hours a week - not a big impact for the employer but you can do one pickup, DH does the other one and now you are only looking at 3 days after school.

Mine did three days a week and was the only Reception child, but that was because it was mid-Covid and almost everyone else was WFH. She loved having access to activities and a play area the other Reception kids didn’t and wanted to go every day for a while! She was furious the handful of times I needed to collect early and she had to stop playing. It was also good for building relationships with different age groups.

By the time she was yr 1, the new Reception class had several children using wraparound, for at least three days a week, probably more(?).

We were warned in advance about them being tired but she’d been used to longer days in nursery so the school day was a bit too short for her liking.

We’d chosen the school partially because of the wraparound provision and it was excellent - different areas so they could do art/craft or snuggle up with books, as well as active play. I think my only criticism would be that they only did a snack rather than a meal which meant a bit of a rush when we did get home.

An observation now she’s older is that it’s harder to do outside of school stuff on a weekday if they’re in wraparound every day. So once swimming lessons and Beavers/Rainbows starts that is harder to fit in.

Well I thought it was pretty awful saying neither DH or I were going to give up our careers. Just sounds so cold.

Ds is in year one: in reception he did ask 3 days a week, until 5 (it runs to 5:30) most weeks and was often mad if I picked him up early! He's having to temporarily go to breakfast club 2-3 days at the minute, which does give me mum guilt, but so far he's doing great.

No not at all, neither of us have high paying jobs whatsoever.

Could you also consider a 4 day week? An extra day from what you currently do, but less than 5.

If your dh does 4 Days also like you mentioned, then that’s only 3 days care needed. And both you and dh get one day contact with teacher, or for school events if they fall on days off

I went back full time with my first when she was 9 weeks. I will never understand what was going through my mind because we could have coped with a longer mat break financially speaking. I don't have many regrets but that is one of them. I had much longer breaks with middle and youngest one.

It's wrong to put pressure on any mum but I know for me and my kids the best thing I could give them has always been my time.

Please don't try and make out that it's for the benefit of the child. Even those who use it know that's not the case.

Not all children are knackered after the school day! It's great that your child doesn't need wraparound care since she struggles so much, but that's not representative of all children.

@WimbyAce

well, the population really will die out then if women are expected to give up their careers in order to have children. It’s just not feasible in a lot of cases.

Let me guess, your husband had a fabulously high paying job so you could be a SAHM and you wouldn’t have it any other way?