Another childcare rant - how do people do it?!

People use childminders, professional after school providers or casual piecemeal arrangements. Minibuses went around picking up some from my dc’s primary, some nurseries ran after school care programmes

I had a childminder who took the children to school in the morning and picked them afterwards.

There were no before or after school clubs for most of their primary school days (one was introduced in my younger daughter’s final year).

I used a Childminder

We have no family help and at the time our jobs weren’t flexible - both basically 9 to 5 - so we chose our neighbourhood and school to make sure there were childminders around. We had a choice of childminders which we used for about 6 years, most of primary school. There is also wraparound at the school and a local one. It does vary a lot but we’re in a city and there is generally really good childcare provision.

Paid childcare. Seems very unusual to have childcare run on a voluntary basis and it clearly isn’t reliable for you. Many childminders do wraparound care for school age children

You could employ a childminder to do pick ups and keep your child with them until you get home from work. That's what most people do.

We used flexitime and work from home Whoever was in the office dropped off, whoever was wfh started at about 6am and picked up. Occasionally if my husband had to be at a client all day I did both and then worked in the evening. My team is global though so working weird hours is equally as productive as regular ones even in terms of attending meetings/networking etc. Appreciate that’s relatively unusual. We also have grandparents that help and lots of friends happy to share

My mum did it one day a week and the other 4 days it was me! I only worked one ‘normal’ working hours day per week. Had 1 day off per week and the other 3 I finished in time for school pick up. Now my youngest who is in year 5 I do 3 days pick up (1 day off and 2 early finish for school) and hubby does 1 and my mum does the other one. It’s a compete juggling nightmare. And that’s before you’ve even thought about the kids being ill and having to decide who has to take the day off. My hubby is self employed so if he doesn’t work he doesn’t get paid so it normally falls to me tbh.

My two will be starting school next year and we don’t have any help. DP did a complete career change to a term time set up (sports coach after school) so he’ll be free in the mornings and I’ll have to deal with the afternoons. Luckily there is some flexibility in the work I do, but it’s still a headache. Otherwise, we’re fucked. I’m now truly understanding the importance of a “village”

Why did you choose that school with such vulnerable wraparound care? Most parents I know focus as much on the wraparound as they do the school because they need both to be a success for them to be able to work.

Given your daughter is still settling into school, I would move her to somewhere else now where you can guarantee that there is a breakfast and after school club available.

One of the reasons I went for private school, it was cheaper than nursery including after school care costs, at the time none of the state primary schools local to me even had after school care. Could you look into hiring an after school babysitter? e.g. a responsible teenager / student or retired person who could collect and bring home?

We do use school wrap around care but it’s an external provider. It probably costs more then the school with in house wrap around but it’s a good system and well used so we don’t mind the cost.

People do lots of different things IME, as with holiday cover too, a patchwork.

We were in a position where we had both worked where we worked for several years and had roles where flex was not unreasonable. I moved to start at 7.30 and finish at 3, and DH switched a bit less dramatically to 9.30-6pm. So one did drop-off and one pick-up, 30 mins being enough time to drive home and walk up to school.

You need to plan ahead for it tbh, which is what people have to do.

Can you find a childminder who does after-school?

Can one or both of you wfh on alternate days? Can you tweak your hours as we did? Can you drop a day and do a trade with a friend?

I reduced my hours when I went back after DC2 so I could do all school drop offs and pick ups. Luckily the primary school started wraparound provision the year dc1 started school, staffed by TAs, so I was able to have a day off with dc2 and use that on other days.
No local family.

I gave up my job and became a SAHP… we had to cut our cloth accordingly, we didn’t buy the bigger house, we went without unnecessary holidays/expenditure, 2 cars down to 1 etc. More than back on our feet now the kids are older but my career has never recovered - although I don't hate that ‘this’ week when my daughter said how lovely it is to always have a parent at a school event!

Have you spoken to the school or the loval
author about sufficient childcare places as there is finding for this to be set up in your area. There is quite a lot of funding to support!

iy is a nightmare for working parents. We used a childminder and we were v lucky to have one!!

We chose a school that had robust paid for wrap around care. Appreciate that’s not overly helpful, but if the after school care isn’t robust you’ll either have to pay for something else (childminder/nanny) or move to another school with a more reliable set up?

We can’t use after school club, so either:

• one of us finishes work to collect and then works later to make the time back (flexi work contracts)

• grandad goes, brings him home and manages snack/play etc until we finish work

Mixture here of grandparents help (maybe once per fortnight so not loads) , paid for after school clubs, and I work from home flexibly

I was a lone parent and had multiple part time jobs including wfh in an evening - it was the only way I could cope without help
The flexibility was the main thing and just had to struggle financially until DC were at high school