When did you start tapering off childcare?

[AlongCameBetsy]

My 9yo (year 4) child is starting to make more noises about after school club being "babyish."

At the moment I wfh 2 days a week, and organise my afternoons around childcare- she walks home on a Thursday for the sense of freedom and (an afternoon off from her brother, who is 5 and still goes on to club) on Fridays I collect them both.

It feels a good balance at the moment, my work day isn't disrupted by the arrangement, but I can envision a time coming when the 9yo will be asking to reduce club afternoons again.

I can't imagine she would be happy going to club at all when she's in year 6, so year 5 seems like a good time to start tapering it further.

I'm interested in other people's experiences with this - I also have a child in year 8 but I wasn't working full time when she was younger, so I feel quite new at this balancing this out.

Evening bump 😊

No advice unfortunately but I know this is very common. I can see my 7 year old starting to object but I've no alternative so what can I do?

I've always used the childminder until they leave for secondary. It was the only option on the days I worked as I didn't leave until 6...it was only for 3 days though, and we live a 10 min drive from school. I think if we were walking distance I'd have let them walk home in year 5, especially number 2 and 3 as they would have had at least 1 secondary sibling at home.
I think it was easier with the child minder as they just chilled out, watched TV and had a snack. After school club tends to be more 'schooly' with rules and activities and of course all ages together which gets tedious for older kids. I'm a teacher so I know how hard it is....

mine did clubs until the end of primary. they knew I had work and there was no other option.

Our primary doesn't allow them to leave unsupervised until y6. Dh could pick up most days 30 mins after school finished. In y5&6 kids tended to do the clubs they were interested in (sport music, art etc) and DH worked his early finishes around the clubs. In y5 if he couldn't pick them up they had to go to after school club. In y6 they walked home. We used breakfast club in y5 but in y6 we were able to be flexible and trusted them to lock up etc.

My DC are 7 and 9. I WFH. School is 5 minutes walk from my house. DH is home from work by 4pm.

I pick my kids up at 3pm and walk them home. Get them a snack, park them in front of the telly and go back to work.

I do have the sort of job that I can drop and come back to if the kids need me. Boss isn't too bothered about when I work as long as work is done and I hit my hours for the week.

Dd is in year 6 and the 3 days that I work she walks home from school, it's a 10 minute walk and she's home alone for one hour, until I get back.

She has to go breakfast club at 7.30 despite her protests. My dd is 10.

I was wondering this too, my DD really doesn't like our after school club

My year 6 comes home from school and is sometimes at home for 1h45 until his sister gets back from a club. He rings to let us know he’s back and gets a snack. We do have neighbours he could call on.

My year 6 still goes to the childminder as both mine and DH's wfh days vary and neither he or I want him coming home to an empty house. If we had a consistent wfh day he probably wouldn't go on that day.

I wouldn't let them be home alone until Secondary school and DDs Primary didn't allow them to walk home alone until Yr 6 anyway.

You just tell your DD "Sorry, you have to go to the club as I'm at work" it's as easy as that really. She might not like it, you could talk to the club providers to see if she could be given a more grown up 'helper' role if she's the oldest there but I doubt she is, jobs like getting drinks ready for the younger children or maybe listening to them read or getting activities ready.

I wfh and my youngest stopped going to after school club when they were halfway through Y4. It didn't help that their siblings were at secondary school. My job is flexible and allows me to do the school run. DC is now in Y5, they can walk home my themselves in Y6. I was leaving the older two home alone for around an hour when they were in Y6.

I work but not at home so dc are with the childminder until secondary. That’s just the way it is.

I think when ds is y6 & dd y8 I will let her pick him up from school & they can walk back together but probably not for her first year of secondary & when he’s y5.

We live a bit of distance from primary school & it’s not the nicest walk (we do it together but I wouldn’t really want dd to do it on her own) so that is a factor too.

Is your year 8 child responsible enough to be in charge till you get home?

My Mum lives locally and provided childcare for me, until Covid meant she wasn't allowed to. My kids were year 6 and year 9 at the time. I couldn't work from home so the kids were home alone for 12-14 hours at a time from that day on. It happened literally overnight so there was nothing I could do.

Slightly different as they don't come home to an empty house... but DD1 stopped coming to Cubs with me at 10.5 when she moved to Scouts. She is home for two hours, but I'm 10 minutes walk away.

I've said Year 6 to DD2, so she will continue to come to Cubs even if she's officially a Scout until the summer holidays.

During DD1s last term of Secondary school I became aware of several of her friends being home alone but out about as they came to me with problems.

That should beast term of zprimary school obviously!

Round here some walk home alone from year 5, but year 6 before the majority do. I think year 4 is too young, sorry. Is there a childminder you could use instead of after school club?

Mine did after school club until he started secondary school. It's not his decision at the end of the day, it's mine as the adult. He didn't enjoy it in year 6, but it's tough unfortunately. School was a half hour walk from our house and I didn't feel comfortable about him coming home alone at that age.

We stopped childcare for the 10 year old this summer when they started P6 and school allowed them to walk home alone. One of us is always working from home so they can just come in and entertain themselves.

Covid changed things for us, as both DH and I were 100% office based before that. Now we are both hybrid working but with quite a bit of flexibility, so we can arrange between us so at least one of us is home each day. Very occasionally we will both be in the office on the same day (maybe 3 times a year) and we give our children a choice to be home alone or go to a friend's. They usually choose to go to a friend's. They're 10 and 12 (year 6 and year 8).

DS only went in the mornings from year 5 as I was worried he wouldn't leave the house on time for the bus. Coming home didn't have that issue as the bus children would just line up for buses after school, he'd walk a few minutes from the bus stop and let himself in until I got home from work.

Mine did after school club until she finished primary. I wouldn't have been happy with her walking home and being alone at that age. Neither would she though.
I think she spent some time home alone from year 6 but only brief amounts of time before that, such as me popping out to the local shop.
Her school didn't allow children younger than yr5 to leave school unaccompanied by an adult.

I have children in y4 and y2; they don’t go to club on the days I wfh. They do 2 days a week at asc and one day DH collects. I do have quite a bit of flexibility in my job and it’s close enough that I can go to the office and do school pickup if needed.

tbh I think 5 days a week at asc would be overkill for most junior aged children. Lockdown showed me that they could be in the house whilst I work, even if that might look like me on a call and then playing Minecraft.

Mine went to afterschool care until end of primary. I've always just worked 3 days a week.
If one of us had been working from home then I would have allowed them to walk home from age 9 as they would have been able to happily entertain themselves until 5 pm. But neither of us worked from home at that time.

Forgot to say we moved in year 6 so we were walking distance to the new school so then didn't need childcare. If he left the house late he could just run or be late for school (never was actually late), before if he'd missed the bus he would have been home all day!