to think your child starting school can actually make it harder to go to work not easier

[Pinkiemum]

I have read many threads that have said that once your child starts school you should be able to back to work. Considering that schools starts about the same time as people start work in the morning and ends very early in the afternoon do many people find this is really feasable unless they work part time only during school hours.

I currently work three full days a week and my dd starts school in January and her school starting time is the same time as I start work, therefore I would have to reduce my hours of work even if she goes to afterschool care.

I will actually be on maternity leave for the first few months of her starting school so that will be easy, but if I go back to work I will have to drop the baby at the childminders, take my daughter to school and still work, pick her up from after school care and then pick baby up. There is no way I could continue working the hours I do unless I work an extra day a week which increase my child care costs and make it not feasable to work.

(I appreciate I do not live in the UK and schools may have more flexability with drop off times than where I live. Also had problems getting her into afterchool care.)

So i suppose my question is it really easy to start back or continue to work once your child starts school.

Sorry so long

[BimboNo5]

Never been a problem here, my childminder sorts it all out, shes amazing.

[naughtymummy]

YANBU tis much, much more difficult. Dh and I both work flexibly and we have a complicated system of reciporcal favours plus family help and after school club to do it. We are both professionals btw.

[donthateme]

How do you pay your bills now surpisEm? I don't understand why you think you will be worse off if you are working?!

[SurprisEs]

I pay my bills with my wages and the childcare with tax credits.

[AngelDelightIsIndeedDelightful]

My dc1 started school last week. I work ft. She is doing pt for FOUR WEEKS. They alternate between mornings and afternoons each week. We live in a very middle class town and I feel like they just assume all the mothers are ladies who lunch and can fit this ridiculousness around their WI meetings. I have a pretty stressful life as it is and trying to organise this month has practically pushed me over the edge.

Her previous nursery has always been excellent, but a) is 30 mins away (halfway to work) and doesn't do after school care even if it was in the right place. The school doesn't do after school clubs, so we've had to find a nursery, who (luckily?) are worryingly flexible with their ratios and are helping me out by caring for her around the 2 or 3 hours she does at school for the whole of September. It's costing me an absolute bloody fortune.

Once she's ft I'll be about £100 pcm better off in term time, but that doesn't factor in the holiday care so not sure I'm actually going to have much more money in my pocket tbh.

So no, I don't believe that starting school helps with work at all. The complete opposite ime.

[Tanith]

A lot of childminders will charge for a school child whilst at school if they are under 5 years old and attending part time (e.g. the staggered starts for Reception that can go on for half a year for some schools). That's because OFSTED still include these children in the childminder's under 5s ratio and so the child takes up a full time U5 place.

Just wondering if Coco's childminder might have more reasonable than first appears.

[BellsaRinging]

Yes, it's MUCH more difficult when they start school. I had no problems working full time as a single mother when DS was at nursery. When he went to school the running around was horrendous! Not to mention that all the childminders in the village were booked up, and there was no before school club! Good thing I have now got a partner and he is at home!
I do think that there is an assumption in state schools (it doesn't tend to be the same at private, where they have better before and after school clubs, presumably because they have a greater percentage of parents who both WOH to afford the fees) that there will be one parent at home. For instance, there is a meeting with the new class teacher on Friday, notified to the parents last Friday, by a note home, and it's from 9-10am. Not helpful to those of us who WOH. There's also the assemblies every week that they like parents to go to, and they're at 2.30-right in the middle of the working day. How many WOH parents can take an afternoon off every week to go to that?

[ExpensivePants]

I've been able to work while dd is at nursery. When she starts school next Sept I'll have to stop. No breakfast or after school clubs and I work too far away to do drop off or pick up.

[girliefriend]

I think it is harder when they go to school, my dd has a cm before and after school which is fine and the school do before and after school care if I need it.

The problem is all the blooming holidays!!! And also I've found it hard to fit in things like the sports day and assemblies

[Yama]

Wow, I guess we're lucky that dd's school has a breakfast and after school club. And, she loves it.

[DontCallMeBaby]

I'm in Maryz's 'some mothers' camp. I am VERY lucky in that I have a termtime-only job which is not in education, so as well as having no worries about school holidays I can also get time off for illness, inset and school events (although in practice I get DH to do as much of that as possible, as I'm away from work a lot as it is). Before that, DD was in nursery three days a week, and in a lot of ways full-time wouldn't have been a problem. She was a baby then a little child, in a fairly gentle environment, playing all day. Now she has school to contend with, and I prefer that she at least has the chance to come home and chill. As she's an only child, I'd also rather she had plenty of opportunity to have friends home, or go to theirs, rather than being at a childminder's or after-school club with other children not of her choosing.

My longer term worry is that I can't keep up this working pattern forever, and have to drop it when she starts secondary school - one of DD's friends has much older siblings, and their mum says that's a hard age, as they don't want to get up early in the holidays to go to a holiday club, but they're not old enough to be home alone.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

YANBU - when our ds's were in nursery it was so easy.

Guaranteed childcare that we were very happy with and the boys loved too. No "I'm taking a holiday / have to take my MIL to the hospital / dc is sick so I'm unable to work" or the worst case scenario - I'm changing my days so won't be able to look after your ds from next month.

Both boys now go to a lovely CM, but there's that constant nagging doubt about what happens when she is unable to look after them for whatever reason (short/no notice being the worst).

OP - I hope that you manage to get something sorted.

[littleducks]

I think it is hard, DS is 3 so just qualified for the 15 free hours, it now costs £175 per week for nursery 8-6 (cost is spread to be the same every week of the year including xmas and summer shutdown)

DD is at school, when she had a CM from 8-8.50 it was £15, then afterschool club (to 5.45 not as convenient as 6) is 7.50. Add in holiday playschemes which cost £25-30 a dayish, combine with the hassle and it is not much cheaper now she is at school.

[venusandmars]

I have always been a working mother, and I agree that the complexities only get greater as dc get older. I used to wonder at people who were at home while their dc were tiny who said 'I'll go back to work when they go to school' and think that they didn't really understand what was going to be involved.

I was fortunate(?) in that it took almost 5 years to conceive dc2 so our nanny from dc1 stayed and was there for all the non-school days/times for dc1.

I stopped being WOHM when dc were teens and was WAHM. Their needs then were much more specific to 'ME' and to their immediate requirements. At that age they needed care, they needed someone to be around for them, but they definitely didn't want to be in any sort of formal care.