What would you prefer to do?

[anditwasallyellow]

What hours would you prefer to work, what do you think would be better for a young child?

Leave house at 8.30, drop child at school at 8.45, arrive at work at 9.30 and leave between 3.30 and 4.30, arriving home between 4.30 and 5.30 meaning child has to spend some time in after school club.

Or

Leave house at 7.15, drop child at breakfast club, arrive at work at 8.00, leave work between 2.00 and 2.15 to pick child up from school yourself meaning you get home at 3.30ish and have the rest of the afternoon and evening but meaning a very early start.

B with a small DC as swimming and brownies and play dates tend to be early.
Most small DCs wake up early anyway.

A with a Y5, Y6 DC who won't be so tired, will want weekend play dates and sleepovers and may be beginning to sleep in.

Option b may also be cheaper, breakfast club certainly likely to be less than CMs charge for after school.

prefer B.

B

Everybodyscryed the reason when I do the lates I do an extra hour is because I can build up unpaid overtime which I can take as a day off at a later date it's always handy incase the ds is sick or something (don't get a/l as I'm term time only), so doing the mornings I'm tied in as I couldn't stay over because of school finish time. Although I can see all the other positives, thanks for all the answers always helps especially as it's a majority verdict! But can you lot be there pushing me to get out of bed at 6-6.30am!

I see - would that be something you would miss?

what time are your kids up?

Well, it's always useful but I suppose not essential as not everybody has that option. Ds getting up time varies, since he's started school it's been 6.30 (I think it's the disturbed routine) but before that it could have been 7-7.30am. But I'm thinking that the early finishes would compenstate for the early starts even if I did have to wake him. Plus I could get up before him do hair make up etc, he only needs a wash, dressed and a drink. Bit skepitcal about relying on breakfast club to feed him properly as I'm quite strict on him eating his breakfast and making sure it's a healthy one.

I've decided I'm going to split the week and see how it goes, this will tie in well with my work colleagues hours too, still mean I can get the overtime and pick him up myself most days.

Do you not get an allowance for dependent sick leave OP?

I'm also at a school - we get 3 days paid DSL if TTO and 4 days if AYR.

I must admit that my employers are ridiculously good with flexi etc for school stuff though. There's a fair bit of office politics and grot going down at the moment but I can't imagine finding anything as convenient so am grinning and bearing it.

My DS isn't morningy.

And he LOVES after school club, so I might do the late one, if it suited him best :)

just afaik there is compassionate leave but this is usually only ever used for something really serious, unpaid parental leave or flex, obviously the third would be the best option though. They are very good and flexible I basically sound in the same boat as you.

I'm finding it bloody hard since he's started school, I feel so much more guilty leaving him in after school club now I know he's had a full day at school. Nursery was just so much more easy going and homely. He actually really likes after school club but I worry that soon the novelty will wear off and the tiredness will kick in.

Definitely Option B.

DS1 loves his before/after school care, he asks to go every day instead of just my work days. It is like a great big hang out. They don't do any structured activities, they just watch telly, kick a ball around, play on DSs or read books, the same stuff he would be doing at home except with a big pile of mates to do it with.

It is worth bearing in mind that we need them a lot more then they need us once they are at school age I think.

I do 2 long days a week, DS1 is at OOSH from 7am til 6:30pm and DS2 at daycare from 7:30am til 6:00pm.

Both are just fine.

Depends on the child! Both ds and I are nightowls who have trouble getting up early (he's been like that since a baby) so I picked a later routine.

You can still do activities with a later routine- ds plays football twice a week and has swimming lessons after school and we eat out twice a week on weeknights. He simply goes to bed later because he gets us later (to bed at 830, up for 8). We have plenty of time in the evenings.