School events

[glasshalf]

How does everyone who works manage the kids school events especially at this time of year?! Sports day has been organised on one of 4 days at our school depending on weather - i can't possibly book them all just in case! They have assemblies , open afternoons , end of term parties all of which parents are invited to and I feel such awful guilt for not going to each event for both DC who are there but I can't possibly ask work for a load of time off! AIBU to feel so sh*t for not being able to go :( part of me feels like a snowflake parent and the other is like well life sucks sometimes so it's tough!!

On the plus side dh's employer is keen on "agile" working so he can flex his hours. My boss begged me to go full time so I agreed on the bases I can go to assemblies etc without guilt. (I do still feel guilty). I'm almost a year into the role and feel I've proved myself enough to flex. Dc have 3 more years at primary so employer knows it's fairly short term in the scheme of things.

Honestly, don’t feel guilty. You’d be doing them a disservice by going anyway. This is a wonderful opportunity to teach them some empathy. I get wanting to go and see them doing these things you remembered doing yourself as a child but honestly it’s not healthy for parents to be that obsessed with their children so instead of feeling guilty you really should be giving yourself a pat on the back for giving them the opportunity to grow. Please don’t feel bad.

@m0therofdragons is he with Deloitte?

Our school is a nightmare, no wrap around care, random events to be ferried to and from during the day!!

@MadamMMA our school has over 300 pupils and space for 60 after school

When I was younger I always got sad that my parents' could never attend anything! But now I'm grown I can see it from their point of view - there's no way could I take that much time off for school events!

That’s not great but better than nothing 😭

Lots of parents seem to ask other family members to come to events at school, and there are a few small groups of working parents that are friends and take it in turns to look out for two or three children and then host a play date afterwards. That always seems to make it extra exciting for the dc.

The majority of children at our school are able to have someone to attend for them, so when little ones don't, we make extra fuss of them in the small amount of time that children are actually with their parents. We also invite our retired teachers back for the fun things, along with some of our volunteer readers who enjoy being able to watch. They are lovely and always make extra afford to come and talk to the children that don't have anyone there for them.

I m self employed so technically I can take time off but I need notice as my diary is always full 8 weeks in advance! we only get a week notice for open lessons so it's rare I go to those but the DC understand though I do feel guilty. I have booked the whole day off for Y6 leavers assembly as we were given the date in September but still no info about morning or afternoon! I do think our school in particular doesn't consider working parents who need more than 1 week notice for events!