If you work from home do your children go to after school club?

[TildaRae]

I have a job that is 100% home working. Currently my reception child goes to after school club mon-wed till 5.30 (he goes to my mums on a Thursday and he has a school sport club on Friday which finishes at 4.30). He goes to breakfast club all week.

I have toyed with the idea of collecting him at normal school finish time on Wednesdays and having him at home for the last 2 hours of my working day (8.30-5.30). Does anyone do this? I can’t change the breakfast club unfortunately. Someone made a throwaway comment ‘I didn’t have a child for someone else to raise them’ and it’s made me doubt my current arrangements.

I wfh
Both dc go to after school/homework club.
My productivity drops about 50% when DS
(13) is in and drops to about 80% when DD (10) is in.

I pick mine up at 3pm and use my 30mins break to do so, getting home at 3.30. They then watch tv/play on their devices til dh gets home while I work.

Two days a week he gets home at 5pm, 3 days a week he gets home at 4pm.

My dc are 7 and 10.

I wouldn't have done this if they were Reception age or a lone child - mine have each other to play with, use the room adjacent to my office, and are both old enough to be sensible and not in my direct line of sight.

Whoever said to you 'I didn’t have a child for someone else to raise them’ is a judgemental twat - even if in full time childcare the responsibility for raising your children lies with you. Childcare isn't raising them.

You just think about what's better or more enjoyable for your dc. Would they be happy chilling in front of tv for an hour while you work? If so, great! If not, and you think they'd rather be with their friends doing games or crafts, also great!

I WFH and could not do my job with my Year R child at home. She goes to after school club.

Eh? If you have a job you have a job.
The luxury of statements like the one you mention isn’t an option.
Of course you need childcare if you’re working. Wherever that work takes place.

Can you guarantee to get a break at the right time to collect him? DH does, but the kids are 10 and 12. The oldest is self sufficient, the youngest can walk home alone if noone is at the school gate. So it dosnt matter if a phone call overruns!

Yes if i wfh I can step out get my 4 yr old from school and come back. It’s less than 2hrs as I finish at 5, they can have a snack, watch CBeebies - relax- I can also log them onto the school maths game thing on the computer for 15mins.

Yes because I need to work longer hours than school hours. On the odd occasion I collect at 3 but because it's unusual my DC isn't bored and enjoys doing things at home while I work.

My work requires that I have childcare in place for my working hours.

Of course they go to after school care. I'm working, my employer doesnt pay me to split my time between the job & my kids.

Dc are 6 and 8 and are in ASC on the days I work full days even though DH is almost always at home.

If your job is flexible enough to make the hours up on other days and just have those 2 hours keeping an eye on your emails go for it. Otherwise it's a recipe for you both being stressed and miserable.

I don’t now at my DD is nearly 10 but pre-covid I did. I don’t think it would benefit them being home but not being able to have your attention at all. I’d do it in an emergency as a one off but not all the time.
I hate that comment about raising them myself, no one else raises my children. No childcare is going to change the parenting we instil on them at home. We still do lots of family stuff together, working just means we can afford to live a hard decent lifestyle and make the most of the time together we do have.

Do check your contractual terms too OP. Your employer is unlikely to allow this and you dont want to put yourself in an awkward situation.

No they don't

My work is very flexible though and most of my BAU tasks are complete by 3 so it's never an issue

I tend to take the last few hours off and spend with the kids

I wfh and we still used ASC (sometimes I’d pick her up earlier) it enabled me to attend meetings if someone dropped one in at 3 or if I did need to go into office I didn’t have to struggle to find after school club . Just meant the kids knew their routine etc

Yes because otherwise they wind each other up and I have had too many times when I got interrupted. Either by the screams in the background as they fight or because they come through to tell me that X is being mean. Was so stressful for me that after school club is a necessity!

My DS is in reception and I work 4 days. Drop off every morning and collect 3 afternoons so he is home with me 2 afternoons whilst I work. My DM does the other 2 days

Work have no issues with this at all. I feel guilty that he is watching tv whilst I work but he really doesn't want to go to ASC and i can be finished at 5 ish

There seem to be a lot of parents who now do this in my daughters class - year 1. I am hugely jealous if I'm honest. Won't work with my job. I'd love to be at more pick ups!

Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. It depends on the week and what's going on. My dh is the one that works from home so I leave it up to him to decide. We're very lucky that the Afterschool is pay as you go service.

How old? How disruptive?
How able to self entertain, get on with something?

How can we say if we don't know what this?

My dd is nowhere 9 and totally able to get toast, food, drinks.. Watch TV do hw if I ask...

So basically no issues at all at home and wouldn't and didn't impact working on from the home. (only impact was me rushing my breaks to home school)

I do, mine are 12&13 so they don’t hang around long before going upstairs to stare at screens. My Dp is more distracting as he’s home at a similar time and comes in, makes tea and watches the tv and phone simultaneously . I struggle focusing in between 4-6 tbh and end up catching up once dinner is sorted and tidied, 7.30-9ish which is annoying, as everyone else has had downtime since about 4pm.

My dc would much rather be at home. Older dc just no question and mostly in her room anyway.
On other hand maybe there is bf he loves having extra after school time with??

I work from home full time and yes I still use the before and after school club. It was a nightmare working with her at home during lockdowns, so I was clear as soon as it started back up we would go back to normal life.

As much as my work if flexible it would be a nightmare having to arrange meetings around school pick up times, as they’re right in the middle of peak working time. Also, what fun for my child to be picked up rushed home and then I still have to ignore her for another couple of hours, she’s a lone child, it’s much more fun for her to actually play and have fun after school.

Also I travelled a lot during the day pre pandemic. It may never get back to that but I was not risking losing my place and not getting it back again.

As much as I’m working from home I treat it like before, my work day is my work day and lockdown taught me how valuable it is to be able to concentrate without having to also be responsible for childcare.

DS(7) does, partly because some I need the option of going in to work, but also because I can't focus on work when he is home.

I know lots of people who WFH and wouldn't dream of using after school clubs, but I just don't know how they manage.

"Someone made a throwaway comment ‘I didn’t have a child for someone else to raise them’ and it’s made me doubt my current arrangements."

God I HATE comments like this OP (and I was a SAHM for years, not because I felt I'd do a superior job being at home but because I felt I was doing a shit job at juggling parenthood with my demanding job).

You are raising your child. Just because you opt to use childcare does not mean that someone else is raising your child.

We use ASC three days a week for our youngest, even though DH is working from home (I work in a school so cannot WFH), because it is the most sensible option. It means that he's having an absolute ball with DC his own age, playing outside, doing crafts, being given a lovely snack, taking part in lots of different activities, having positive, enthusiastic, fun adult interactions with the playworkers. Basically for three days a week he has a lovely afternoon with his mates at ASC. Rather than coming home to watch TV whilst DH has to go straight onto another conference call and then another conference call and entertain himself until I get home. (DH has a senior finance role and it's just not possible for him to drop everything to spend time with a 9yo in the afternoon; he can be in the house as a responsible adult but in all honesty, ASC is a much better option for DS).

Please don't feel guilty about using wraparound care. Most SAHPs I know feel guilty that their DC don't get to go to wraparound care because it's seen as such a fun thing to do!

My youngest is at nursery so in care until 5ish. My eldest is in Y5 and he could come home straight after school but I decided against it as a) it would be double pick ups and b) in after school club there is always activites to do. I much prefer him to run around and kick a football for two hours (and THEN he gets his screen time when he comes home. I am not a holy screen free parent). We try to get him straight from school one day a week.

Yes or after school sports clubs apart from Friday. I like to try to drop off & pick up 1x per week. I do only put them in til 4:30 coz dd2 was having issues at tea and I was bricking it they were gonna chuck her out. But 45 mins working when I get back is fine coz they veg.
I can work at home with them here coz they help themselves to snacks and watch telly or play in garden (10 & 7) BUT school run takes so much longer to pick up at normal time because of finding parking/waiting for them to come out etc than 4:30 so it's not feasible every day.