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 couldnt work with a 4 year old at home and I couldnt guarantee I would be able to do school pick up every day.

Of you do reduce to give it a go, dont do it without discussing with your line manager first, our company is flexible when needed but wouldnt allow it as a regular fixed thing.

Mine has always loved after school club. Its like having olay dates 5 days a week! Win win

My son goes 1 day to allow me a full days work (plus some if needed)

The other 4 days I finish at 4 and he finishes at 3.30 so I nip out to get him (5 min walk) and just finish up when I get back

Might be different if I finished at 5 but it works for me and work at are ok with the arrangement too

I do pick my 8 year old some days. I take a late lunch and pick him up and then finish at 4 anyway, so he can entertain himself for 30 mins or so. He does go to After School Club if I have meetings or the days I do go into the office.

My ds is home after school while I wfh. He is 12 though so sorts himself out and doesn't need my input.

Dh works from home and dc don’t go to after school club but they are in year 6. They’ve also had 2 periods of home schooling to get used to it. I wouldn’t do it with a dc under 9 - mine were with a childminder before the pandemic.

Virtually all my colleagues with school age children do this. I wouldn't want to comment on their productivity, but it's much harder to organise meetings after 3pm.

Yes they do. When they're at home I feel like I'm doing a crappy job of parenting and a crappy job of work. I do it sometimes when they are sick, but only if I have a quiet day.

Mine goes to after school mon-wed. We both wfh every day. Thursday-fri we collect him at 3pm as few mins walk from home. He is 7 so amuses himself and doesn't disturb us during that time.

I still send my child to childminder as it is impossible to work without being interrupted every 2 seconds when I work from home.

i work from home too, pre-covid my dcs were attending breakfast club and asc almost every day.. When this wraparound care first became available again after the lockdown ended, it wasnt very reliable so i stopped them going altogether. It was a huge struggle at first , i was finding every spare minute to finish my work. I dashed to my desk as soon as i pick them up from school, i was stressed all the time and the interruption cut my flow of work. After months of trialling i think i have now found the perfect routine. I wake up at 430 and work till 730am, have a nice long breakfast with dcs and take them to school. then i work from 9am to 3pm. I stop working after they come home as it is hard to get my working mode back on, even though i sit at my desk, the productivity isnt there. My team knows my routine and if they need me they know to do so before 3pm. It is worth asking your employer if they allow a bit of flexi working.

@FlyingPandas

"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!

I think this is a brilliant way to think of it!

I wfh full time and my desk is in the spare room upstairs, DH works shifts and we have a reception DS. At most DS goes to asc 4 days a week as DH doesn't work Wednesdays. Luckily asc is flexible so we can change it week by week depending on DH's shifts.

If I picked DS up after school I would have to work till 5:30ish to make up the time and would not have a full lunch break. I would have to leave him to his own devices as I can be on internal calls/meetings. He would whinge that no one plays with him and ask when am I finishing work. I would not be able to fully concentrate.

When DS is in asc he gets to play with friends and have lots of snacks. He isn't alone and has a great time. In fact on a few occasions he's told me off from picking him up early as he couldn't finish playing his game. And I get to concentrate without having to keep an ear out for DS downstairs.

I will admit when DS first started school, I did feel bad with how often he went to asc, but he loves it.

Mine does. I wfh 100% . I answer calls for a contact centre which would be impossible to do with a 3 year old. If I had admin days I could possibly manage it a bit more but still wouldn't be ideal

I have a year 4 child and a year 2. I occasionally have to collect them at 3. I get them in, give them snacks and they then amuse themselves until 5. This is only ever around once every 6 weeks. It is fine but only because it's occasional. I can work and take calls.

BUT this is a recent workable situation and my year 2 child is the oldest in his class. So, until the younger one was 7, this would have been impossible as he wouldn't have understood that I actually had to work because I am 'mummy' and he could see me! I do think reception is too young unless you have a job where you could literally do almost nothing and it not matter (with anything you do manage to get done being a bonus!)

We are both wfh at the moment, but expecting to go back twice a week (and have been expecting to since September although that hasn't happened yet), so the DC are in after school club on those particular days. They love it there so I don't feel guilty at all and it makes a big difference having the extra child free hours twice a week.

I only work from home occasionally, but when I do my son is in before and after school club. I’m in the police and work on some disturbing cases, I won’t have him exposed to them. He’s 7 and in year 2.

I wfh children are 4 and 6 and they are in after school care. I could just about manage with the older one but the 4 year old has no impulse control and would kist come and want to play near me, sit on my knee etc

Of course you need after school care if you are wfh.
Otherwise you are just sticking your child in front of a screen for two hours which can’t be good for them, or entertaining them which means you are not doing the job you are paid for.
Surely better for them to be in ASC with other children and activities.

Yes they do.

"Someone made a throwaway comment ‘I didn’t have a child for someone else to raise them’"

Well that person can fuck off.

DH and I WFH most days atm, and we send DC1 to after school club on the days we're both working (only 2 days a week). He's 4, in reception, and frankly hard work. On the days one parent isn't working and collects him, we usually bring him home for a snack and TV, but there's no guarantee he would let us get on with work during that time, or refrain from interrupting meetings or calls. Plus I don't think it's particularly good for him to be at home with a parent who's not really available. We'll do it if we have to but wouldn't make a habit of it. Much better for him to be at after school club with his friends and kind staff to look after them.

4 and 5 yr olds are still of an age where they need looking after.

So it depends on your job. If you do a job where you can take a break at 3pm, and then do 2 and 1/2 hours work after they have gone to bed (or alternatively at the weekend), then it sounds nice to have that time together. If you are in a job that requires you to be "present" at certain hours, then they need to be in childcare.

DS5, Year 1, goes to the after school club. He loves it there. I think if I’m working then it’s better for him to play with other kids for a couple of hours than to be home alone stuck on a screen.

I disagree with the suggestion that kids being in wraparound care are being raised by someone else.

So ignore that unhelpful.comment, OP.

There are only 2 questions here

• will your child be happier at afterschool club, with friends and staff and activities, or at home while you carry on working (not exactly quality parent child time)?
• will you be able to effectively do your work with your child home?

Dd11 doesn’t, she walks herself home and sorts herself a snack and a screen. Dd7 goes to childminder but with the current cost of living increases I am considering whether we could do without it and have her at home as it’s a huge outlay and she doesn’t particularly enjoy going.

Yes she does. I have colleagues who don't use ASC or breakfast club and it's starting to really affect progress on one job as they they will not attend meetings except 10-12 and 1-2.30 because of school runs/drop offs/lunch etc. We are working with an external consultant who schedules meetings between 8.30am and 5pm and I am getting heartily sick of carrying the load of meetings AND paying for it in childcare fees. Manager just says oh well they make up the hours which a) I very much doubt and b) I don't need support at 7pm