Free Childcare

[viviswicked]

Mulling over a comment on another thread regarding WFH and thought I would see how forthcoming people would be on an anonymous forum...

Those who are working from home has this been the opportunity to now have 'free childcare' no wraparound, no childminder etc needed as you are now always in the home.

Full disclosure this does not directly affect me due to children being older, I work hybrid and it's entirely up to me when and if I go into the office. My direct team do not have young children but I am part of a large organisation, many of the staff do have children and are not using childcare.

Lots cancelled childcare during covid lockdowns. Money saving & safety, who wouldn't.
However as workplaces opened up,schools & nurseries returned to usual hours. many who wfh did not send kids back to nursery or after school care.
So when my employers asked for hybrid working & 2 days in office rather than full return to pre covid office based many had no childcare in place. Panic ensued & staff blamed employer. It was unfair & how could they arrange care with 1 months notice.
I sympathised but thid was not the employers problem. Contracts were full time office based 9to5 this has never changed.
You choose to cancel the childcare arrangements. Not your employer.
Be thankful you gained flexible hours 7-7 & 3 days at home as long as you did your hours. None of this is your actual contracted rights.

There has also been a shrinking of the childcare sector since early 2020, meaning some of the provision people were using prior to lockdown isn't actually in existence any more. You're evidently not just talking about your own workplace, so let's be clear about the national picture. A month genuinely wouldn't be doable in many cases.

Also, the line about it not being the employer's problem sounds nice, but doesn't take into account the reality of the labour market now. It's much more of an employee's game these days, especially if you have skills. The fact that an employer was offering enough to pay for a suitable employee who could access and would use childcare three years ago doesn't mean that buys the same thing now. It depends on the sector of course, some employers can still have their pick. Others not so much.

It depends on the area. Where I live there are so many childminders and nurseries available.

Yep, huge variation.

I have a 5yr old and a 2yr old.
DH wfh 3 days (does 6am-2.30 so he can collect DS from school) and office 2 days. I wfh 1-2 days and out 2-3 days (4 days total at work).

Impossible to wfh with the 2yr old (although obviously we had to with our oldest at the same age during lockdown but he's a very different temperament).
Regardless of wfh or in office/out she's either with grandparents or in nursery 8-6.
2 days a week DS does an art club or tea club. But if I am wfh one of those days I'll cancel tea club and collect him, he gets changed himself and will happily curl up on the sofa and watch a movie or play with his toys for a couple of hrs. Tends to only be a couple of times a month though.

No - wfh means you actually have to work - just from home. You can't do this with childcare too

Completely dependent on the child and the level of care they need. My son has been letting himself in (using the keysafe if I’m on a call), and sorting a snack etc for a couple of years. He’s 11 now. My work are flexible and allowed me 20 mins to walk to school and get him sorted when he was a little younger. I used to take a shorter lunch break to balance it off. Younger than 8 I wouldn’t have done it.

It only really applies to a small age group, 7-11 ish where they can entertain themselves, the same age group when I was young would have worn a key around their neck and let themselves in alone I should add. Younger needs childcare, older used to come home alone

These are the people who ruin it for others. When they are all dragged back in the office because productivity is down, they won't have free childcare then!

All dragged back? Doubtful. People don't seem to comprehend that lots of employers can't actually be that choosy. Or that for those who think they are, the staff may well be able to vote with their feet. The ground beneath our feet has shifted.

Voting with feet I agree with. But if I had a load of staff taking this piss and not working properly then I'd want them back in the office. If that meant they vote with their feet then great it would save me having to go down HR routes for people not working.

Yep this happens a lot at my work, and thanks to the pandemic seems to be the norm.

When I talk about staying part time after my little one goes to school (because school finishes at 3pm..) people always say yeh but if you're working from home...

I don't like it at all. If I'm working I'm working. Can't be done (not properly or on a regular basis) while looking after a child. And sticking your child in front of the TV for 2hrs every day while you're working/ignoring them/staring at a laptop? I would rather him be at after school club or a childminder.

To be honest I have no idea why it's acceptable, it's not fair on employer or child. It reminds me of third world countries where women have no choice but to bring children into work with them.

I understand what you would want. Whether you'd actually be in a position to get all the good staff you need and who'd be willing to work in an office or at home in your preferred way is another point entirely. Be that the existing ones or replacements.

You might, of course, but it would depend very much on what you were offering. You'd want to think very carefully about whether trying to change things would be to your ultimate benefit or not. Whether the workforce you want are actually available to you or whether you might be forced to compromise.

And this what people don't get: the employers productivity and preference is not necessarily the casting vote that it used to be.

Couldn’t give a shit if I take the piss. Pre pandemic my wfh/ flexible working request was revoked as it didn’t work for the male boss- pandemic hits and guess what, the men loved it, got dogs- no longer a problem. Fuck them is all I can say!

It's also the same with WFH and being ill. The other day I said to my boss I wasn't well, she said oh that's ok just WFH you don't need to come into the office. I called back and said actually what I meant is I'm taking a sick day!! If I'm too ill to make the trip to the office quite frankly I'm too ill to work. Sitting around half working half dosing on the sofa is not doing anyone any favours!

Yes. 2 days a week my nearly 7 year old entertains himself for 1.5 hours while I finish up. The rest of the time he's in clubs/ activities. After school childcare is pretty cheap so it's not the cost saving so much as the better quality of life. I wouldn't work full time if he had to be in club until 5.30 every day to be honest.

The work gets done. I have a lot of control over my calendar so I don't schedule meetings during those hours. I can do admin and emails easily with my kid in the next room watching TV or playing Lego.

Those who are working from home has this been the opportunity to now have 'free childcare' no wraparound, no childminder etc needed as you are now always in the home.

No go free childcare with school and full time (7:45-19:00) nursery as usual for us. However, it has given me the chance to not need wraparound care because I don’t have to deal with the commute to and from the office. There are also times I will take an hour’s lunch break at 3 to do the school pick up and then DH take over when he finishes work at 4.

We do both carry on working as usual when a child is at home sick though, which we couldn’t do if in the office. Now we wfh, it’s pretty much expected though. I find those days difficult and wouldn’t want to add to them by stopping nursery because we’re at home anyway but maybe it comes down to what your job is.

Ex has worked from home with dc when they’ve been ill. Not properly ill. Vomited then fine and off school for two days. Youngest is about to be 8 though. Old enough to be given a pad and told to do Sumdog etc in bedroom with breaks/ dog walks etc I wouldn’t do it with younger dc.

Also think it's unfair on both employer and child when people work with sick child at home. And ultimately unfair on employee, as like someone else said it had now become expected!

I feel like this type of thing often applies to people who's jobs largely involve sending emails / having meetings. As there's no way you could do my job while doing anything near to caring for a child!

It depends - one of mine just tends to nap/watch TV when ill so it's actually not that bad to WFH around him. The other one tends to be more demanding

I always wonder about the holidays in this situation. Even if children are old enough to entertain themselves for a couple of hours, I think if they're younger than secondary age they shouldn't be at home while parents are working for full days.

On the "working when sick dc at home" point, when Dd was small, Dh and I used to do a half day caring for Dd and half day in work, then both catch up at night.

The expectation (of Dh and I) was the morning person went in for a 6:30/7am start (normally roughly 9), to get a longer morning. Afternoon person did a late finish (6 or 7pm, rather than 5/5:30 officially).

And whoever was at home at any point would do some work if feasible (e.g. while Dd napped), but main job was minding and entertaining dd.

The work we couldn't do in our long half day at work was done when dd had gone to bed. Or by juggling caring between us. If dd was up to it, the lunchtime swop was done by driving into town near our offices and afternoon parent drove home again. But if dd was too unwell for the car, the swop happened at home.

There is no way either of us could have "WFH" while she was sick otherwise.

And we were lucky that our managers saw our efforts to still meet deadlines and not let them down as well so gave us that flexibility - it was before WFH was a thing and while Dh had more flexibility, my official T&Cs were that I was present in the office all day, everyday, or I took annual leave when I wasn't in half or whole day chunks.

Occasionally 1 diary was too chaotic and the other person could juggle deadlines to take a day off - but mostly we muddled through. As dd had a lot of bugs from Creche and issues with reflux etc.

Yes, I don't put my DS into before and after school club as I pretty much WFH full time now. We will be putting in him some holiday clubs though with the odd day at home with me whilst I'm working and some days as annual leave. My DD is still in nursery so we don't have to worry about her until she starts school. My boss is a Mum of 3 who are all school age so completely understands. Our company are very understanding and fall over themselves to make it known that family comes first and as long as the work is getting done doesn't see an issue with WFH whilst looking after children at the same time. I realise I'm very, very lucky and this is not the same for everyone. I also do work and don't take the piss and happy to catch up on any work on an evening when the kids are in bed.

WFH one day a week while children are at school. So, no don’t need childminder anymore.

but I have asked to work from home when my child was poorly and this was fine. The alternative was to use a day for parental leave and dump all my work on ten rest of the team.

The* rest of the team