To ask how parents manage after school activities when both work full time?

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Loads of brilliant after school activities near us, from the essential (swimming lessons) to fun extras (theatre, coding).

But, myself and my husband both work full time and currently our primary aged kids are in the mediocre after school club until 5.30pm.

How do similar families manage to get their kids to activities? Is the only answer an after school nanny? It's going to be very expensive for someone to pick them up from school, walk with them 10 min to an activity, wait around and then walk home with them again. Or is there another solution?

I'm seeing most of their friends doing all this great stuff because they have a parent working part time, and I'm feeling bad they are missing out.

Yep, we couldn’t sign our kids up to any of them until one of us went part time (DH). Enabling after school activities was one of the big benefits.
I used to bust a gut to get out of work in time to pick DC up early from childminders and get him to beavers by 5pm, but it was v stressful. Occasionally I could ask another parent to pick him up from cm for me and take him there with their other child but i didn’t know them well enough to do this much and didn’t want to impose.

It’s a bit easier when they’re older as activities are sometimes later and you can manage them once you’re back from work. And high school ones they can take themselves to.
We had to stick to weekend options and went part time to facilitate.

They go to clubs at the weekend, or after they finish at after school club.

Or they go to clubs at the school (sport, coding, dance etc) and then go to the after school club after the club has finish.

WFH roles with flexible working.

weekend clubs, flexible hours so can work late one evening and finish early another, or making friends with another parent that attend so they take them and you pick them up.

It is really hard.

IME you can’t do it unless someone else can take them. We were exceptionally lucky that our after school club would transport to some other clubs, so it has always been those, later clubs, or clubs at the weekend. It got easier as they got older as some clubs are later and we can do them after work.

After school club isn’t the same as an ‘organised’ group activity, but is yours really mediocre? I often joke that ours is supervised nothing, but in honesty if I think about it, my son gets so much out of the relatively free play with a wide group of children of different ages. It will feel like a real loss when it is gone when he starts secondary school next year…

Slightly flexible finish on a Friday so we can get to a 5.30 swimming lesson and brownies which starts at 6 mid-week.

There are lots we can't do but have looked around to see what is feasible and just had to accept that they (and we) can't do it all.it sucks tbh.

It isn't always possible. My son is good at running and would love to attend the junior sessions of a running club - he is at the level where he would really benefit from some proper training. But the sessions are at 5pm on a Monday, and I just can't get him there because I can't pick him up from ASC until 5:50pm. Likewise his football team training is moving to a day he can't do, so he will probably need to find a different team.

I feel bad, but at the end of the day we need me to work, and there is plenty of stuff he can do on the weekend.

We did everything at the weekend- swimming lessons, gymnastics etc.

Swimming lessons at our leisure centre run every day after achool 3:30-7pm.

I WFH on the days there is a club so i can log off take them to a club and then finish my work later once they are in bed.

We only do 1 club in the week, then the ither club is on a saturday

DH and I are both full time teachers. DS takes clothes to change into at ASC and one of us picks him up and goes straight to activity, other goes home, walks dog and makes tea. Football and swimming lesson take place at the weekend.

We used a private school where it's all on site. DD did prefer the ASC where they basically play and eat sandwiches though! She wasn't really up for anything more organised than 9 or 10. I was a bit sad that we didn't manage to do Brownies as I loved that as a child.

Have you looked at Supercamps for the holidays? I've found them really good and they do themed weeks like cooking and football and science.

Until age 9 or 10. Not than 9 or 10.

And btw I don't even work full time, only 30 hours and some flexibility. But sod's law dictates that whatever activity your child is most keen on will be on a day with a regular 4pm meeting. Or clash with cubs.

How old are your DC? If the younger end of primary school they tend to only do clubs at school/that can be facilitated by childcarer. Otherwise you might squeeze in one evening club and one weekend club.

When they get to about 9 there are more clubs in the evening that are (say) 6.30/7pm starts so you have time

I gave up a senior management job to be self-employed so DD could do after school club activities. This phase felt harder to manage than nursery and early years at school. It wasn't just those that felt important though was being able to have play dates after school as well, although particularly as she'd moved schools in year 4. I was a lone parent though, so only me to do it.

Round my way there are some really good holiday clubs during school holidays.
Week long dance camps, decent ones for example, where they put on a little show at the end; intensive weeks of swimming; activity adventure camps.

As a sahm, and yes getting them to extra curricular is one of the reasons I was one/very part time; my guilt came from them being stuck with during school holidays rather than all the brilliant clubs!

They are a bit more expensive, but you'll have saved more from No EC during each week.

Round my way you hire a teenager to help ferry them. Cheaper than a nanny and if it's just "collect child, hand snack, supervise changing, walk into sports hall" you don't need a professional nanny imo.

We WFH, start earlier, work through lunch, catch up on missed work in the evening, and DH works condensed hours on part time basis. That helps them do clubs in the evening, or us pick them up when school finishes. Sadly our school only offers ASC one day a week! So we have to be able to pick them up or they would have to go to a childminder.

I’m a lone parent and work 40+ hours a week. My child goes to 2-3 clubs during the week (plus daily wraparound care) and the weekends are spent doing other more general social things like birthday parties/play dates etc..
We have to rush around a lot, but somehow manage. There is no time for anything for myself and often the housework and food shopping is rushed at the weekend 😳

Two working FT parents here.
Music teacher comes to the house so that's whilst we are still working. Other music lessons are via school clubs at lunch and after school (state). Also weekends.
Swimming lessons are on until 7pm. Football is a change in the car after ASC at 5.30pm (slightly earlier pick up). Dinner at God Knows what time afterwards.
I also condense my hours so one day a week I do pick up at 3.30pm and that night is allllll the club's.
Also we're lucky that our (state) school offers coding, STEM, art classes, multi sport after school so we can utilise those.

But yeah, it's hard. A lot of added pressure to ensure our working patterns don't impact upon the kids (a) spending time with us and having downtime themselves and (b) doing some of the activities they want to try.

It's such a pain. We have a big planner on the wall where three DC and us have different things and honestly nobody is arriving for morning clubs or arriving at school or comes out of school or is dropped off home at exactly the same time as anyone else. Two days a week we pay a nanny to pick up, walk to clubs round the corner, wait, pick up next one, bring home....

The price is astronomical because you have the cost of club, cost of nanny, cost of bribery snack in a cafe for the two who are waiting for the third one to finish ballet in the cold. I feel like this is the last gasp of the really expensive childcare years. Then I guess when they are in secondary it will be more expensive on transport, phones, clothes, pocket money/allowance and hobbies, but not childcare so much.

I flex hours to do the pick ups twice a week, my DH does one. the other 2 days the nanny orchestrates it.

Kids are just really, really fucking expensive.

Single parent here. They either did clubs at the weekend (and missed EOW as dad wouldn't take them 🙄) or my parents took them.
It gets easier as they get older as clubs start later.
I'm lucky to work only 15 mins from home and a lot of clubs are also at the local leisure centre which is only 5 mins away.

Our primary school did lots of clubs immediately after end of school day. A few at lunch time

My DD goes to on site after-school provider 3 times a week - I agree with a PP that whilst not a focused activity they provide great opportunities for free play including lots of undirected play (which is some of the most important in children's development) alongside some activity based play. I wouldn't say a coding club for example is any more beneficial in terms of her development. Anyway I digress - she goes to a couple of different school based after school activity clubs during the year as they can take her to after school provider afterwards. In addition she goes to a performing arts club one night a week because it's 6pm start and swimming Sat AM. No way I don't think we could fit much more in, as others said will see maybe when she is older and can tolerate later nights. That said I think that is plenty and she'd be knackered to do more.

However I do also work part time hours so it was always a desperate search for clubs that are on on my day off. Sorry, that's a big drip feed! It's tough to organise if you work FT