Another childcare rant - how do people do it?!

[SMLSML]

If you and your partner both work how do you manage childcare? My eldest started school in September and prior to this we had wraparound care in nursery. We now use after school club, however this is committee led and we've just had an email saying it's at risk of closure due to not enough volunteers. If you don't use after school club how do families make it work? Do grandparents help 5 days a week? Honestly sick of this country not helping working parents 🫠 the irony of parents needing to be on the committee to keep it open when you're already busy working and juggling a million other school bits and pieces is hilarious to me also 😅 it's something I'd love to be part of but have no idea how if find time... Any and all advice welcome!

This is what we're using but they're now saying they need more committee members...

We have no family help and at the time our jobs weren’t flexible - both basically 9 to 5 - so we chose our neighbourhood and school to make sure there were childminders around. We had a choice of childminders which we used for about 6 years, most of primary school. There is also wraparound at the school and a local one. It does vary a lot but we’re in a city and there is generally really good childcare provision.

Unfortunately not, it's a small village school 😭

Totally get that but it kind of is, kids are needed to keep the country going as the future generation so surely it's in the governments interest... That aside I'm in a job where I can't have flexible working hours, what did people do before COVID? The whole thing is a minefield!

It is paid childcare. It's an official after school club but they're now saying due to legal reasons they need volunteers otherwise they'll have to close

I used a Childminder

I had a childminder who took the children to school in the morning and picked them afterwards.

There were no before or after school clubs for most of their primary school days (one was introduced in my younger daughter’s final year).

People use childminders, professional after school providers or casual piecemeal arrangements. Minibuses went around picking up some from my dc’s primary, some nurseries ran after school care programmes

Childminder (dc started before school age) plus work term time only. We also moved closer to family before having kids so they could be more involved.

Lots of families have either a stay at home parent, a part time parent, flexible work or family support.

We have an afterschool nanny three days a week. On the other two days me/DH are WFH, so we pick them up.

DP and I had to work alternating shifts and reduced hours.

He worked Mon-Wed alternating Mon-Thur and I worked the opposite, Thur-Sun and Fri-Sun.

We both had arduous battles with flexible working requests with our employers, and we hardly had any time for eachother, our house was a mess, we rarely ate home cooked meals, we were shattered at the end of the day and could barely look at one another, but we understood that it was necessary until either one or both of our earning potentials increased.

It's one of the sacrifices you have to make when you have kids if you don't have a reliable villiage or the funds for additional childcare.

@SMLSML

I worked part time, most families had one part time worker unless they had family help. Others split the day with one parent starting early so they could finish by 3, the other starting after school starts.

If there are other parents in your situation and you can't reduce your hours and neither can they, can you employ a nanny, or a nanny share?

I pick up my GC twice a week….my DP takes them once a week ….other GP pick up twice a week and their aunty picks them up 1 day a week….don’t know how people without family manage …..can’t beleive the cost of after school clubs these days

Don’t forget, school’s not there for childcare.

Paid childcare

The school have a statutory duty to consider wraparound - push the head

Hire a nanny. Admittedly they won’t be doing that much in the term time other than drop offs, pick ups and after school but you’ll also have them for the entire day in the holidays.

Most schools have a professionally operated after school club run by a private provider.

Its got paid staff and there's no question of getting volunteers to run it. Its just a case of putting your child's name down. Round our way one school has a poor ASC offering and it simply means no working parents choose that school.

Childminder is your best bet. Didnt you consider it earlier? I knew we'd need one so chose that over a nursery as most give their after school places to the children with them as toddlers.

It running from 8.45-3.15 when most people are required to work from 9-5.30 (plus commute) is a model based on an era where you didn’t have dual income households in the way you do today.

Trying to organise around that for people who need to work full time (which is most parents nowadays) is a nightmare and if we were inventing schools today, they definitely wouldn’t be operating on that time schedule.

. It's an official after school club but they're now saying due to legal reasons they need volunteers otherwise they'll have to close

This will be a not for profit. They are always run on a shoestring and at risk of closing. They rely on volunteer trustees as a management committee.

Suggest to school that they invite private providers to take over. Local nursery chains will often do this. They will be more expensive but much more reliable and financially viable.

We both went part time when we had our kids and did 30 hours a week - three long days and two short days each. The person doing the long day dropped off, the one doing the short day picked up, grandparents picked up on the 5th day, but we did change this to after school club.

This is the case with committee run childcare.

My children went to a committee run preschool, we paid professional staff but the committee was parent volunteers. If we didn't get enough parents bothering to join the committee (1 meeting per term) and go to the AGM (once a year) we couldn't run.

Why not join the committee?

We both work full time and are flat out as it is, I honestly couldn't see us fitting it in. Ours has meetings far more than once a term 🙃 also the irony isn't lost on me that again it's down to parents to sort when they're busy trying to work as well 😅 I'd look for a child minder but currently none available. Where I am there aren't a lot of official childcare groups above nursery age so not sure that would even be an option 😫

If you don't want to join a committee, and don't want to look for a childminder, I'd suggest employing an after school nanny.
Organising childcare does tend to be down to parents!

We had a live in au pair and then after school club. DH was supposed to meet them from the school bus and take them home, but he kept forgetting. After school club was more reliable.