To pick DD up during my WFH lunch?

[cosyblankies]

I have a 4 year old who started reception in September. I'm a single parent and I work 30 hours per week, usually 9am-3.30pm (half an hour for lunch unpaid). I work from home 2 days per week. On my WFH days I'm thinking of using my lunch to pick DD up from school at 1.50pm, then bring her home and log back on for the remaining 1.5 hours of my working day and she can do her homework or watch TV. She's older now so should be fine to occupy herself and it will save me £70 per day not having to pay childcare to pick her up and look after her for 90 minutes. AIBU?

That's VERY different to a 4 year old!

God that’s early it’s 3:15pm round here
do they start earlier or have longer terms or something?

If your 4 year old has 1.5 hours of homework (or any), she's in the wrong school.

Very weird number of rage bait WFH scenarios on here in the last day or so...

These threads are designed to whip up anti-WFH froth. There has been a glut of them lately.

Yabu

Not everyone lives in England 🙄

Definitely do it! Especially while you can. It makes sense to instill concentration & self occupying. I set up a little desk for my DD at that age, and she would “do work” of her own, writing stories, pictures, Hama beads, simple sewing. It was great to be in the same room, concentrating on our things.

Yes I did it, I do 8-4 and have picked my
daughter up since she was in reception and 3.10,
I usually make her a quick snack and she entertains herself for an hour whilst I work, sometimes she will sit next to me watching tv whilst I’m on the laptop.

My work place are quite relaxed though, as I also finish at 2.30 once a week and log back in at 3.30 and continue working whilst she’s home.

They all know this and are fine with it.

If you worked for me I would support this plan 100% - most decent managers I’ve worked with in both very large and small organisations would be fine with this as long as you are still getting your work done to the same standard.

Only you know if you can manage that, but with so many people struggling financially, I would hope that most people would try to accommodate a single parent as much as possible.

I use my lunchtime (30 mins) to pick my kids up from school at least 3 days a week. I’m home for 3.45 and finish work at 5, which usually consists of two phone calls in that time. My kids have a snack when they get in and watch tv/play while I work. They are 6 and 8. When they were younger I worked part-time and had some help from grandparents after school. I would consider childcare after school for a 4 year old OP.

Yes, quite the flurry. As if a 4 year old has 1.5 hours of homework and would sit and do it quietly!

Sounds fine to me.
work wise no problem - and I think it's a good age to start to learn to entertain themself while you do other things.

I don’t really understand the negative attitude you always get on this sort of thread. Do people really think that the rigid 9-5 office hours structure is a positive thing, especially now when most women work and children still exist and need to be cared for? Do we all want to be working like this for the rest of our lives? In my view flexible arrangements that allow parents to get their work done while still caring for their child are a great innovation and should be encouraged.

Unless the OP has the sort of job where she needs to be in meetings or video calls constantly, supervising a 4yo while working for 90 minutes is eminently doable. I’d rather a world where a parent can work at 90% capacity while their child draws or reads or watches TV safely at home, than one where parents work at 100% and then race through traffic to get to afterschool club before it closes and the extra charges start mounting up. That’s no way to live.

Go for it, OP. She’ll be fine, and you’ll be fine. Sometimes you just need to do what works.

Yes, I don't think she's unusual. Also I wouldn't let a child of that age watch tv for that length of time, but I think I'm probably in the minority on here!

Really depends on the child. Dd2 was very placid and would have been ok but I think I’d factor in a longer break to pick up, have a chat and get her sorted before you start back.

it’s doable with some children but I’d expect my last 90 mins to take me a lot longer, if that makes sense - factor in time for disruption. As long as that works in your job that’s ok. If you may have meetings, that’s more of a gamble.

why not try it 2-3 days a week and use childcare the other days - see how it goes for a term?

Depends what you do, OP, what your DD is like on her own, and whether you can make up any time you do lose after the official end of the work day.

For £70 a day, it's worth a shot. That's a huge amount of money for 1.5 hrs of childcare.

Unless youre a brain surgeon or your child will be so far away from you, you wouldn't hear them - its fine imo. Do what you need to do. Don't ask your employer, if they say no - then youre fkd. If they find out and its a problem, you can say sorry, I didnt realise, I wont do it again! Good luck making ends meet. Life is really tough for some. How lucky the judgers on their high horses are who dont need to use tv for their kids. 💐

YANBU Yeah, definitely do this, ignore the ridiculous people who say otherwise.

My employer is very lenient with WFH and even they ask that children under 10 are in childcare, and 10 and above should be able go entertain themselves without 'interrupting' you.
If your 4 yo can be quiet for an hour and a half you can try, but it's not ideal.

Why do you assume OP is in England? My local primary schools where I'm from in NI, P1 finishes at 12noon, P2 1pm, P3 2pm etc...where I live in England the primary finishes at 3.30pm for all years which is fucking ridiculous in my opinion, way too long a school day, even the local secondary finishes at 3.10pm!

I have actually read what you wrote @cosyblankies

So your child finishes at 1:50 and you would use your unpaid lunch break to pick them up. That is fine. No rules broken.

Whether you can actually work effectively for the last hour and a half or whether being the sole carer for a child while you are WFH breaks your contract....well only you know that.

This is one of many posts I've seen on here that illustrate perfectly why employers are getting pissed off with WFH and are trying to get people back in the workplace. Isn't it enough that people have the comfort and convenience of working from home without also thinking it means they don't need childcare?

This is controversial, but as long as this isn't a forever/long term solution (ie, no longer than a few months whilst you look at cheaper/alternatives) I think your plan is absolutely fine.

Hopefully brain surgeons don't do brain surgery from home😂

I have a 5 year old who finishes at 2.30pm on a Monday. I work through until 2.20pm, pick up and get back. Take lunch until 3.15ish and then it’s a movie and snacks, or playing with toys while I work until 5. Luckily I don’t have too many unplanned calls, that would be tricky. I block out late lunch in my calendar and try and schedule as many things for the morning as possible. If something is unavoidable I sort childcare.

I wouldn’t want to do it more than once a week though 😅