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?

I never said it was the same…

YABU 4 is too young to not need you for 90mins. She cant do homework alone. And your work isnt paying you to parent your child.

Not worked on me. Id consider it a perk
of working from home.

If it’s true then the op knows her job and her child and if it’s doable. All this information has been left out from the op though so perhaps it is just a bit of a dig to WFH.

Isn’t ‘Reception’ an English and Welsh term? I thought Scotland /N Ireland were P1 or Primary 1. It would be unusual for English and Welsh Reception classes to finish at 1:50 on a regular basis. The £70 childcare is also bizarre, unless that’s the charge for the week.

You're right, you didn't, but OP asks if she is being unreasonable to do it for her 4 yo and you saying you do it with you 11 year old kind of implies that you think it's fine for her. Otherwise I don't know what your contribution to her question is.

What made you ask here? Just sorting out your thoughts, or do you have a specific concern in mind? If you have you might need to be more specific to have a more targeted discussion.

Some people have combination of child, home and job where it would work. Many don't.

Moreover, the UK experience might not be fully applicable on your case (jobs with explicit policies, age of perceived independence).

I can imagine giving it a try - mostly because it is a relatively small proportion of your overall working time, and if you can finish the work later if necessary, the money saved seems worth it.

Yes I would do it & I have colleagues who also do it. Nothing wrong with using your lunch time to pick up. And an hour and a half of TV isnt going to do her any harm.

This! It’s called survival!

Doing her homework alone for 90 minutes? This makes her sound 14, not four. Reception children need to read with an adult.

You know if your dc would watch TV quietly, alone.

Agree.
And yes a 4 yr oldl can entertain themselves...if they can not as some claim...learning to entertain themselves is helpful.
Op in todays work force a dece t employer accomodated a empolyee without a fuss.

I know parents who do this, saves them a fortune.
You know her best. I would have managed this with my eldest but not my youngest.

Yeah I'm in northern Ireland too. Nursery school by Me is 130,P1&P2,30 and P3 onwards 3pm
My niece is P1 and her school is 1.45pm all different.

Anyway I can't WFH so doesn't make a difference to me but my 4 year old would be fine if I could do my work in the same.room. he would have his snacks,go get changed,colour in and likely watch some TV. I don't think he would be as easy if I had to be upstairs the full time.

Before he got ill DH did this. He can choose his lunch hour so took it 3-4 on Fridays (the only wfh day he had) and picked ds up from school. Theres no after school club on Friday which has meant a logistical nightmare now he can no longer do that.

It is one of those things that is normal in my world but not apparently on MN.

Not reasonable to work the afternoon while looking after a 4yo, and not fair on the 4yo.

I am pretty sure watching TV for 1.5 hours after school is doable. When you are on your own you have to do what you need to do. You don't have the luxury of being the perfect parent. You finish work at 3.30 not 5pm. You have hours after work to spend with her and it will only be twice a week.

Yes I would say it's ok in a kind of emergency situation - it's doable if you have nothing else in place. However it's probably best to look in the longer term for other options.
When she's 14 hopefully she can do 1.5 hours of homework unsupervised!

When I'm in the office I'm regularly interupted by office chatter, people asking silly questions, or whether I want a drink. Do you all sit mute in your offices with no interaction or downtime of any sort throughout the day? Perhaps I'm lucky. My DC at age 4 would have been fine for 90 mins twice a week playing. From memory they regularly did this over the course of a week, at weekends. I think I would have kept in the same room as them and would have been happy to answer short questions from them. And would have planned my work so I was doing admin / something straightforward during this time. Our important meetings are rarely spontaneous and are generally diarised weeks in advance, so I would arrange alternatives for chilcare on rare occasions when there was a meeting I needed to attend. Go for it OP!

to save £70 per day! It’s a no brainer

and I’m a lone parents of twins and regularly worked from home with them here age 1 onwards

I think work varies a lot, and some jobs obviously have periods where you don't do much. There was a woman on here wfh when she had a baby. She was even able to change the baby while taking client calls! If it's perhaps "a light touch" job, its possible.
Concentrating, complicated processes needing full attention? Not a long term plan.

It could work, why not try it?
I think you will need to interact with her a little bit, but that's morally no different to chatting to colleagues, which we all do in the office.

Seventy quid back in your pocket is not to be sniffed at!

Obviously not...hence why I said 'in England' giving the OP opportunity to point out that she is in a different country. Based on the replies it sounds like a short day is the norm in Northern Ireland.

You can control chatting to colleagues, if a 4 year old suddenly needs your attention, you're going to have to interrupt your work.

I note @cosyblankies hasn't been back

Hopefully that's because she's realised it's her manager she needs to discuss this with

As a manager I would probably agree to this but only if the employee had been upfront they were doing it. If they tried to hide it from me I would take a very different approach

Chatting to colleagues is how a team is built . Morally that's entirely different.

Probably pick her up after school?

The OP's "problem" is that the child finishes classes before her work day ends.