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 don't advocate letting DC be on their own. I work in the room they are in. Which means no TV.

Be organised. Get stuff out beforehand. Have snacks and drinks to hand.

A four year old reception child can 'do her homework' whilst you work! She'll need supervision while you 'work'.

Depends what work you do.

That’s the third post this week of people doing things during wfh that aren’t work. Two were childcare and one was a Pilates class. No wonder firms want staff back in the office. Abuse it and lose it.

Yes, it's a common issue.

In your circumstances I’d do this, or at least give it a try. If it doesn’t work you can switch to childcare.

A 4yr old should be able to occupy themselves for 90 mins, and after a day (or in your case half day) at school they’ll likely be shattered. You can prep some activities in advance such as colouring, playdoh, a film on tv to keep her occupied.

Out of curiosity where are you based? I’ve never come across such an early school finish before

There are two different issues here. Your lunch break is unpaid and is your free time, so you can do what you like, including picking up yoir daughter. Doing childcare while working is not so good, my workplace says staff cannot WFH while caring for young children.

It isn't fair on your DD, let alone employer. Keep her somewhere she is engaged and looked after.

I would do it. My 4yo loves to craft and play with toys independently. Plus my work is ok for me to be getting up to help with snacks etc. My older child would have struggled at that age. You know your child.. go for it if you think it will work.

You literally do need permission if your employer is paying you to work during that time, hun x

This!!

If your employer is ok for you to do childcare when working, that's ok. I don't know if this is the case with the OP.

Why do so many posters who work from home think it’s okay to use their working hours to look after their kids, go to the gym, nip to the shops etc etc? It’s all over mumsnet at the moment, lots of CFs WFH.

Absolutely fine OP, it’s your lunch break unpaid to do as you wish. She is old enough to occupy herself and watch some tv and chill for a bit whilst your online in the next room. I regularly collect my children using my lunch break and then return to working at home

My kids are adults now, but I worked from home when they were small. I can honestly say that, with the best will in the world, you will not be able to do your work when your little girl comes home from school. She's only 4 and will want her Mum after a day at school. I tried on many occasions when childcare fell through, and even with lots of different strategies, it was always a disaster! My daughter is 29 now and can still remember crying because I couldn't play with her because I was working.

Work don’t own your break. If your child is happy to occupy herself then I don’t see the issue. Especially as it’s only for an extra 1.5 hours. Why not try it out and if you find she’s to demanding within that time then you have to send her back to childcare

Are you in Ireland? (Most kids that age in primary school finish at 1:30pm).

When my children where in reception school closed at 13.15 every day and the day nursery collected them at a cost of £40 a day each. They where open until 6pm. Only child minders or day nursery's in our area the school doesnt have after school club.

It's not her break, it's the subsequent 1.5 working hours that are the issue.

Because we’re grown adults and work is output based. If your working from home you can’t erase the fact that children also live in that house and could be there at the same time. This doesn’t mean you’re not working. Equally what you choose to do and how work looks like is up to you, and that might mean being online working really hard for a few hours, but then going to the gym on your lunch break. I regularly work from home and do twice the amount of work I would do in the office, and get to collect my children and make their dinner do spellings etc. I frequently exceed expectations at work and im incredibly driven. We need to stop the negativity around working from home.

Totally agree. It obviously is totally context dependent. It depends on the nature of your work, your kids and your home setup. If you’re a surgeon then you probably can’t do this. If you work on things from your laptop that aren’t minute by minute time critical and your employer isn’t too fussed when you do your work as long as it’s done, then you probably can. “Work” is not a uniform thing.

Did yor employer approve you working like that?

Sorry OP but in my experience you’re only able to reliably wfh with a child in the house when they hit age 9.

Quite seriously i think the economy more broadly and people’s finances personally are in such a state that people DGAS any more and are just trying to take their lives back as their own. Which I have some sympathy for.

I did acknowledge that later in my post.

It probably feels a lot less like "taking back control" when they are sacked though. Several people were dismissed at my work when it was discovered they were working with young children at home and hadn't told anyone.

I have no issue with people doing it if they are transparent about it