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?

She won’t be working. She is fooling herself.

Another women spoiling it for everyone else.

Of course they do (not!)

Absolutely bonkers, in England, a 3yr old can turn 4yrs old on 31st August, then start school the following day on 1st September and in my local primary do 08:40 until 3:30pm, it's appalling, and one of the reasons I didn't put my children in school here as I was used to the more child-friendly school hours in NI.

Whereas, back home in NI, the summer age cut off is 30th June...so children from 1st July onwards start in the September.

I think people are forgetting that this is an hour and a half twice a week. It's not all day every day.

No, they are remembering that and hour and a half is a long time for a 4 year old.

If this was a MN thread where the poster said that their DP picked their 4 year old DC up from school and then left them to amuse themselves for an hour and a half while they were gaming, at least some of the replies would say "LTB" and absolutely none of them would say that it was absoutely fine.

From the 4 year old's perspective it makes no difference whether the parent is gaming or working - they are not available.

Why not give it a trial run this weekend.

Try and work for 90 mins or however long, tell 4 year old to go and sit quietly and independently do some homework (give her some reading, maybe a letter writing / simple maze or other similar activity) and then she can watch TV.

See how much she disturbs you....

I just don't believe that the child would do "homework" and/or watch TV without distracting or disturbing mum 🤷

It's 10% of her working hours - that's quite a lot. If you were asked to work 10% more hours for the same pay, you wouldn't be happy but she essentially wants the opposite - to work 10% less for the same pay.

Some employers are ok with it - usually for staff they really value and want to retain. Some aren't. You can't generalise about this.

I lead a large team who work hybrid. I wouldn't be ok with this because of the age of the child and the regularity of it. I would be fine with the odd day when the child was ill - but my DH works for an employer where they are told to take a day off as leave when a child is ill, not WFH. It varies!

The other thing is that in my experience, people will say that they use their lunch break for a school run but in reality they still end up taking a lunch break as well because they still need to eat!

Sounds like a good idea to me

Ofc YABU. Either work or look after your very young child. The two are mutually exclusive.