Am I missing something.

[Seren96]

Can I ask how do others manage childcare whilst they work. If school is closed for example because of weather / nursery closed and you have no family to help... what do you do at short notice to ensure you're at work and how could you make sure the same thing didn't happen again if you were off ?

Take the day off work, ask someone for help.

My question was what do others do to overcome it.instead of having a day off and if you don't have any immediate help / support. I'm just curious if I'm missing something that could be done. If the schools / nurseries are closed. It's a question that's been asked by my work as when the instance arrives most parents with kids do take the day off but it is an issue then.

You are missing nothing. You take annual holiday, or unpaid leave. If you have your partner living with you, you take it in turns and tend to have a negotiation about who's day can be rescheduled and who's can't.

If you use a childminder for before/after school care, they are more likely to be able to have your DCs on a day the school is closed until you can get home, but then you are reliant on only one person, so if the childminder is sick, you have no childcare, whereas the breakfast/after school club/nursery will have back up cover if one of the staff if sick.

There are emergancy nanny companies.

But, my oldest child is in year 4 now, there's been 1 day the school has been closed completely due to snow, 1 day the school finished early due to bad weather (and if you couldn't get to them earlier, they would look after your DC until the end of day), and 1 day when the nursery he was at before school needed to close early.

This isn't a big deal compared to covering the DCs being sick.

Nannies are better for that, as they will look after sick children.

Another option is to get friendly with other parents and see if they'll have your chikdren.

If you have no family then you’d probably ask other mums. If you’re a SAHM people try it on all the time because they know you’re available.

When the children are sick it can be a challenge. (kids are 8 and 4 and went to nursery 4 days a week now in school). I generally call in favours from relatives or take the day off- you don’t have much choice.

oh seen your update - it's for work.

Usually, schools and nurseries only close due to bad weather because their staff can't get in/can't get home safely.

This means it's unlikely your employees could get into work safely if the weather is so bad the schools have had to close, even if they did have back up childcare.

We have no family nearby and both work full time. Dcs are older now but when younger we were lucky enough to have good friends who were able to help in an emergency ( we were able to help them at other times so worked both ways). When they moved from nursery to child minder it was easier as she was able to have them for any last minute school closures. Some days one of us had to stay home. It's hard

If either child is ill, then DH and I wrangle over who is least busy/most able to take the day off.

If school is closed for snow, i’m Unlike ti be able I get to work anyway.

Fur teacher strikes, mynlovejy friend - who was also the mother of DS’s best friend - used to have DS, but she died and now I have dd at school anyway.

Basically, swap childcare dsbiyrs with friends,,take turns with DH, take time off. When school was closed for 4 days last March, I shut the dc in the living room with a tin of biscuits and the PS4 and told them not to disturb me as I either from home. 😊.

Ospirrciate thdy this is neither great parenting or practical with younger children.

School holidays are hard enough. Without other impromptu, random school days off.

Glad I'm not missing something truly obvious 😂. I thought I was going mad for a minute x

My last employer had a employee helpline which could help with all sorts of domestic/financial/legal/health problems including arranging emergency childcare.

Ps. The nursery used regularly was also closed. I'm on about with adverse weather etc. Last year we had snow and the weather forecasts have sent work into overdrive that it may happen again. And that people can't really be off and should try and plan sooner! My back up was a nursery which closed. I just can't see how many backups you can have. No family we're free , as it wasn't really safe to drive etc.

Ps there is no father in our lives to help. It's just me and my children. Single parent in a true sense. And family wise siblings live far away and mother is an OAP and can't always help.

take turns with the other parent.
take annual leave.
network with other parents for tricky situations.

I think the childminder thing may be the way forward

Sometimes the childminder will offer to have the kids all day. Or another mum. If the weather is shite then I'd probably work from home myself anyway and I reckon over 6 you could get away with having DC at home with you and still get plenty of work done

If you have no back up, a combination of childminder and nursery might work best - so if one is unavailable (eg nursery not opening due to weather, childminder getting the flu), you are already "on the books" for the other one - much easier to ask a nursery/childminder to have your DC for an extra day, than contact one you've never sent your DC to before and ask for a 1 off day care.

I went in early (I work part time) dh went in once I got home and worked through the evening during holidays, snow days, illness. If he was teaching or had essential meeting I had to take time off. Mostly the problem was me being called at work to fetch dd1, first job got fed up and didn't renew my contract, second (and current) job have been brilliant, also could bring them in as have own office.

Depending on the business, employers could be better at allowing/ enabling working from home. You can't work as effectively with children around, but it can be possible to get at least something done so that the whole day isn't written off

We have the option of working from home or if part time/flexi switch days around

In practice over 25 years I've had 6 occasions I couldn't take school children as a childminder and then back up childminders were an option.
I take any child already on my books if school is shut. We can have up to 6 under 8 and insurance is for 12 children.
All parents of under 5's are entitled to unpaid emergency leave.

Depending on age and what you do, take them to work and they sit in the staff room with a book.

Having a good manager. Sometimes these things can't be helped and good managers know this. My husband and I will take it in turns (if he's around as he does work away a lot), when it's mine I arrange to work from home. Even when I was in less senior roles where working from hone wasn't really a reality they sort of turned a blind eye and said "do x, y and z" they knew it didn't happen often and I had few sick days etc.

The most common causes of school closure are snow and the occasional 'flu outbreak. IME this tends to result in local nurseries also being of staff so that they either close or are unable to take in additional children.

Whether you use a nursery or a childminder for emergencies, don’t leave it to the last minute to arrange things. Call round a few to find one that is prepared to offer emergency care, and get all the arrangements and paperwork in place ahead of time.

Hi Seren,

I can relate to your dilemma! A lot of the people replying have difference circumstances such as they have a husband so they have that help and support which you do not have.

I think it also depends on what work you do. If you work in retail then forget working from home or having the day off without your managers giving you crap for it, and in retail they usually expect you in work whether there's ice on the ground or not. And let's be honest a lot of us on low wages also rely on public transport as we're on low wages, so if transport is an issue...that causes more problems.

I would like to know the secret as well. A lot of people that have replied seem to have understanding employers, money to spend on additions child minders and a lovely husband.