Childcare when partner does shift work

[curlyrebel]

If you and/or your partner does shift work and has an irregular pattern eg 2 on, 2 off, how do you manage this with your children and school?

Currently I work full time 9-5.30 and DH works nights - usually 2 or 3 nights on, 2 or 1 off. It works really well in terms of picking the kids up from school as he's awake and home to do that every day. Drop offs if he's working the night before I do and this is fine if I'm WFH. But if I'm going to the office I get there after 9am and usually have a shorter lunch or something.

I'm starting a new job soon and am thinking about putting the kids in breakfast club as I may have early meetings. But we won't be able to afford them in breakfast club every day. So should we just choose random days and it may or may not coincide with his shifts? Tricky one.

What do other people do in similar situations?

But you asked what other people do.
Overwhelmingly, people take their dc to school then come home and go to bed.

I don't think I know anyone who comes straight in off a night shift and falls asleep - most people (dc or not) need an hour or so to get something to eat / let it settle / unwind a bit before going to sleep - in the same way people do who work evenings.

If you are both working FT, then breakfast club is a legitimate expense for most parents. Indeed, most would have after school care too. If you really can't afford it, then your dh will have to just manage taking his dc to school 'when he is tired' as thousands of parents across the country do.

He managed to drive home from work ok

So grab a tea /coffee some toast. Drive to school - assume too far to walk ?

Then home to bed 9jsh

It's what night workers do and no need to pay for breakfast club

We had to pay for full-time childcare when reality of the shift pattern was we only made use of 2 or 3 days a week. If do was on on backshifts the breakfast club space didn't get used at all.

We managed to drop one of day paid care by getting ad-hoc favours from friends and family, but it was honestly really stressful trying to juggle and work it all out every 3 weeks when the rota came out. Dp has no set pattern so it could be any mix of days, mids, backshift and nights in a given week.

He's managed to negotiate one set day off (Tues) so we never pay for childcare that one day, this helps a lot of it could be an option for you.

@UsingChangeofName yes I did ask to know what other people do in similar situations but that didn't include being told that my DH is "selfish" and needs to "man up"!

I'm not sure how anyone can make judgements on what someone else is able to do after a night shift. Surely everyone is different and not every night shift is the same. Of course as parents we sometimes do have to muddle through with little sleep but we also have to think about what's safe. So no, I would rather DH doesn't drive DC to school when he's overtired.

Thanks @Invisimamma - that does sound pretty stressful and annoying too to pay for days you don't really need.

If they have space they might let you book in last minute too if you had to go in the office for a meeting in a day you wouldn’t normally. I found them flexible if there was space.

Speak to the breakfast club - mom one here knows what their policy for random/short notice/ad hoc bookings.

The wrap around club I used to be Chairperson of allowed these type of bookings if there was capacity beyond the regular bookings.

Thanks for the suggestion @IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads @Losingweightissohard but they've already said there's no flexibility. They said something about only having a set number of children in any given session.