How do you balance work and childcare?

[Happyhappyday]

I live abroad (lived in the UK for about 15 years until had DC then moved back to US). We are seriously considering moving back to UK with concerns about how things are going in the US but really struggling with what life would look like from work/life. For families with primary age children and working parents, how do you do it?

Right now for us, a day looks like:
Me up at 5:45, leave for work at 6:15, at work by 6:30/640. Leave around 3:45, home by 4:15.

DH, up around 7, DC up at same time. Get ready, make lunches etc, have a pretty chill morning and walk DC to school around 8:40. Starts work around 9 (from home). DH finishes work around 5.

DC goes to an afterschool program from 3:45 (when school finishes) until about 4:45. I could pick up at 4:15 but they like to stay to do the projects. Home by 5, have dinner around 6, DC in bed by 8.

My perception in the UK is that it's much harder to do what we're doing and heavily stagger our schedules (I would from 6:30am-330pm by choice, I could flex that easily by 3 hours if I wanted. DH is WFH full time and works 9-5ish. Our DC doesn't need to be in a lot of care outside of school and we are never rushing to drop off or pick up.

Is anyone able to do something similar in the UK? It feels like everyone we know needs to have kids in breakfast club and afterschool and there is a fair amount of finely tuned logistics/rushing every day to get everyone where they need to be... is that the case? Should say DH and I both work full time so mostly interested to hear from families where both parents would at least 4 days/week.

Thanks!

We do exactly that model, DH wfh 6-3 and I wfh 9-5. So I do drop off and he does pick ups. I have not met anyone else that does this and most mums at school work very part time or are SAHM. The remainder use breakfast club/after school club or grandparents or a mix.

We do very similar to you. Apart from no after school programme. Our DC go to a breakfast club once a week, because they asked to go (they quite like having time and breakfast with their friends). We don't use any other wrap-around care.

Sounds like your current situation would work perfectly depending how far from
school You live. Our primary is 8.40-3.15. Breakfast club 730, we use this every day so we can both start at 8. After school once a week to
Accommodote a late work finish, picking up at 530.

My daughter's school has no breakfast club or after school club. The only way I can do it (single parent, nobody else to help, no grandparents) is that I got a job in a school so we have the same holidays and weekends.

We have a primary age DC and both work full time. We don’t so staggered hours (because we’re both rubbish in the morning) but start at 9ish. We live a few minutes walk from school so drop DS off at 8.40 and then get home for the start of the day. We both work hybrid and try to manage our schedules so we’re in the office on different days. DS does after school activities and/or wrap around four days a week an we pick up around 5.30, depending on schedules. On a Friday, I pick up around the usual time and work flexibly. We have quite a lot of control over our own schedules which helps and we’re both happy to do a couple of hours in the evening or at the weekend if needed.