Giving up work in September?

[HowLongWillThisGoOnFor]

Today we had the plans for my children’s return to primary school in September. I have four in different year groups, all with staggered start and end times. I have to drop the first child in at half 8, and the last child in at 9.10.

At the end of the day I’ll be at the gates for 2.30 for the first pick up, until 3.10 for the final pick up.

There will be no before and after school care, this has been confirmed. No available childminders and even if there was, the staggered start and end times are a logistical nightmare. No family help.

My job is student facing in further education and it cannot be done from home. I rely on the wraparound.

My tax credits should rise with my drop in income, so I should be able to clear bills with not much surplus. I will have to hand my notice in. Anyone else in a similar situation?

I have a couple of friends in the same situation who have tried every avenue but their only solution is now to quit their jobs.

Thanks for the suggestions. I can’t move my children to another school for their wraparound as ironically I have already done that. I moved them to this school as their wraparound provision was great and reliable. I’m unwilling to unsettle them again, I think that would be unfair. They love school and have good friends. Childminders are not available, they have lengthy waiting lists in my area and usually have space for one child max, not four, hence the school move to more reliable wraparound.

Husband works set shift patterns and is the main earner so is unavailable at school pick up times. Nanny is not an option, and I can’t let another student pick my children up as the school is nowhere near the college.

I will talk to the school as irrespective of my work dilemma hanging around at the gates for 40 minutes is madness.

This might only be in place for a term. We're certainly hoping for that at our school.

@pumpkinpie has made a great suggestion. I expect to be in a similar position (DH is in consultation for redundancy so that could solve one problem but introduce a whole number of other problems).

A friends daughter did some babysitting for us and has since finished a levels and is now unemployed. She's desperately applying for stuff but would be very happy to take and collect my DC if she can't find a job.

It's legal to have someone babysit like this for less than two hours a day but quite frankly I wouldn't be worrying about that in the circumstances.

Could you speak to other parents in your DC year groups? For instance one could do morning drop off and maybe you could do afternoon depending on what part of your day would be more flexible?

I don’t think the school would want you to wait around 40 minutes either end of the day for safety reasons.

I'm in the same position. I'm a teacher and have just found out wrap around care for my own kids has been cancelled. I'm really anxious and know what I'm going to do. I'm hoping it might just be until November... god knows.

No idea what to do really.

How ridiculous.

So, you can take your child to a cafe or to shops or on a bus and take fairly flexible precautions down to 1m distance. But children have to stay in bubbles at school and now parents (mostly mothers) will have to consider giving up their jobs to accommodate the school day.

There needs to be a far more sensible approach to this. Regular handwashing sne social distancing as much as possible in schools. Forget staggered start and finish times.

OP, you can absolutely use a student, or a retired person or a rota with other parents. You need to get into problem solving mode.

I've worked full time as a widowed parent since DDs were 4 and 1. Trust me, you need to get creative. Some students drive. Etc

OP you can certainly ask for unpaid parental leave, at least that way you will be able to get back to work when all is settled.

But as others suggested I would have a chat with the school first and think about other school parents help as an option, because if it is a group of you, maybe you can take turns to wait at drop offs pick ups.

I’m worrying about this. My children’s school and my own school (I’m a teacher) have yet to provide their plans. I have no extended family to rely on and there are no childminders only the area, hence why I use wraparound. My only option is to request a period of unpaid absence (have enough savings to take a term unpaid) and hope life is back to normal come January.

Babysitter is a no. My actual children’s school is a 20 minute drive away from my home, half hour in heavy traffic. I moved them from their local school, to this school, specifically for their wraparound. As they only started in September and my children attend the wraparound I don’t know many parents.

I’m sure this will only last a term but working in education and already missing so much, my workload in September has increased, not reduced. I could ask my manager for extended unpaid leave maybe .

Talk to the school. It makes much more sense from an infection control standpoint to stagger pick ups on the basis of parents rather than children. I suspect the school is doing it for their own convenience. Are there any other parents you know in a similar position with whom you can make a joint request to the school??

It's insane. Schools have been told to stagger start/end times so parents aren't all hanging round together, but have also been effectively told social distancing in schools is over - and the adults working in them can lump it, including the vulnerable ones.
Let me think, which is more risky:
Mrs T teaching 6 different classes of 30 children from 4 different year groups in a day (so contact with 180 children, who have each been in lessons with 5 other adults) in a stuffy classroom that isn't big enough for her to be 2m away from them. Plus canteen duty, one staff loo for all staff etc.
OR
A group of parents standing outside a primary school in the fresh air at the same time
Discuss....

Can you speak to the school - they may let all the children come in with the earliest one and go out with the latest one? Definitely worth a try.

@MamanSparkles I am Mrs T! That is EXACTLY my typical day. And then I may pass on anything to my two children, who then go into school into their respective classes ... And it starts all over again!

I am in the ssme position, I have a child due to start school this year. Which has been delayed until November. It will then be staggered start and pick up times, meaning almost a hour to drop off my 2 children and a hour to collect, I have my working day planned to the second, it's now not remotely viable. My husband is the main earner so although would be happy to drop some hours it's really not possible, the only option I see at the moment is to give up my part time job, risky when my husband has only just returned to work after 4 months off unpaid due to his sector being unable to work due to covid restrictions. My part time wage has been all we have had to live on for the last 4 mo tha, I really don't want to have to give it up, if we have another lockdown where my husband is unable to work and I have had to give up my part time job we would be in a awful situation with no money coming in.

Thanks all, yes I will talk to the school and my manager in the first instance . I am not a person who is afraid to solve problems. My work involves complex safeguarding issues, however with four kids, I do feel like something will have to give.

The government must be aware of the consequences for working women. The cynical part of me thinks all the women forced to resign come September will be replaced by newly redundant workers which the government can then spin as economic recovery. Look at all the job vacancies! Britain is booming.

I hope everyone else in similar situations manages to find solutions.

This is madness and I am worried too, only 2 kids mind. I don’t know times yet but broadly I’ve told dh he will have to somehow sort mornings (he works from home) and I’ll see about going in early but leave early. If that’s not possible then I have no idea what we’ll do.

I think it would be quite reasonable to simply state that as you clearly can't wait at the school gates for almost 2 hours every day, you will drop them all at 8.45 and collect them all at 3pm. Sometimes all that is needed is simply to say no.

@motherrunner me too... and I need to be at DDs school for pick up before my last lesson finishes!

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