What will you do about work with the schools being part time?

[Mo81]

Just that really. I am currently on mat leave. Whilst ive been on mat leave my dh has started a new job which he needs to be very flexible. It means i can go back to work less hours.
With the current situation i was wondering how other people are going to manage childcare and work when the kids will need home schooled aswell.
I realise alot of people have lost jobs and im lucky to have one although i dont know were as my current work place is closed (nhs community hospital ) and not sure if or when it will reopen. Some of my friends have had to reduce hours or leave jobs.
Im just trying to get ideas for when i go back. No local family support and childcate limited due to rural area.

There are a lot of threads on this already, but the basic options are:

• childminder
• nanny or nanny share
• someone doing a nanny role - e.g. a student or a cleaner - more of a babysitter situation.
• au pair
• some kind of out of school club
• share childcare with friends
• family

For people whose situation means none of those options are possible they are going to be forced to give up their jobs/take unpaid leave/ leave their children at home alone/make one of those situations work.

I would imagine informal babysitter or share with friends would be the options suitable for the highest number of people.

I'm worried. My mum is a teacher so she can watch ds 12 during the summer when I reopen my cafe eventually. I don't know what to do in September. He won't do school work unless I stand over him, so part time school makes it hard for me to make sure he is learning sufficiently for the rest of the time. I also really don't like leaving him for hours and hours on end alone at home while I work.

If you are NHS, I assume you are a key worker? Your school age child should have a childcare place at school (presumably even on days they are not 'doing school'). And then you use same childcare after school as always. For nursery, nurseries are open, so you use a nursery place for your baby.

Otherwise, if you are doing office based work and can work from home, you keep your school age one home with you while you work and shove them in front of the tv all day.

I've been working full time from home since mid-March with a nursery age one and one in primary school. My toddler is now back to nursery as of this month, but my school age one watches YouTube half the day and the other half she does the work I set for her. And I work. Dh can't work from home unfortunately, but at least I can.

Not all nurseries are open! Ours isn't yet. I'm also on mat leave and due back at work in three weeks. I'm not sure what the heck I'm going to do if the nursery isn't open by then! I'm also freaking out... I can't work around a three year old and one year old!

DS is 14 months and didn’t quite make it to starting nursery before all this started. I can work from home luckily and DH is going out to work but his manager is allowing him to be at home unpaid one day a week to help me. basically i work before he wakes and when he naps / goes to bed just doing anything which is absolutely essential, do telecons with him squealing in the background etc. I shut myself away on the day DH is at home. I’ve taken some leave here and there.
We both lie in a dark room on a weekend 🤣
My boss has been really relaxed about it all - so long as the priority work is done nothing else really matters.

Yeh, my husband and I are BOTH key workers and our 1 year old hasn't been to nursery since March - it closed and won't be reopening until at least July! It varies place to place. Trouble is, although some are open, many of them aren't taking on any new kids right now as need to limit numbers, or else have been taking on new kids and have a waiting list from the nurseries that are closed!

Thanks ladies. I cant use the key worker service at the school as my son is astmatic no nerserys are taking on . Me and dh are both key workers. And the local childminder workes 8 till 6 so none of them are an option. No family help i think my only optionis to reduce to 2 days when dh is offf and hope my work will agree .