What hours do you work with nursery/school age children?

[CharlieMM1]

Just that really.

Two kids one in nursery and one in primary. So far we have got through with grandparents mainly, but it would be interesting to hear what others do and what works well. Finish latest for both of them is 4.30.

I work 3 days, I work for myself but this is my usual pattern on my working days.

8-5 (Dad does the morning, friend does 3-5)
9-3 (I do drop off and pick up)
9-6 (I do drop off grandparents pick up)

If I’m honest setting up my own business was the best thing I’ve ever done in terms of flexibility and career growth 😂

I have one in nursery and currently work 9-5, 3 days a week. When he starts school, I’m hoping to keep the same number of hours, but across 4 days so I finish around 2:30 and can do pick up and after school care most days.

I work full time. When at nursery I dropped DC at 8 am, went straight to work & picked DC up at 5.30pm on way home.

Now DC is at school, me/DH drop at school at 8.40 depending on who has most flexibility that day & one of us picks us at 5.30pm from after school club (£11 from 3.25 - 5.45).

I work from home 8-5:30 tues-Fri with a 3 year old, time for morning school runs in factored into my work hours. I get him ready for school by 8 so I can start work while he has breakfast. I pop out for 15 mins to drop him off by 8:45, he’s half day in school at the moment (morning only) so a local private nursery collects him from school at 11:30 and he stays there until I finish at 5:30. This is only 3 days a week luckily as I’m off on Monday and his grandmother looks after him on Friday so he only attends school from 8:45 - 11:30 on those days.

Edited to add that we have another on the way and they will need to attend nursery Tues-Thurs. We’re figuring it out as we go along for the most part!

I work full time. School is 8:45 - 3:15. Nursery is anything between 8am and 6pm.

I’m in my office three days a week. Two days at home. DH is in his office a couple of days a month. We usually just make it work between us (both work in quite relaxed, flexible places). DD1 goes to after school club once a week and sometimes to breakfast club if he’s in the office and I’m doing all the drop offs.

I work flexibly so I can make up hours as necessary. Today I worked 8:50-3:50 and then picked up again from 4:45 until six.

I work 22.5 hours a week, I spread the hours out so I work school hours.

How much are grandparents doing? My oldest is 11 in year 7 and I know three grandmothers who agreed to childcare as a baby when mum went back to work and a decade later there still doing before and afterschool care. All of them are tired and resentful. I would personally make sure you manage most of it yourself in the long term.

Full time 37 hours now
9-4 Mon & Tues WFH
9-5.30 -Weds-Fri office

DD is Y1 and is at school 9-16:30 Mon & Tues and 7:45-17:30 Weds-Fri.

When she was at nursery she did 07:30-18:00 Tues-Fri and I had Monday’s off.
Her dad and I do 50/50 pick ups and drop offs.

I do a full week (37.5 hours) spread over 4.5 days so I have an afternoon off with DS (2). I work 8.50-5.40 on my 4 full days, drop him at 8.30. DH works roughly 7-3.30 and picks DS up at 4.30 on regular days.

DH 9-6 x 5 days
Me 9-6 x 5 days

In reality we flex slightly
work until 5 one day a weel so does he (this enables pick ups) then we work between 8-10pm a few days a week. Sometimes a few hours on the weekend.

4 days, 28 hrs!

This is so hard!

It boggles my mind how people make this work.

No wraparound, no after school clubs, no grandparents and a nursery & school that's finishes at 3pm. So I can work from 9.15 till 2.30.
Enter the school holidays with very limited holiday clubs one too young to go,one with additional needs that cant access them, one getting too old to feel they are suitable.
Its impossible.
Self employed is the only way remotely possible.

Drop off at 8, pick up at 2:45, work every minute in between and some late meetings/catch up once bedtime is done and during after-school activities. So envious of all who have family nearby or reliable help! Only have one child, grieving that I won't have more, so its worth it for me to have the time with them, although I'd love the extra money/security/faster progression if I had an f/t role.

I did a mix of 3-4 days a week with 2-3 of those days being 6am-7/8pm including commute time and 1 day wfh 9-5, and also 5 days a week roughly 9-3:30 most days, with the occasional 9-5/6pm or 6am-7/8pm (but not every month).

We used nursery 9-5 when nursery age, but no wraparound care as our school didn’t offer it. Dh and I did the school runs ourselves and traded off afternoons depending on who needed to work. We’ve never had any family help.

So when I was doing 6am-7/8pm 3 days a week, Dh did 9-5 ish and drop off/collect from nursery or 9-3 once eldest was in school. Then Dh would work probably 8/9am to 6pm on the other 2 days a week.

9-5. I do drop offs, DH finishes at 4.30 so he picks up at 5.

I work x3 13hour shifts over 7 days, they vary each week, but I get my rota 6 weeks in advance. One week a month I work x3 12 hour night shifts

When I’m on days DP drops the kids to school, if he WFH (he does twice a week) he will pick them up, if we are both working my mum or a school mum will collect them for me.

If I’m on nights I will drop them off at school before I go to bed and then get about 5 hours sleep and collect them again.

One in nursery, one at primary.
We both work a 9 day fortnight.

Nursery child does four days. One Friday with DH, one with MIL.
primary child can’t do after school club.
Monday - DH wfh so collects him at 3:15 and puts him in front of tv while he works
Tuesday - both in the office so he does a play date and I leave work at 4:30 to pick them both up at 6
wednesday - I WFH and son does a hobby club at school, I collect at 4:30
Thursday - DH WFH and picks up at 3:15
friday - either DH or MIL around and I do 7:30-3:30 so I am finished in time for to host my son and two friends for a play date.

It’s exhausting. We manage because we can both wfh and are relatively senior and able to manage our own diaries to enable pick up. We both get generous dependents leave to manage sickness

Full-time as a teacher. 3 DC, the oldest two go to my school, baby in nursery.
DC at school with me from 7:30-4ish
Once a week I have a meeting until 5pm
Home by 4:30pm most days
DH does nursery drop off and pick up, baby is there from 8-4 approx

I’m happy with those hours but it’s very unrelenting. I get all the school holidays with them.

I moved house to make sure we could access a school with wraparound. It was non negotiable for us.

For nursery did a 25 min each way drive to access all year round 7.30-6 provision as have no local family help. My career was important so I had those things sorted before even trying to get pregnant.

Even in our very rural area there is actually very good provision for working parents. And I chose an employer with good annual leave allowances, I get 38 days plus Bank Hols
so rarely need holiday clubs, maybe a couple of days but not many.

We moved too and made sure good childcare options were there. We also built a annexe for a grandparent to live in for some support.

Then covid happened two nurseries shut and the school wouldn't do wraparound although they promise it every year.

The grandparent decided to only do childcare for my sibling instead.

Best laid plans and all that 🫠

Kids aged 10, 8 and 3.

I work Tuesdays 9am-8pm
Wednesday 9am-8pm (sometimes straight through except for half an hour!!)
Thursdays 9-5
Saturdays 11-5:30
and on average one evening a week

I’m a singer and singing teacher so things vary a lot.

I feel terribly guilty not seeing the kids on Tuesdays or Wednesdays but if they didn’t have to do after school club I’d feel less guilty. DD doing 3 days at nursery makes me feel bad because her brothers only ever did 2 days - I was a SAHM then though!

DH WFH most of the time and I’m term time only. He has a Big Job and mainly manages to keep travel only to the school holidays. Next week though he’s away so I will only be able to work until 5 on Tues and weds so I can get the kids. Luckily my job is very low stakes and flexible! Love it so much.

I work full time over 4 days. 1 in nursery and 1 in school.
My Dh works 8-5 and Saturday mornings.
My DS does 3 long days at nursery (7.30-5.30). We have grandparents on the other day. My DD does after school club until 5.30 2 x days a week.
I work:

Mon 7-3.30 so I can take DD to dance after school.
Tues 7 - 5.30 DH drops and picks DS up from nursery
Weds 7 - 5.30 grandparents have DS then pick DD up from school
Thurs 7-5.30 same as a Tues
Friday - my day off so I do school run and take DS to playgroup.

I WFH so when my DH leaves at 7.30 with DS, DD watches cbeebies until I take her to school at 8.30. I don't feel great about this but it's the only screen time she has and it's only ever cbeebies.
If I don't make the 37 hours I log on after bed time (quite often).
It's really hard and I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel.

I worked 3 full days when they were at nursery. When eldest started school I used my lunch break to pick her up and come home. I wfh mainly but boss was the one who suggested I don’t use after school care.

I tried to keep it to 3 days when youngest started school. It didn’t work, she was an absolute pest and then the kids were arguing and it was just stressful. I was also bored having 2 full days off. So I switched to 4 short days 8.45-2.45 and an earlier finish on a Friday. I do 3 full days when the kids are off school on holiday so I can book them into holiday club and get 2 days off during the week with them. It works perfectly. I do all drop offs and pick ups. I can take them to whatever after school clubs they have, do homework and get dinner sorted.

Easier to say we've used nursery and grandparents for 1 day. Then when at primary it was a mix for DH doing shift work so he could do some drop off and pick ups. Also heavily used breakfast and afterschool clubs. School holidays are grandparents, holiday clubs, annual leave and DH days off in the week.I work 4 days a week in the office and dh does shift work for retail distribution so no wfh for any of us.

DH: 7-3 (out the house 6-4)
Me: 8-6 + 8-11 Saturdays (10 min commute)

We use a childminder. I drop off at 7:30/7:45 and DH picks up at 4:30.