How do you combine work and school pick-ups?

[nifaitniafaire]

We're about to move and the 2 potential schools DS1 may go to have clubs after school but not "after school clubs" i.e, at 3pm I can put him down for 45min activities but that's it, whereas in the current school it's basically childcare until 6pm.

What do people do in this situation? Do you finish work early? Do you have a childminder? I only work 2 days a week, am self-employed and don't earn much (i.e., I just about break even) and don't have any family that could help, nor will I have friends since I'm moving to a new area.

I don't know what to do, finishing work at 2.15pm or 3.15 (if I find a club) to be there at pick up really cuts my day short and seems a waste since I'm going to be paying for DS2 to be at nursery. Really it means I'll be able to work even less and therefore earn even less!

How do people do it? Sometimes, I feel it's pointless trying to have a career, I should just be a SAHM at least I wouldn't have any outgoings attached to being self-employed! Aaaaargh!

Childminder! DD starts school in 2015 and I've already put my name down for a local childminder. I've heard they get booked up once the parents start looking at schools. Have to admit it must be a bit of a nightmare moving house though. I'm also planning to move in 2016 but not very far. I'm planning to keep DD in the same school and worry about that later.

I used a childminder for my 2 days. Ds went to the school nursery and dd was at school.

Could DS2 do five half days instead? Then you could work until 1pm on those days. Or, is there a playgroup where you are moving to? At 2.5 DD could do playgroup 3 (school hours) days a week. It only cost about £17.

We have excellent after school care but on days I work from home I usually pick ds1 up at 3.15 and then carry on working once they're in bed, so I do c6hrs work 9-3 and then 2-3hrs after 7pm, that works for me as I'd rather pick him up on days I can. If you're self employed can you do similar?

Combination of childminder, my mum and shorter working hours.

We would have to use a childminder which makes it currently not cost effective to work. :(

Have you checked out if there is a local out of school club? That is, one not actually attached to the school but which will drop off/pick up from there? We have one like that near us. it used to be part of one of the schools but had to move out and now operates out of a nearby hall. The local authority might have such clubs registered if there are any?

I use a childminder for the after school hours. We pay her for 3 hours but only use actually 1 1/2 unless DH is working away on business.

Expensive but it gives us lot of flexibility.

In your case I would try to change your LO's nursery hours to 5 mornings so you could work 4 solid hours each day instead of fiddling around.

Also, not all after-school clubs are open to Reception children. In our school only from Summer term onwards they could join in.

We used a combination of afterschool clubs (oversubscribed and places allocated by ballot and they were only until 4.30pm), afterschool care run offsite which would only pickup at the official end of the school day (so useless when one child had school swimming which returned to school grounds 20 minutes after the official end of school), playdate-style favours from other harassed working parents and various wheezes such as taking my lunchbreak at about 3pm and returning to work at 6pm when DH returned from work. No childminders would collect from our school as parking was a nightmare (large school at the end of a narrow cul-de-sac). In the end, it was not worth the stress and once I had 2 DC at primary I stopped working.

I am now back working as new school has flexible, wraparound care on site. Sadly this was my main reason for choosing it over other, more "desirable", schools.

I work 4 days, so from sept ds will be doing before school club and childminder for pick up

Childminder, but there are other options too.
Do out of school care pick up from the school and take elsewhere ? - There are many that do this. They don't work on the school premises, but do pick up from the school and transport / walk them to the club.
Local Nurseries will often pick up, up until the dc get to 8.

What about your work - are there possible ways of changing your hours - 4 mornings rather than 2 days, or doing a proportion of your work at home in the evenings ? Let your little one go to Nursery each morning rather than 2 full days?

Or can your dh be more flexible with his hours and do the pick ups on those 2 days?

Do bear in mind those after school clubs run until 4.30pm are often run as enrichment clubs by school staff and are likely to be cancelled if the teacher is off sick/on a course and often don't run all year. They cannot be seen as childcare.
Whilst I see parents problems with childcare (been there, got the teeshirt ) I get very frustrated with children signed up for my clubs who have no interest in the subject, but take places from those really interested in it as the parents want the free childcare.

It's difficult when you have one child at school and one at nursery - I remember that phase well. Dp and I both work four days a week, and were torn between trying to arrange our hours around the child at school (e.g. five short days) or around the child at nursery (i.e. three long days).

In your situation, as you're self-employed, I'd definitely see if you can change your child at nursery's hours, so you have more time when they're both at school or nursery. If your younger child was able to do four mornings at nursery, you could fit your two days' worth of work into that time, be able to pick your older child up from school every day, and still have one day a week at home with the younger one. Would that be possible?