Should I cancel afterschool club?

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Daisydiary · 31/03/2025 19:26

I would! And presumably school will see a drop off in others using the service too if it’s so pricy!

BoleynMemories13 · 31/03/2025 19:38

Sounds like a no brainer. No point paying astronomical fees for childcare if you work from home and can be flexible with your hours.

calishire · 31/03/2025 19:53

Sounds like a good plan and you only needed an hour to begin with previously?

JustMarriedBecca · 31/03/2025 22:32

My work wouldn't let me do this. I have to demonstrate childcare whilst WFH

BoleynMemories13 · 01/04/2025 06:47

JustMarriedBecca · 31/03/2025 22:32

My work wouldn't let me do this. I have to demonstrate childcare whilst WFH

OP didn't say they plan to work while looking after the children, they said their hours are flexible so they're considering booking them in to breakfast club, which will be cheaper, so they can start work earlier, and finishing up 'later in the day' (presumably when their partner has finished work, or even when the children are in bed).

Obviously this set up isn't possible for everyone, but for anyone who's allowed to be flexible with their work hours I think it would be silly to play out steep wraparound care prices when you can just tweak your work hours to fit around the children.

BendingSpoons · 01/04/2025 07:13

It sounds stressful constantly juggling. Could you put them in say 2 days so you know those days are clear?

MoanasTummy · 01/04/2025 07:14

Do you use tax-free childcare to help with the costs?

Hoggyhoghog · 01/04/2025 07:17

Depends. Do they enjoy it? Can you afford it?

MotherOfCrocodiles · 01/04/2025 07:21

It’s a money vs hassle trade off so it depends how much you need to save the money

Would your DH do the broken up hours half the time or is it going to mean you working every evening whilst he chills? If the latter you will end up resenting it.

Araminta1003 · 01/04/2025 07:21

Instead of going 1 hour a day, I would probably book both in from September to go the full 2 hours 2 days a week and work late on those days? And pick up earlier on other days. That is what we did with our afterschool club which was always a flat rate until 6pm.

justmeandmyselfandi · 01/04/2025 07:23

That sounds like a good plan. Do you know any other parents? Maybe you could take turns? A few may now have a similar issue

Talipesmum · 01/04/2025 07:28

No I wouldn’t. You’ll need to make the time up later and it’ll just make your days drag on. If you can do it with earlier starts and breakfast club then maybe but that wouldn’t work for me personally because I am worse in the mornings and also my global team is more WH based so the afternoons are peak busy time. But obviously those last two may well be quite different for you!

DeafLeppard · 01/04/2025 07:37

I couldn’t work like this, it would do me in. At the very least I would book a couple of full days and wouldn’t try to wing it for the whole week. I’d madly resent having to do hours in the evening.

Also, our workplace would want to see evidence of childcare - I know yours said they won’t, but nothing stays the same for ever.

What does your DH think? Is he going to be finishing early as well and working later? Or is he merrily carrying on, assuming childcare isn’t his problem?

SheilaFentiman · 01/04/2025 07:43

If you have just started the new job, are you sure it is as flexible as they say on paper? I had a colleague who used to get in at 7am but people still thought he was leaving a bit early if he headed off before 5, even though he was in 2h before everyone else.

Original poster

ifyoulike2025 · 01/04/2025 08:00

Morning!

To answer a few questions - core hours will never change in this role so that's not a problem. There is the odd meeting where it is later than 330pm but as a global team most meetings are scheduled for lunch/early afternoon to accommodate as many timezones as possible. I could also block my diary for pickup time if needed. When I say there are no core hours - literally that. There's 4ish meetings a week scheduled for daytimes but other than that they don't care about what hours you are doing as long as the job is done.

If I worked 'intensely' in school hours I wouldn't need to log on and do hours outside of that, especially if we booked breakfast club.

DH is self employed so can set his own schedule so could (& would) pick up a couple hours after school here and there if needed.

Can we afford it? Yes, but I am trying hard to sort my pension out (part time and silly decisions when I was younger means it's not great vs. my age) and putting an extra £200-300 into that monthly feels like a much better use of the money!

They'd still do holiday clubs but I would probably be able to reduce the amount of time in those too if the new arrangement worked!

I think putting them in a couple days a week is a good idea - DS7 does afterschool sports clubs 2x a week so I could always put DS4 into afterschool club those days to give me a couple of afternoons which aren't as time sensitive...

OP posts:

Talipesmum · 01/04/2025 08:21

ifyoulike2025 · 01/04/2025 08:00

Morning!

To answer a few questions - core hours will never change in this role so that's not a problem. There is the odd meeting where it is later than 330pm but as a global team most meetings are scheduled for lunch/early afternoon to accommodate as many timezones as possible. I could also block my diary for pickup time if needed. When I say there are no core hours - literally that. There's 4ish meetings a week scheduled for daytimes but other than that they don't care about what hours you are doing as long as the job is done.

If I worked 'intensely' in school hours I wouldn't need to log on and do hours outside of that, especially if we booked breakfast club.

DH is self employed so can set his own schedule so could (& would) pick up a couple hours after school here and there if needed.

Can we afford it? Yes, but I am trying hard to sort my pension out (part time and silly decisions when I was younger means it's not great vs. my age) and putting an extra £200-300 into that monthly feels like a much better use of the money!

They'd still do holiday clubs but I would probably be able to reduce the amount of time in those too if the new arrangement worked!

I think putting them in a couple days a week is a good idea - DS7 does afterschool sports clubs 2x a week so I could always put DS4 into afterschool club those days to give me a couple of afternoons which aren't as time sensitive...

Sounds like a good plan then!

5gymbabe · 18/08/2025 19:18

ifyoulike2025 · 31/03/2025 19:24

I have 2 DC - 1 in year 3 and 1 in the preschool. Currently they both go to the school ran afterschool club 4 days per week (mostly for 'half sessions' eg 1 hour and sometimes for 'full' eg 2 hours).

The school announced last week they are outsourcing the afterschool club from next term - this is good in one sense (more activities available for the older children) but bad for 2 reasons - 1. it's much more expensive (you can only book for the full 2 hours, so the cost is nearly 3x current price when im able to book half) and they arent insured to take nursery age children (DS4 will join reception in september so its only between now and summer hols that he cant go). the school are seeing if they can do anything to accommodate nursery until then, but currently no guaranteed.

the monthly cost of them both going even from september is obviously much higher, given the change in price.

I'm debating pulling them out (other than the 2x extra curricular clubs DS7 does). DH & I both work full time, but completely from home and relatively flexible. I just started a new job and it's 'no core hours' due to a global team so I figured maybe get them in breakfast club instead (this is still school run), start a little earlier and then just finish up whatever is needed later in the day. It would mean no calls ideally but the odd one DH should be able to block his diary for.

WDYT? Is this completely unmanageable?

Just to say if they are not insured to take nursery age there will be no 'workaround or solution' imagine if something happened