Contact arrangements?

[m1nniedriver]

So no back story or anything, I'm just wondering if people would mind sharing their contact arrangements if they live a fair distance from DSC school if you both work full time? How do you make it work?

DH has a flexible working arrangement to allow him to collect the children from school on his days. He works longer hours on the other days to make up for it. He takes parental leave on top of annual leave for holiday contact.

We love about an hour away and have them EOW fri-sun

Despite his best efforts, DH was never able to successfully combine long working hours with school runs. I work full time too. We used to have DSS EOW 4pm Thursday, til 6pm Sunday, with a mid-week night on the weeks in between. Having to collect DSS from school at 4pm was a ridiculous arrangement for DH, he should never have committed himself to it. And getting DSS back to school the following day meant DH dropping him off at the bus stop before 7am, so that he could get to work.

To achieve a 4pm pick up, it often meant DH leaving work at 3pm, so once he??d collected DSS, dropping him off at our empty house, he would have to go back to work, make up lost time, and often wouldnt get home til well into the evening, meaning he didnt get any time with DSS. It was really pointless, lots of chasing around, firefighting and stupid logistics, just to have practically no evening time with his son. DSS is now at Uni, I am so glad those days are behind us.

Not filling me with confidence here petal sounds like nightmare!