Who works and does drop off and pick up?!

[Ishkabibbl]

I have a three year old just starting pre-school. I plan to start working more now but how do you manage it when school starts? With school pick ups and drop offs etc?!

I ran successful photography business before having my daughter. I don’t want to return to it for a number of reasons. I have a degree in English.

I would love to hear from anyone that is able to work and do drop off and pick up for their child. What do you do? How did you negotiate the flexitime?

For me it’s after school club. I pick my DD up at 6 and drop her off at school at 08.30. If you don’t have breakfast club or after school club, it is very tricky.

A combination of breakfast and afterschool club.
And school is close enough that if DH or I are WFH we can drop off and still be back on time for a 9am meeting so once a week each we don’t need to use breakfast club.

No way round needing to use the after school club though as the school day finishes so early!

We both work full time. DH drops off every morning before he starts work, I do one pick up a week, he does one a week, my parents do two a week and they go to after school club once a week.

He started and finished early and did pick up, I started late and finished late and did pick up.

We both negotiated WFH contracts before having DS.

Had we been office based I really have no idea how we would have been able to cope as the commuting time would make even breakfast and after school clubs insufficient. I guess one of us would have to have stopped working or at least found a new job with fewer hours.

Carefully managed with dh! He did drop off at 8.40, I did pick up at 5.30. I requested flex hours 8 to 4.30 instead of 9 to 5.30.

And dh stayed 9 to 6.30 - since he was doing so much voluntary overtime they didn’t quibble if he arrived at 9.15

Nowadays I’m wfh and i trained dc2 to cycle, which means i can whizz home from my bike and im back at 8.55 just in time for a 9am start.

We have both always worked full time. One of us did the drops off - as soon as nursery opened and then school breakfast club and the other collected from nursery - usually one of the last to pick up and then after school clubs.
Sometimes one of us had to do both drop offs and collecting, depending on what we had on at work.

We both work full time. I drop off and DH picks up, if for some reason he is late I pick up too as I wfh 5 minutes away.

Both work and both do DO and PU with careful planning and a list!! We use breakfast clubs and asc 3 days per week and juggle the rest with some spreading of hours. Luckily both hybrid so it works. But if we both worked further away office based all week we couldn’t manage as we don’t have family support close enough.

it’s hard but doable.

I have three kids - DD1 is 12, DD2 is 5 and DS is 2.

DD1 walks to school and back. She can let herself in if we’re out.

Monday is my NWD so I’ll ignore that.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, DH drops DD2 at breakfast club at 7:45 and then DS at nursery for 8am. The nursery do an after school club with a taxi service so they pick up DD2. DH then picks up both children at 6pm from nursery.

Wednesdays and Fridays, I drop DD2 at school and I’m home by 8:55. My mum picks up DS at 9. I pick up DD2 3-3:30 using my lunch break and then DH collects DS from my mum’s at 5:30.

It’s chaos and my working days are long on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we have more childcare hours. DH has to be in the office 5 days a week whereas I am able to manage where I work most of the time.

We did breakfast club every day at school, then a mix of after school club and parent tag team.

Until my recent redundancy I worked nights. My husband would get the kids ready before going to work himself while I had a little nap then I'd do drop off and go back to sleep until pick up time. We found 1 of us doing nights and 1 doing days worked wonderfully as we never needed childcare and could attend all school events.

I work from home so do drop offs but have a childminder for after school and if I do have to travel I can drop her at 7am at the childminders.

I'm self-employed and work pt hours. I do all drop offs and pick ups. DCs sometimes do after school activities but it's based on their own interests rather than needing childcare. I get my work done during the school day and some days I work after they've gone to bed. It's flexible and I can choose not to work during school holidays, though sometimes they want to do an activity camp so I'll get some work done then.

Husband works 9-5 so does drop off at 8:40am.

I work 7-3 so pick up at 3:15pm

My dc goes to breakfast club for 1 hour at 7:30am and after school wrap around for 1 hour until 4:15.

Once a week dc stays until 5:15.

I do drops offs and DH does pickups. it is a challenge especially when i have to go into the office or start early but we have manage to make it work.

We both work full time. My DH has always had a 'big' job so I have done the majority of childcare organisation.
The primary school years have been the hardest to navigate - I am just coming out of them now.
We hired a wrap-around nanny for 3 years (no local grandparents) and then used breakfast club and after-school club.

Fortunately over the last 3 years I have had a lovely manager and an uber flexible job - hybrid working so have been able to manage pretty well. Have just got a promotion where I will need to be in the office more

Now my DC will get themselves to and from secondary school and be by themselves for about an hour most days

DD older now but when younger she was with an AM childminder and I changed my hours to be able to do pick up at 3.15. Before lockdown was in office four days a week so had a 2.45 finish and a tight journey to school. Holiday clubs most of the school breaks. DH very rarely did any pick ups or drop offs. Always had a long commute and an early start conveniently - he still does now though and school run days are long behind us so not sure it was just to avoid them! I was in my role a long time and they were brilliant with flexibility - I don't think I would have found a new role willing to do the hours I had. I still do them now but I was always flexible back and would work at night whenever needed.

ETA - junior school had a lot of clubs after school which were a god send - she did gymnastics, football, drama, choir etc so I had a bit more flexibility at pick up

We both work full time, and it is a juggle.
•Breakfast club on my three office days.
• I can drop them off on my two wfh days as school is 250m away.
•I also pick them up those two days and then carry on working as they’re 10 and 8 unless I have external or sensitive meetings and then I book them into ASC.
• After school on my office days is
-one early finish for DH so he gets them at 3.15
-one ASC which is our flexible day to then work late if we need to as we both start at 8.
-Lastly, one day of clubs that finish at 4.30.
We have an extensive range of clubs at our school, we’re really lucky! Chess, STEM, skateboarding, comedy, football, about 12-15 options

Dh works full.time but I teach part time 9am til 230 so I do all drop offs and pick ups. We used to use after school club when I worked til 5pm but dc hated it.

Part time so 2 days off. Shortened lunch go start at 9.30 and take 30 minute lunch.

after school club for a couple of days and dad picks up one day.

For us it was a combination. I'd (Dad) generally take her to school because it wasn't far from work so could still get there for 9. DP would pick her up three days a week, and my Mum would pick her up the other two.

We’ve had a few different ways of managing it over the years but the easiest was probably when they were in breakfast and after school club, DH went into work early so I did drop off, and I worked later so DH did pick up.

Breakfast and afterschool club was not available in preschool at my child’s infant school.

we are starting both from reception in September, however I would still say 6pm is quite tight when commuting from London as in our case. We rely heavily on me working from home 3 days a week and have GP help in the day we are in office.

it does make me angry that the provision for working parents is so poor in the UK. We need better and cheaper childcare for the school holidays, wraparound and people who work shifts.