My kids are going to public school this year for the first time. Up till now, they’ve gone to a tiny private school and were picked up and dropped off by their dad. This year, their dad is not available to provide this service, and I can no longer afford the private school. Not to bore you with the details…this year they’ll go to different schools with different hours and no after-school programs, and I’m trying to come up with some solution to what they’ll do while I work from 8 to 5. I don’t seem able to think very creatively about this, so I decided to just take a poll.
How are your kids cared for when you work earlier or later than their school hours?
My wife is a stay-at-home-mom. While this means I don’t suffer from the problem you describe, she’s well-known for helping others out by taking in their kids, usually for much much cheaper than your standard day-care. You might check with friends to see if you can find one of those.
Well, it depends on the ages of your kids, for one. Mine is 14 so he doesn’t require supervision.
Before that, there were several day care placess in the area that I would drop him off at in the morning, they’d take him to school, pick him up from school, and then he’d get picked up by me back at the day care after work.
We’ve also utilized neighbors who were home with their own kids (we paid them of course), as well as adjusting our work hours so that we could be there if needed.
Our town has many daycares with after school programs for school-aged kids. The one my son attends now serves all three primary schools and the intermediate school as well and provides transportation both ways so that it even works for parents who go to work really early. The YMCA also does this and so do some other centers. The daycare he attended from infancy through this past June served the primary school across the street and walked kids back and forth. The Y is also onsite at the primary, elementary and even middle school for after school supervision. The Y and most of these centers that provide after school care also become day camps in the summer. I was so nervous about kindergarten but came to realize my options were many.
That’s exactly what my mum did with me. When I was about 10 to 11 I used to stay at a neighbours after school. She had kids of her own and was really nice. But she’d barely took any money at all for it. She refused to. My mum felt guilty about that, and always ended up saying to me “If she offers to take you to McDonalds say NO.”
When I was about 6 I had a child minder. I hated her. The woman was horrible.
My son starts Kindergarten this year. My daughter will start next year.
At least for the next year - and possibly two, they will be in the same daycare they have been in since infancy. The daycare drops off and picks up from school. Our district offers an after school program, but only for full day kids (my son will do half day Kindergarten) and I like having them in the same place.
In two years (maybe next year if we decide to try all day Kindergarten) we may switch to the district program that is significantly cheaper.
My brothers attended an attached “after school” program.
Well he’s 17 now so he gets himself from school to work and home again.
However as a child and adolescent, most of the time we were able to adjust our work schedule. Now and then we went through brief periods where we used Grandma and in grades four and five he attended and on site afterschool program administered by the Y.M.C.A.
My kids are going to be in second grade and in seventh. Didn’t mean to leave that out!
I will check the day care centers, though the girl child is probably too old.
A word of warning…you may be shocked to see how much it costs to put kids in daycare. I used to work for Johnson and Johnson and had some friends that used the daycare locally to keep the kids while they finished work. In once case the lady paid out about 50% of her check to keep the kid there, almost not worth working at that point.
LilMiss goes to before/after daycare through her school district. It’s right in her elementary school. She used to go to a regular daycare facility which bused her to school/picked her up. Most facilities do have before/after school available, since (at least in Minnesota) kids aren’t to be left home alone before the age of 12.
Bongmaster is right about the costs. They can get pricey. Going part time (on the days when I telecommute from home I take her to/from school) I pay $200 per month. She’s there a total of maybe 4 hours/day, 2 or 3 days/week. If costs are painful, contact your county about possible daycare assistance. Your county should also have daycare referrals. If you can, talk to parents in your kids classes and ask where they send their kids. If you go with a home daycare situation, you do need to interview the prospective provider. One provider that was referred to me by my county was a bit…erm… weird.
We’ve had different arrangements. As babies they were with a home daycare provider, who has been like a grandma to them both. When she retired we went with another provider who runs a somewhat more businesslike daycare out of her home. This was good for my kids, since they were older toddlers by then and liked the livelier atmosphere. Then it was preschool–there is a great one right across the street from us. Next year they will both be together at the same elementary school, in kindergarten and second grade. My daughter was in the onsite before/after school program there and it was great (and free). We’re crossing our fingers that they are both accepted into that program again, but the demand is greater than the supply.
During the summers, my daughter has been a “junior helper” at the daycare and preschool–they are each licensed to have a couple of older siblings or teacher’s kids during the summers. I don’t think we’ll be able to do that next year, though, so we are starting to explore the various “summer camp” programs.
Considering the fact that a large percentage of families need at least part-time care, there is a real shortage–particularly of good summertime and afterschool options for older kids.
It’s also hard to cover all the downtime from school. I get less than three weeks a year of leave, as does my husband, and between us we have to cover Christmas and Spring vacations, teacher development days, and whatever else comes up. For example, the schools here closed for a week during the big wildfires last year, just due to air quality concerns. We weren’t anywhere near the actual fires. It’s going to be a long time before we can really go on a family vacation. There really isn’t anything time left for the summer.
Do you have flex time? I had a crisis where the neighbors who used to help out could not longer do so. The solution was for me to work from 6 am to 2 pm (eating lunch at my desk). Before school, my son’s dad would get him ready for school and onto the bus. Then I would be home in time for the bus arriving home.
At the time it seemed like starting at 6 am was totally insance, but actually it worked out really well, once I got used to going to bed really early. There was always a parent at home to take care of things.
This is slightly off-topic but I hope you’ll be tolerant. The toughest times for me were when my daughters were too old for KinderCare and too young to stay home alone, especially together since they would probably have killed each other. And there was no after-school program for that age group either.
So that August as I was pondering this issue, one night I had a dream. Libyan terrorists kidnapped my children! Of course I was horribly upset, and then the kidnappers contacted me and told me I could have them back, with limitations, and at a price. I would henceforth have to pay the Libyans $50 a week for the privilege of having my “babies” back after 6 p.m. and on weekends.
Just a reminder to those parents lucky enough to have daycare options that provide transportation to school, appreciate it!
As a single parent, daycare has been my biggest expense for the last ten years. I’m a shift worker, starting either at six a.m. or working overnight, so licensed daycare has never been an option for me. The single 24 day care within fifty miles doesn’t do school transportation, so they’re pretty much only useful for infants or summer care.
I’ve always used a SAHM, friends or relatives, and I pay something like half what ‘real’ daycare would run if it were compatible with my needs, currently $175 weekly. Any friends they have in the neighborhood who’s parent might be willing to help out?
Meh, When I was in 1st grade my Mom would just let me stay in the house unsupervised. I got home at 3:30 she got home at 5:30 or 6:00. I managed to keep from burning the house down.
However I’m not sure if that kind of thing would fly in this day and age…
Actually, the second grader is on a waiting list for his after-school program, and the middle school says they are going to have a program in a month or so. The sucky part is how different their school hours are! If the schools were trying to make things difficult for parents to work, they couldn’t have done a better job.
I appreciate all the advice, and if anyone still wants to add to this thread, go for it. I’m very nosy about how y’all live!
Isn’t the 7th grader (12ish?) old enough to care for the 2nd grader (7ish?) for a few hours each day?
Even if you have to get care for the younger one because of earlier dismissal times, you really don’t need to pay a caregiver for a 12 year old. Or do you?
Around here young girls start being mothers helpers at 10-11. (Helping care for kids while mom is there but busy with something else.) At 12 or so several of them have had a babysitting course and are sitting kids for several hours on Saturdays or a few hours on week end evenings.
My first babysitting job I was 11 in charge of 5 between the ages of 7 years and 8 months. I was babysitting these five regularly by the time I was 12 and through my middle school age years.
Oh gee, this will be embarrassing… :o
The twelve and seven year old fight like cats and dogs. I don’t know why the twelve year old sees the seven year old as being on the same developmental level as herself, but evidently she does and he’s more than willing to aggravate the piss out of his big sister. That said, I would still consider letting her look out for them for a couple of hours, if they had a place to do it. That brings me to the next embarrassing part…
No bus service to my house because I live on the crappy side of town and used a friend’s address to get the kids into the good schools far away from me. The older child gets done at 3:30 in the afternoon, so if I were to leave work, get them and take them somewhere, it would be after four by the time I returned to work. Hardly worth coming back then.
It looks as though I’ll have to find a day care center that includes transportation.
Ain’t that the truth! My friend has her four-year-old in daycare twice a week. The charge: $400/mo.
Some companies offer help in this department. My sister got $300/mo toward childcare. You may want to check into it. Any way you slice it, childcare is costly.