Balancing school/camp dropoff with getting to work on time
Apologies if this question has been asked a thousand times, but I'd love to hear from other parents to get some ideas on how they make it work.
A new job requires that I get into work for 9:30 and it takes 1.5-2 hours to get there given morning traffic. I would have to leave home at 7:15/7:30 to ensure I get there on time. My 5 year old son's school/camp's earliest dropoff is 8am. My wife works as well but she needs to leave around the same time as me.
I'm curious to hear what others have done to make it work. Do you hire nannies/sitters to drive them in the morning to get to school? and pickup at the end of the day? Or do you use another service?
This system doesn't set up the parents for success if they're both working! Tell me how you magically do it! thank you!
Parent Replies
This is so hard. Friends have done the following:
** Hire a college student or sitter who does morning care (get them ready and to school) == This can be great but can also be unreliable. We've had periods of instability when the sitter decided to quit with little notice or when the sitter calls in sick.
** Hire a morning/afternoon care team person from the child's school who will swing by to pick up the kid on their way to school or stay with the kid/bring the kid home after the school care ends. (We asked the school's aftercare people if anyone could help and be interested in making a fully hourly rate for the ride.)
** Make friends with classmates / school community members so that you can do a trade. They help with morning and you give them relief in the afternoon/evening/weekend.
** Pay classmates/school community families for regular morning help
** Pre-covid -- we've also used a ride service (kind of like Uber for kids)
I'm sorry ... this doesn't help but it would be so helpful if your work could be a bit more flexible and allow you to come to work by 10.
Honestly, a 2 hour commute each way is insanity. You should move if this job is really worthy of 4 hours in the car each day. Otherwise, yes, a nanny. Your kid doesn’t just need to be picked up but will need someone to stay at home with them while they are waiting for you to get home not to mention afterschool activities.
Hi Jelleo--
This is an amazing opportunity to get to know neighbors! If there are retirees who have time and whom you trust, building an intergenerational relationship could be amazing. Do you trust any elders in your neighborhood? Might your kid be okay being picked up or dropped off by them?
Or is there another parent in the programs who might be open to you doing an early drop off/play date with them?
In my family, having a kid come over early is a motivation to get things going here!
Good luck. Hopefully this will be a positive and community building experience.
When my child was young, her school and camps had early drop off starting at 7:00 am (care at both offered by the City of El Cerrito Recreation Dept). If you happen to be in El Cerrito or nearby, perhaps check into that. Currently, YMCA of the East Bay camps offer 7:00 am drop off (there are several locations, we used Albany). If these options had not been available, I probably would have dropped off my child at a nearby relative's house and had them drive my child to school/camp. Prior to the pandemic, I had no flexibility in my work hours, by child spent way more time in group care situations than I would have liked, however she made good friends in similar situations with working parents so it wasn't all bad.