Dual Income Households - What Do You Do When Your Kids Are School Aged?

I'm a single parent and no family nearby. I usually work 9-5:15, so I drop my son off at school in the morning, daycare picks him up in the afternoon, and I pick him up from daycare. If I ever have to be at work earlier, I take him to daycare before work and they take him to school. Daycare also keeps him all day for school holidays and the summer. I pay more than the school's before/after care because the school doesn't have all holidays staffed and I can't take off two weeks over Christmas, so I have to have him in daycare so he has a spot for the holidays.

Most schools offer on site day care before and after school in my area, usually from about 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. Most of the families I know use this. We also have a couple of local community centers that will send a shuttle to the school to pick kids up and take them to a city-run after school program. They don't provide before school care.

When I worked FT, DD was in daycare from 8-6. Not my ideal, but I chose very very carefully.

When SD was in school and either DH was a single parent or we were both working, she attended before and after care. There are some schools that have it right in the building and some preschools have after school care as well. Depending on the schedule, one parent might drop off and one pick up, to minimize the child's time in care.

By the time they are 11 or 12, most kids age out of such programs and you need to either find somewhere else for them to be or trust them at home.

We are lucky enough that my kids are home with Dad before/after school Monday-Thursday. I put my daughter on the bus on Fridays, drop son off at daycare (he gets on the preschool bus from her house) and my mom picks up both kids from my house after school.

However, IF hubby worked a regular Mon-Friday job, the kids wouldn't have to do before/after school care because hubby would be home from work after school to get them and I would put them on the bus.

Most people around here who can't do that do a daycare before school and the bus picks them up there and then drops them off after school. I think it depends on how flexible your jobs are, how far the commute is, etc.

I'm lucky enough to be working at a job 8am-5pm that understands a few minutes late in the morning occurs due to drop off craziness and traffic. My office is 20 minutes from home, and my sons's school opens at 7am and aftercare ends at 6pm so it works. Most daycares are open for those hours. If you work traditional first shift hours, this would work. Otherwise, it's harder, and you have to get creative.

I drop my son off at school at 7:50 and his day care picks him up at 2:15 when school lets out. They also offer before school hrs which we don't need. Our day care charges weekly by how many days he goes (3). We have the option of adding more days if we need them for an additional fee. My husband picks him up at 5:30. Their hrs are 6:30-6.

When I shopped for day care centers years ago, the coordination with the school was one of my concerns.

Well when my kids started school we would take them to school and the daycare would pick them up. But they had a van that coudl take them to school if we needed to leave earlyer. But the daycare they went to would open at 6am and close at 6:30pm. So you would need to be careful and find a daycare that was open late enough. Ours charged I think $58 for after school care and then on spring break and summers it was $125 a week. And I know if other places it cost a LOT more.

Our district has a before & after school program. It isn't free, but I'm unsure of the cost.

When I was little, I remember having babysitters for a couple of hours after school.

My husband put my son on the bus, then goes to work. We have a nanny pick him up from school. Then I get home about 5 hrs later.

Sumer time- we have him at my daughters daycare and care is open 6-6.

One shcool we are looking at .. starts at 8 am, my hubby will drop off and then after care will start at 3 and go until I get home at 4:30.

The other school is 1/2 day. Not sure if it is morning or afternoon. Hoping for morning, but it might be after noon.

We are still trying to find our steping stone for next year , we don't know what we are going to do as of yet.

From what I've seen to avoid a 7-7 day for a child is one parent drops, one picks up. Hopefully there is some flexibility in work schedules to allow that. If not, I'd have to wonder if the family should move really close to one parents' work or one parent stay home. Or a nanny in the morning or afternoon is a possibility too. I've seen that. We have a nanny all day which in a way is wasteful but she does housekeeping, takes our dog out, I don't have to worry about sick days and all the school vacation etc..

Per the kids at my kids' school and their parents, they have their kids in before and after school care on campus.
The parent that can drop off, drops off.
The parent that can pick up, picks up.
And it may be the same parent. Or not.
Or some have a Babysitter, for after school, who picks up and keeps the child until the parents get home.

Or, some Moms, get a job at their child's school. That way, they have the same schedule/days off, as their child. And they do not have to commute.

Our daycare offers before and after school care. I drop her off at daycare, they get her breakfast and drive her to school, pick her up after school and give her a snack before I pick her up. Our daycare only allows kids to be there for 10 hrs a day at most, though.

That's why I originally stayed home. We'd need 12 hours of daycare 5 days a week, and that was not only more than I made, that are a chunk of my husbands salary, as well. So, to save money, we went to 1 income.

Later, when we were both working, I worked nights & he worked days. This puts the night worker over a barrel, because you only sleep in naps. I averaged 3 hours of sleep a day during that period. Work all night, come home & care for kids all day = almost no sleep.

School Age is Waaaaaaay better for the night shift. Work at night, come home & fix breakfast / drive to school, sleep while they're in school, pick up, have them in the afternoon & evening, put them to bed & go to work.

I'm working towards a job with those hours as a single parent. It requires hiring someone to stay over at night while he's younger. Paying someone to sleep (or study) is a loooooot less than $1000 a month in afterschool care, ditto $2500 a month for all day care. But, obviously, its free if you have a spouse sleeping at home.

Most daycares have before, after, and before & after school rates.

Lots of schools have extended day services for after school care in site.

You could hire someone for "get to bus/school" duty, and a few hours of after school babysitting.

You could adjust work schedules to cover mornings and return times. That's what we do.

I know families that use all of the above and combinations.

Maybe a grandparent could help in the morning & you could use after school care--either on school site or a facility that they bus serve.

I have a lot of flexibility. If I had to be in the office 9 - 5, we would have done before care from 8-9, school from 9-3:30 and after-school care from 3:30 - 6:00. It's a long day but a lot of families do this and the kids are fine.

Because I have flexibility, I am able to bring my youngest to school at 9, go into the office at 10, and stay until whenever I need to stay to. My husband does the evening routine and is usually home by 6. Because we have teenagers as well we actually have them baby-sit but through last year, they went to a great after-school program and my husband picked them up. I also have been working from home a few days a week for the past few years but there were several years when our oldest first started school that we were both in the office all day. A baby-sitter in the afternoon or morning is a nice option for kids who find going to before- and after-care too tiring.

Anyway...most couples cross that bridge when they get there and we all manage to figure something out. What we do ends up being a little different every year. We do our best, then adjust, then adjust again.

we had our kids in a family daycare that put 'em on the bus in the mornings, and they stayed in after-school care in the afternoons. for days that we were going to be later than the after-school program they'd take the bus back to the family daycare.
fortunately it wasn't a situation that we had to deal with for long, but you do what you gotta do.
khairete
S.

My husband and I both have the best bosses ever, and are able to be VERY flexible to take care of our kids. They all understand family is first. My boss, especially. My husband works 2 hours away, so it's hard for him to go get the sick kid from school, attend the 15 minute award ceremony at 9am, or take a kid to a 1pm doctor's appointment. So that all falls on me, and my boss allows me to work around those times by working through lunch, coming in on my Friday off, or working from home.

As far as the day-to-day stuff, my husband leaves before 5am every day. My sitter (we LOVE her) comes at 615 (never late, never called out sick, and it's been almost 2 years!), I get to work at 630. I leave at 330, in time to get the kids off the bus at 340ish. I am also lucky I live so close to my job. That helps BIG time. But, I want to be the one home in the afternoons to help with homework, playdates, activites, etc. So it works out well for us.

When my husband worked down where we live, one of us went in late (me) and one of us came home early (him). So I put the kids on the bus and got to work about 840 and he was home to get the kids off the bus about 340. That worked perfectly beause it was free :). Versus the $400 a month we pay out sitter to get them on the bus.

I provide before and after school care for a family down the street. The boys walk down here between 7:00 and 7:30am, then they walk to school at 9:00am. They walk back here from school at 4:00pm and get picked up a little after 5:00pm. A before and after school care program runs inside of our school that opens at 7:00am and closes at 6:00pm. The YMCA runs before an after school care that opens at 7:00am and closes at 6:00pm. The kids are bussed to and from school because the schools aren't in walking distance.

Most schools have some kind of after-school program already in place. At my daughter's school, child care is available in the morning from 7 to 7:45, and then they can go to their classrooms (class starts at 8). Then it is available after school from 3 until 6. If neither one of us was able to pick her up by 6, we would need to call on a neighbor or friend. Fortunately we have a few options for "back-up" and we've been lucky not to have to use them. Also, my work is only 10 minutes from her school and I don't need to be there until 8 most days - plus I get some days off during the week because I also have to work many weekend days.

We were lucky enough to work near our child's school and both the school and our jobs start the same time. (8:00AM) One of the blessings of private schools is that some of them start earlier than public school. So we all car pool. I drop our child off at school, then we go to work. When he was young, we changed his daycare center to one that the school bus would drop him off at. Then we'd pick him up at the daycare center after work. The daycare center would charge less for school aged childern during the school year and more during the summer. ($50/wk. during the school year and $110/wk. during the summer.) The daycare center took children from 7 weeks through 6th grade. They also taught the children and had various activities, so they didn't just sit around and play all day. They even had field trips. When our son got too old for daycare, we got lucky again. MIL lives with us, so she'd watch him. During the summer, we'd send him to college. Yep, lucky again...We have colleges near by that have summer programs for children to help give future teachers some experience with kids. When he turned 9, he was placed under the GIEP program and was allowed to take college freshman courses and get credit for it. No, he hasn't graduated from college yet. He only took the math courses.

our local YMCA has a program called Y-Care, it's at the school. it is $45 per week for before and after school care. they are open 7:00 - 6:00. hth!

My husband's schedule is more flexible than mine, so he drops our child off at school and my wonderful MIL picks my child up when she gets out and she stays with her until I pick her up in the evening. Before my MIL was able to do this, we used the school site's after-school care (they also have before-school care, which we didn't need to use). You will need to check w/ your particular school, however, on the pick up times in the evening. Ours had a cut-of time of 6 p.m. (meaning they closed at 6 and you had to pick your child up by then).

Many kids are in before/after care at their schools or nearby YMCA's or community centers. Some parents hire a stay at home parent who lives on the same bus run to watch their child after school. Some might do before care at school in the morning and a part time nanny/sitter after school. When I still worked in the corporate world, we just continued using the same daycare provider who babysat in her home (licensed, inspected). I wasn't gone 12 hours a day, more like 9. Then I started working in the school system and didn't need so much daycare, and then the kids outgrew the need for it

It depends on where you live but we are fortunate to have our kids in a private school that provides before and after care-they open at 6am and close at 7pm

We used Kids R Kids and they are open 6:30-6:30. Most big chains have those hours

My son goes to before care at the daycare/preschool next to his elementary school (its as close to "on site" as they offer at his school... they don't use the school building, but a separate county building on the other side of the park... they walk the kids back and forth). They open at 6:30am... but I drop him at 7:00 on my way to work.

He could go there in the afternoons as well, but instead, he rides the school bus to the rec center with most of the kids from our neighborhood and is in an after school program there from 3-6pm.

If I could always get there by 4:15, there are afterschool clubs and sports at his school he could register for to give that cushion, but it isn't enough for us.

If we didn't have the morning option, my SO could arrange his work schedule to be home until the morning school bus pick up at 8:15. Without the afternoon options, we'd be pretty stuck. He could ride the bus home and I could pay the neighbor who's a SAHM to keep him until we get home.

Usually daycare centers open around 7:00 a.m. so they do morning daycare and then the daycare has a van that takes them to school and picks them up for after care.

Some schools have after school programs that run until around 6:00 so some parents utilize that for after school care.

I have arranged for GD to ride to school with the neighbor's children. She is home alone for about 15 minutes in the mornings after hubby and I leave for work. By the time she gets home, hubby is usually home, but not always.

My mom lives right around the corner from the school, so sometimes she just goes over there after school or, she has a friend who is a latch key kid (home alone after school) so sometimes she goes over to her house so her friend doesn't have to be alone.

One of us waits with DS at the bus stop each morning - the bus comes at 8:30. I am off Mondays and he takes the bus home Monday. DH is off Friday - same thing. TWR - he attends an after school arts enrichment program which the school provides busing for (it is 5 minutes from our house). Either DH or I pick him up at 6 pm.

Almost every full child care center does school aged kids. They may open as early as 5am and close as late as midnight. I was open from 5:30am until 2am. I worked from about 7:15am to about 6pm every day. I drove the kids to school and picked them up after school let out.

Most child care centers charge by the week and it doesn't matter if the kids come 3 days per week or 5 days per week. That child is taking a spot in the classroom whether they choose to come that day or not. In Oklahoma, when a parent gets financial assistance to pay all or part of their child care expenses they pay the provider payments for that child.

For school age kids they pay about $11 per day, that covers their transportation to and from school, breakfast, and after school snack. During the school year they pay them more per day since they're eating lunch too plus staying more hours.

So you should be fine no matter what if you find a center that takes school age kids and transports them to your school. That can be the challenge though. Often I would tell people to sit in the parking lot of the school and make a note of which child care center vans drove through and picked up kids. That way you have the list of which ones to call first.

If you think about it almost all kids are in child care for over 10 hours minimum per day.

Mom has to be at work by 8, in her seat ready to go, so she needs to be there by 7:45am. She drops off kiddo by 7:15 so she can fight traffic. Then she goes to work for 4 hours until noon, takes an hour lunch and comes back to work another 4 hours. It's 5pm and she's trying to get out of the building but the boss comes up and needs to chat a minute, a co-worker needs her to show them how to do something, the elevator is full 3 times and she can't get on, the parking lot is chaos.......

So her day is a bit over 9 1/2 hours every day without anything going over. If she does get caught by the boss or the phone rings or something comes up then she's even later. So it's very easy for a child that has a parent working full time to be in child care at least 10 hours every day and truly most of the time they get dropped off around that 7:15 mark and are not picked up until almost 6pm.

The day costs the same no matter what so why not stop in really quickly to pick up a rotisserie chicken at Walmart or some other dinner thing somewhere. Most kids are in child care from just after 7am until almost 6pm daily.

I am incredibly fortunate in that both my work and my husband's work is somewhat flexible with our schedules. I work 7am to 2:30pm outside the home. My husband works from home and starts work after he drops the kids off at school. I pick them up at 3pm from school. This schedule also affords us the ability to take them to various after school activities or doctor's appointments without having to take time off. I know, I have the ideal situation and I am very grateful.

In our area, we have Y-Care through the YMCA. It is before and after school care at the school. Pick up by 5:30.

I've never worked 12 hour shifts. I work 7:30-4pm, M-F. My husband works 7-5:30pm (sometimes later).

My kids are no longer in before/after school care. They ride the school bus to and from school and are old enough to stay home alone until I get home from work.

Our daycare offers before and after school care and so does a program that runs at the school.
For kids in daycare you just drop them off when you go to work and they are bused from daycare to school in the morning and back in the afternoon either by the daycare or by regular schoolbus depending on which school they go to.

One thing I was never aware of before signing my child up for school was that there aren't acually enough spot in full day Kinder for all the kids who need/want it. Our school district determines by lottery who gets into full day K and fortunately our daycare offers a K enrichment program for kids in half day K that need full time care. Just something to be aware of...

Good luck.

Most schools offer latchkey. My kids are old enough to ride the bus home and take care of themselves. If that wasn't the case I would probably get them on the bus and Troy would get them off. We both have flexible schedules.

Our schools all have before and after school programs so you drop off as needed and pick up as needed. My husband used to work at home and I commuted so I usually handled both drop off and pick up since it was on my way. Mine are still in daycare together but they are there from 7am-5pm and our oldest will start K in the fall. Things might change given 2 different drop offs/pick ups. Some of our neighbors can get their kids on the bus in the morning but have a neighbor/SAHM who meets them at the bus stop and watches them for the afternoon.

Our school offers after school care program through the YMCA.

I have both my kids in full day preschool, I work full time and am a single parent. My kids are at preschool from 7am-530pm but i only have a 30 min commute. When my oldest starts school in the fall he will attend the after school care provided at his school that is open till 6 and my daughter will continue at her current preschool.

Pre-K- she was in a program that was 7am-6pm
k- full day k and before care 7:30-8pm---that stunk because i had to be at work by 8pm and then aftercare until 6pm
this year is first grade- she gets on the bus at 8:10 and then i get to work by 8:30 (changed my shcedule to avoid before care ) and then I get out at 5pm and pick her up by 5:30--6 is the latest she can be there so if i get out too late i have to arrange for someone else to get her