Working couples with young kindergarten-age kids: how do you manage childcare e.g. the morning routine, or when school is closed etc?

Presumably you don’t have a nanny as the kids are in school 5 days a week, and the kids are too small to be independent at home when they are out of school.

What’s your solution?

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Two options: 1. One of us takes day or half day off , 2. Beg family to help which is a hassle as they are not local.

Never easy and a big struggle. Hope others may have more creative solutions.

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Work from home - if possible. If they’re 5 yrs old, put on the Tv or a movie and check in on them every hour. Make them snacks and lunch before starting work - as if you were sending them to school. Otherwise take a day off.

I did this for years. It’s basically from kindergarten through to completion of elementary school. Plan accordingly based on the school calendar when you’ll need time off for ped days. If you’re a two parent family it should be manageable so that you still have at least two weeks to take family vacations- assuming you have 3 weeks or more vacation per year each.

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I request PTO for all of my kids days off well in advance once I get the school calendar.

Unexpected closures? The parent who has the least chaos at work that day/week stays home. I cancel most meetings and do what I can to get something done.

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Thank God for remote work!

I’ve worked from home before COVID when I wasn’t traveling. We had an 8th grader walk our kids to school. (Actually two). Twenty nicks a month each and they could split up the time how they wanted. It was an 845 start so they left about 810-815.

If you live in a large enough area there’s usually day off programs, that can be full day or half day. This factored into my dependent care savings. I live in Chicago so there’s always something. When they are sick we just deal with it. My wife works from home now too

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