Preschool Planning
Posted on April 9th, 2009 – 8:24 AMBy Kay Krhin
We recently enrolled Ben in a preschool program that begins in September. The classes are from 9:15-11:45 am on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Wednesdays are no problem as Peter is home. Fridays are a problem as we are both at work. I start work at 7 am and Peter starts at 9 am.
So here are our options:
1) Peter shifts his hours to drop Ben off by 9:15 and starts work later. I take my lunch hour to pick Ben up @ 11:45 and drop him off at daycare.
2) I work from home on Friday mornings and do drop off and pick up.
3) The preschool has also offered to ask another class parent to drive Ben from preschool to daycare. (about 1 mile away)
Option 1 is an awful lot of gas and time used up with essentially two round trips downtown and back.
Option 2 Need to get that approved first.
Option 3 How do I trust someone else to drive my child?
There isn’t an option of all day preschool that some programs offer. We loved the place and decided we’d figure out a plan by the time September came.
(okay, obviously I like option 2 the best )
I know I have several months to figure out a plan but am wondering what do other working parents do?
22 Responses to "Preschool Planning"
Our son is in daycare at a Kindercare center and we debated about taking him out a few days for ‘real’ preschool. But once we started doing our homework, we realized that he was getting the same things at Kindercare and was there all day every day. We don’t think preschool makes that big of a difference if kids are already in daycare that offers a curriculum. The key is that they need to have a curriculum. I am a teacher, and my husband used to be, so we also view school a little differently; as long as kids are developing well it matters more what is happening at home than what/when/where they go to school. If I were in your shoes I would try option 2 first, then 1, and then 3. Good luck with your decision. It seems like once we make one big decision about the well-being of our kids a new one comes rolling along. Our son doesn’t start K until fall of ‘10 and we are already trying to figure out if he will go the our neighborhood school and attend their before/after school or if he will attend the school that does busing from his daycare…it seems to never end!!!
Soon (like in the next 15 minutes) I’ll leave work to pick our oldest up from daycare to get him to preschool at 9. Then I’ll work until 11:20 and leave to get him from school at 11:30, back to daycare, and back at my desk at 12:10. I’ve been doing this since September, and it turns out I have the most flexible boss ever.
And, also, it turns out, I hate it! I’m contantly rushing because I know there is work on my desk and other co-workers who wonder how I manage to to be out of the office for over an hour every Tuesday and Thursday, and who coincidentally DON’T see me working late those days.
You do what you need to do, and what works, though it isn’t necessarily convenient.
Now, when we switch daycare (soon! sad.), and start kindergarten in the fall, who knows what our schedule will look like!
We haven’t run into this problem with preschool because the home daycare we use runs a preschool curriculum that we feel is VERY good & teaching our kids a ton…But I HAVE however run into this with MOST all ‘extra curricular’ activities in our area. Tball for our kids runs either M/W or T/Th from like 9-11, dance, swimming, and on and on - What is a working parent to do? Picking the kids up from their current daycare to shuttle them isn’t an option as I already drive out of my way to drop them off and then back track to work…
Guess I’d better keep buying that powerball ticket each week! 
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Darcie, are you serious? I’ve noticed that most of the parent/kid activities near us are during business hours on weekdays, but they’re offered through businesses. Isn’t T-ball a Parks and Rec sort of thing? Having it from 9-11 a.m on weekdays sounds like the folks in charge assume a stay-at-home parent. For us, that would mean we just wouldn’t participate in the activity; it would be logistically impossible.
We use a daycare center with a curriculum. DH drops off, I pick up. Loving something else more wouldn’t change the fact that neither of us could ditch out of work for a while to take our child from one program to another. If you can arrange to work from home to make it do-able, though, that seems like the best option.
If you can get Option 2, that sounds like the best solution. If you can’t and you aren’t comfortable with Option 3 (I wouldn’t be unless I knew the parent ahead of time), then Option 1 is your only option.
I know so many people who are dealing with these issues! As working parents, we have to juggle our commitment to our employers with our desire to provide the best for our children. My two year-old currently receives speech therapy one morning a week in our home. However, once he turns three, it will go to twice a week at the nearby early childhood center. That will require that I miss two hours of work both Tuesday and Thursday mornings all next year. Fortunately I have a boss who is also the mother of two young children and who also has a child who is receiving special education services. So she knows exactly what it is like to juggle and has told me “It’s not going to happen forever and you have to do what’s best for your child.” It’s so nice to have a manager who truly understands.
But it’s tough. About a year ago, I went down to .9 FTE (so 4 1/2 days a week) just because I was feeling overwhelmed by all the juggling. Knowing I can flex a few hours a week has made all the difference for me.
Option 4…stay at home with you kids.
We are facing the same situation in the fall. Our daughter is registered for preschool two mornings a week and we currently both work 30 to 45 minutes away. I was lucky enough when I accepted my current job to lay out up front that I might wish to reduce my work hours in the future, and my boss is fine with that. So I will be cutting back to 80% starting in the fall and will be at home those two days, working some hours from there in between the drop off and pick up. I know not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to flex their schedule like that. I feel very lucky that its going to work out, but do wonder how it will go over with other people at the company.
I don’t see any way we could do it unless he was in a daycare/preschool type program. We’re planning on doing this with our son as soon as we can afford it. Otherwise our daycare has told us that a little mini-bus picks up in front of their house if I want to send my child to the preschool program in their neighborhood- but I’m not too keen on that since it isn’t in my neighborhood.
I hope that you can get the work from home approved so it makes it easier on you. And if you say that you will just not take a lunch break on Fridays and will work through it, I don’t see why your boss wouldn’t approve this for you.
But yes, what an issue! I know a lot of people with this issue as well. One friend, due to costs, has her child at 3 different preschool places each week. But luckily she has family with flexible hours that can help shuttle her child back and forth. Most of us are not so lucky, though! And of course most of us cannot afford to stay home full-time, even if we would like to.
This is a troubling issue particularly in this economy. It doesn’t feel right to be asking for special things from your boss right now when you’re worried about layoffs, etc., but unfortunately there is no way out of it and parents sometimes just need more flexible hours for their children.
Heather, my city offers 2 t-ball programs. One is a Friday morning program, the other Wednesday nights. Quite often I look at our Community Education flyer and think, “Gee, it sure would be nice to be home for these things.” Then again, without my income, some of those things would no longer be an option financially.
I’m also irritated by the lack of evening ECFE classes in our district.
I feel VERY fortunate - my in-home daycare provider will help shuttle my 3 year old to part-time pre-school. We drop her off in the morning at pre-school and daycare picks her up. After reading the above comments, and hearing those of friends in similar situations, I’m certainly counting my blessings. Good luck Kay with your decision!
Our T-ball was also during what I consider working hours (4pm?) I am at home so it didn’t matter but I thought the time of day was interesting. We are finding most sport activities are around 3:30 - 4 pm so it is definately something to plan for in the future.
Oh, besides the trusting someone else to drive your kid part, you may want to consider the social impact. A big part of preschool is meeting the other familes and being there for pick-up etc. Most families in the daytime programs have someone at home to do this…
This is all unfortunate, it really divides us stay at home moms from working moms but I suppose it is a reality. Let’s just all agree to be nice to one-another! Being a mom balancing act work or not.
@Heather - oh yes, I’m serious - I wish I wasn’t - I called the City of Burnsville to inquire about the times they offered & asked them what the working parents were supposed to do - the ‘nice’ gal there informed me that there was no ‘demand’ for late afternoon or evening sessions of dance OR t-ball. (I could even pull off a 4 pm or so start time if I had to) I find that odd that there would be no demand but whatever - we are currently supporting a neighboring community for dance class as THEY had an evening option available - unlike my own city! Life is a balancing act any way you put it! There’s no right or wrong way to do any of this - Kate3 is right - we just have to support each other and do the best we can!
Oh, I’m with Darcie, we’ve actually commented to each other about this one. The options for working parents are horrible when it comes to classes. I love that our daycare has good extras, but I would like to do a class with her. Even swimming is rough through the city.
For pre-school we went with a center daycare who makes it part of their program. The last teacher they have before they leave for Kindergarten is amazing!
I am lucky that our daycare provider does a preschool activities but I am with the rest of you. I am a working parent and there is nothing really I can enroll my daughter in that is not during the day or at the same time on Sat. mornings. It is frustrating… I would like to do organized sports, language class, ice skating, swimming lessons… I can pick one thing on a saturday morning. They really should cater more to working parents. I would be the first to sign up!
I wonder if some of it has to do with bedtimes? Maybe this gets better as they grow up, but I still can’t keep my toddler up past 7pm without her going nuts. By the time she’s home from daycare it’s 5:30, then dinner, then a bath and then bed at 6:30. I don’t know how she’ll ever get to do anything extra-curricular. We’re actually changing daycares next week to something much closer to home so I can walk her there and back more, which will give her more flexibility about when she gets up in the morning or leaves in the afternoon.
I thought having a kid who sleeps 11-12 hours a night straight was a blessing, but I literally only get 2 hours a day awake with her, tops.
I think bedtimes can help it some as they get older. However, not always the case, then they are “after school” but before bed things. I would be able to leave work early and do some earlier evening classes if they offered them. They just don’t offer them.
Robin–I have wondered that too. My kid needs a lot of sleep and consequently misses out on all the evening stuff…will it get better? I sure hope so.
Kay–Another option is to search for an all-day pre-school. We had that this past year and, although we are switching schools, will have it again next year. A life-saver.
Good luck, whatever you decide. This juggling act is SO difficult, and it doesn’t seem to ever improve!
I had a very similar situation when my son was younger. Preschool M/W/F mornings. Luckily Grandma and Grandpa were able to pick-up/drop off most of the time and I was able to flex my work at home schedule to pick him up on Fridays. If it were not for grandparents help he would not have been able to go. Any grandparents/family that might help out?
We tried extra-curricular activities last year and it was a nightmare - totally does not work with a working parents schedule and young kids bedtimes. Maybe when he gets older….
Kay- when my oldest was 4 and going to a home daycare, my only choice was #3, that or no preschool. So, I went to the orientation, put my heart on my sleeve and asked for volunteers. A mother immeadiately stepped up, and my gut told me it was ok. And it was, my daughter had a wonderful preschool experience, and we both gained a good friend in the mother/daughter that drove her back and forth. It was a blessing, but it can be nerve racking. Just go with your instincts, if you wind up considering that option. I changed daycares later and was blessed with a provider that had a van and a helper, so she drove the rest of them to preschool for me.
My kids also go to Kindercare, so I think they’ll just stay there until they can go to the local public kindergarten. My beef, as for many above posters, is with activities. I currently have my little guy in swimming from 6:30 to 7 on Thursday nights, which is okay, but it means come home, eat, change, go swim, come home, bathe, and bed right away. Kind of a busy night for a 2 year old.
My 13 year old stepdaughter is in track and volleyball in the fall, but her meets/games are always in the middle of the afternoon. Her mom and my husband are lucky that they have flexible schedules and can often be there, but I never can. When my little ones get older, I don’t want to miss all their events because nothing is ever scheduled at a time when I’m not working.
