Creche Times - how do you manage?

macgrub

We are looking at potentially moving a distance from our jobs purely for affordability. But what we've noticed is most creches open at 8 and close at 6 which isn't ideal when you have a 1-1.5 hour commute. Neither do we don't have anyone close by to assist so there's a dependency on these times.
Surely I am not the first to have this conflict with times? I'd love to hear from others in a similar situation.

Sunny Dayz

Could you look at cres close to where you work?

markpb

Creche close to your work is the only way to go. Otherwise, you'll be at the door waiting for the creche to open, doing a drop and run in the morning, hoping you don't get stuck in traffic in the evening, doing a fly-by collection with no time to get to know the staff or other parents and eventually you'll be -that- parent who does't make it back on time so some poor sod can't leave work and possibly can't get to their creche to pick up their child. The pressure on you will stop you enjoying the time you do have with your child.

macgrub

markpb wrote: »

Creche close to your work is the only way to go. Otherwise, you'll be at the door waiting for the creche to open, doing a drop and run in the morning, hoping you don't get stuck in traffic in the evening, doing a fly-by collection with no time to get to know the staff or other parents and eventually you'll be -that- parent who does't make it back on time so some poor sod can't leave work and possibly can't get to their creche to pick up their child. The pressure on you will stop you enjoying the time you do have with your child.

Thanks for your reply. Creche near my work is my current situation but I'm hoping for others' two cents on this. I'm also considering long term - school, friends etc.

shesty

Honest answer....take a long term view on it and be open to changing jobs etc.I have done a 45 min commute (on the m50 so it had to be crack of dawn or else it would take 1.5 hrs) with one child, and also a public transport commute 1.5 hour each way with one child.I realised early on that this would not be sustainable when no.1 entered schooling of any sort and/or if others arrived.When no.2 arrived I had to change job.Now i'm 30 mins away which works great.OH does morning school and minder drop off, I do afternoon pickup from minders.

Creche near your work could work for now but if I were you I would start thinking long term and how it's going to pan out for you because personally I think a 1-1.5 hour commute puts a huge stress on you-and your whole family....and it's not sustainable in the longterm.From my own experience.

jlm29

Is a minder an option? There might be more flexibility. I'm surprised they're all 8am start also. I don't use a crèche, but did consider it briefly when I was going back after my first. The ones I looked at were 7 am start

PhoenixParker

Another option is one does morning and the other evenings and stagger your hours a little accordingly. It can help with rush hour too.

Dravokivich

You're thinking a bit short term. You need to be considering a creche that offers the school run too.

contrary_mary

PhoenixParker wrote: »

Another option is one does morning and the other evenings and stagger your hours a little accordingly. It can help with rush hour too.

That's what we do. I head into work early and leave at 4ish, my OH does the drop-off and I collect. It's a long day for everyone and by the end of the week we're all wrecked (parents and kids).

yellow hen

We altered our work times, which I know might now be feasible for you. I now leave home at 6am and my husband drops kids at 8. He gets to work around 9.30. I'm home before 4 and collect them. It works great for us and we get an evening with the kids too. A creche close to work wouldn't be a preference for me as what do you do when you're sick or have appts or have a day off etc?

pwurple

As above, the creche isn't the problem you need to think about. It's the commute. The creche is open for ten hours a day there, and it's still not long enough? i was in this situation for a while, when the brainwave of Boarding Creche occured to me.

We moved to a smaller house to minimise commute. Made an immense difference to our quality of life. Spending between 10 to 15 hours a week driving is 10 to 15 hours a week I want to spend with my family.

Daisy 55

Also, think about what happens when you get the call to say that your little one is sick, and needs to be collected.

MaryMD

Did some research recently on creches and most I'm aware of are the same, 8am open and 6pm close. Its very hard alright, maybe look for ones as close as you can to work so traffic etc isn't an issue

CheerLouth

Some of the creches can be flexible. Not all of them can mind. I used to have the same problem, needed to be in Dublin for work at 8 and couldn't get a creche that would open early enough for the mornings when my husband couldn't do the drop off. We were very lucky though and the local creche, which opens at 7.30am ordinarily, agreed to open at 7am on an ad hoc basis. She used to do that 2-3 times a week for us! I know it's not ideal for some places, we are lucky that our creche is on the grounds of the owners home so it didn't really inconvenience her too much.

I will say though that since the birth of our second child, I've changed jobs closer to home and with more family-orientated working hours. It might be something to look at too - although I know that beggars can't be choosers either!

yellow hen

The creche beside us opens at 7:30 and closes at 6:30. There is two kids who I see waiting with their mother at 7:20 and sometimes see them leaving at 6:30. I know it can't be helped but I just think it's such a long day for them.

shesty

yellow hen wrote: »

The creche beside us opens at 7:30 and closes at 6:30. There is two kids who I see waiting with their mother at 7:20 and sometimes see them leaving at 6:30. I know it can't be helped but I just think it's such a long day for them.

I'm so glad it's not just me that thinks that, I always feel so sorry for people in that situation.I really feel that in the majority of those cases, something goes eventually.....be it the mother's job, or she moves closer to home for a lesser salary, or the husband changes or they move house or something.It's too much to sustain.

We literally had to say our house wasn't moving (mortgage!!), so draw big circles round our house and say we can't (both) work outside these lines.Which is very tough depending on your job and your location.

AttentionBebe

One drops off and the other collects, if working closer to home isn't an option.

pwurple

yellow hen wrote: »

The creche beside us opens at 7:30 and closes at 6:30. There is two kids who I see waiting with their mother at 7:20 and sometimes see them leaving at 6:30. I know it can't be helped but I just think it's such a long day for them.

Very long day for the mother too... she must be exhausted with driving for hours on top of a full working day, and then heading into cranky tired children who are usually fairly filthy from creche as well. If they are up at seven, she probably puts them in the bath, then to bed straight away and only sees them for about 40 minutes a day.

And it costs over 1000 a month no doubt.

suilegorma

As a family we really struggled with organising work and family life. Our creche opens at 730 and we were able to have dh drop at 8 and I collected between 5.30 and 6. This still was too long a day for our children. It became more apparent when our older child stopped napping, so her day was especially long. And then one awful day to get a phone call about a serious issue requiring a hospital admission where our child was at least an hour away from us. So enough was enough, I moved jobs recently to very close to home. A sideways career move, money similar but the difference this makes to our lives is incredible. This will really come into it's own when we have school. I will be dropping the children off, hopefully getting to know other parents and teachers. I'll be nearby for small things like sports days, concerts etc without having to take a day off, and hopefully using parental leave to collect them from school two days. We just couldn't make two commuting parents work at this stage. And as an extra bonus, while it's bright and the weather is nice, we can walk home from creche. Makes a lovely change

Neyite

yellow hen wrote: »

The creche beside us opens at 7:30 and closes at 6:30. There is two kids who I see waiting with their mother at 7:20 and sometimes see them leaving at 6:30. I know it can't be helped but I just think it's such a long day for them.

It's so hard to do. And a big part of that is other folk assuming you are blithely dumping your child in there so you can fund handbag shopping trips in New York or to service a stupidly high mortgage on a fancy gaff, when in most people's cases two salaries are just about covering the bills on a modest house and old cars, if at all. And those families are the lucky ones who managed to hang onto both their jobs in the last 8 years.

Our kid had an 8-6 day, but we were lucky that the OH could be a bit flexible and work from home a lot if needed. And my workplace were very good if I needed to take a day here and there. It works both ways though - I put in a lot of unpaid overtime over the years, and I readily stay back when needed now, but that means if I do have to leave early for an occasional pick up then management have no issue with that. I'm lucky.

We used a creche near to work for the person who had the most flexibility - the OH, and I was about 30 mins drive from there. It was also near home. Now we've moved, if we still used a creche it would need to be near work for our set-up to run smoothly. Like a previous poster has said, usually something's got to give. In our case we moved to be nearer family for support and offers of child minding when school started and we feel very lucky in that regard. It's resulted in a longer commute for both of us but when we are able to have him picked up from school by family until we get home it's worth it.

CheerLouth

Neyite wrote: »

It's so hard to do. And a big part of that is other folk assuming you are blithely dumping your child in there so you can fund handbag shopping trips in New York or to service a stupidly high mortgage on a fancy gaff, when in most people's cases two salaries are just about covering the bills on a modest house and old cars, if at all.

This!! :mad: I was at a hen party a while ago and someone with no kids was full of "people dumping their kids at 8oclock in the morning and not coming back until 6pm for them" :mad::mad: Took all my willpower to not hit her a slap - tried to explain through gritted teeth that the parents aren't dumping their kids and heading off for the lolz for the day, that they were facing into a long commute to work, full day of work, commute back etc etc. I was sooo mad! I'm still mad thinking about it. As if anyone who has kids wants to leave them with someone else for that length of time but the bills have to be paid, kids have to be clothed and fed! GAH! Rant over!

Neyite

I find the Perfect Parent sanctimony from the child free folk to be absolutely hilarious (you'd have to or you'd go through them, wouldn't you?) It's easy to be a perfect parent - when you don't actually have children of course...:pac:

suilegorma

It's so hard to get the perfect balance. I would love to plough ahead with my career, I've studied hard and worked long hours. But for now our family has made the choice to do it this way. We can balance the books and still have the family time we need. The sheer guilt I used to have picking up tired children and everything a rush has lessened. We muddled through for a couple of years but what we were doing wasn't sustainable, especially when school years are almost here. Op I hope you can figure out what works for you the best. I'm sure our way of life will evolve as our family grows and we will need to reevaluate.

shesty

That's what I figure, as they get up through school it will get a bit easier (maybe).But then again I might fancy a change of career in ten years time too, so I guess for now we have to stay put and then see how it works out over time.

sillysocks

It's all such a big juggle, and to be honest as my kids are starting to get older I find the school age even worse for drops and collections etc. The times are so much stricter in that you can't leave them early or even be five mins late, and then mid week activities come into it. My youngest is still at her childminder and that's actually the easiest of the three stages we currently have (1 childminder, 1 pre school, 1 primary school!)

detoxkid

We have our kids in creche near where I work, 40 minutes from where we live. Strongly tempted to move to where I work just to make things easier so that one of us is close to the kids

suilegorma

sillysocks wrote: »

It's all such a big juggle, and to be honest as my kids are starting to get older I find the school age even worse for drops and collections etc. The times are so much stricter in that you can't leave them early or even be five mins late, and then mid week activities come into it. My youngest is still at her childminder and that's actually the easiest of the three stages we currently have (1 childminder, 1 pre school, 1 primary school!)

Totally get this. Creches are made for working parents, schools don't have flexibility at all. I'm sure teachers accommodate working parents but it's tricky to arrange everything. I'm hoping by splitting a pl day into two half days, on those days I can both drop and collect and do whatever after school things they are into. I work five minutes from home though, that would not have been possible in my old role.

pwurple

sillysocks wrote: »

It's all such a big juggle, and to be honest as my kids are starting to get older I find the school age even worse for drops and collections etc. The times are so much stricter in that you can't leave them early or even be five mins late, and then mid week activities come into it. My youngest is still at her childminder and that's actually the easiest of the three stages we currently have (1 childminder, 1 pre school, 1 primary school!)

I joined the parents association when my eldest went into junior infants to fix this. We fundraise for this service. We hire minders from the local area who faciliate early drop off at the school (8am) and late pickup (up to one hour). The school is very accomadating in fairness to let them use the building. Took a bit of persuasion but got there by the end of the first term. So, if there’s a will, there’s a way!

Now, I can’t get out of the bloody PA several years later, but that’s another story!

suilegorma

I never understand why more schools don't do after school on the premises. It's perfect facilities, children are familiar with it, no issues with transport. If it was offered out to private companies to run it, it would earn income for the school.

mirrorwall14

suilegorma wrote: »

I never understand why more schools don't do after school on the premises. It's perfect facilities, children are familiar with it, no issues with transport. If it was offered out to private companies to run it, it would earn income for the school.

As a parent and a teacher (admittedly second level), honestly we just don’t have time to organize anything else. There are so many initiatives being run by the government, new syllabi, meeting after meeting. We don’t have sufficient technical support or secretarial support at all meaning that teachers are already plugging gaps all over the place. In a school of 750 plus all their parents to be dealt with and 50+ staff there are two secretaries and three managers. It’s just not doable. And the government did untold damage to the good will nature of teachers with the Croke park hours and two tier pay system

In addition many of the staff are under the same pressure to get their own children collected and finish their own work at home (thank God for the flexibility to plan at home)

If there isn’t an active parents association this would be down the agenda for staff unfortunately would be my guess

suilegorma

I get you. And I've just realised I'm a parent who knows nothing about school yet but I'm full of opinions ! I guess I can see an opening for private companies to take on the role, as they currently do but on school premises. There's certainly a market for it! But I can see how school side management of such an arrangement would be on top of all the additional extras that are already competing for attention. I only see the parent side I guess right now.

eviltwin

My son goes to afterschool in his own school. Its run by a private company. I don't think the teachers or school staff have any involvement, the creche workers pick the kids up at hometime and lock up after themselves when they leave, they have a classroom in the school building but it has its own door which they can lock. The odd time I'd pick my son up in the evening they are the only ones in the entire building. Its a great service and its a shame more schools don't do it.

shesty

There's no way I would expect that service from teachers, but if a company was interested in providing it on school premises (or kind of ancillary childcare staff were made available by the dept of education to offer it in schools) then it would be a great system.
I am under no delusions about a teacher's job, no way would I expect of them.

sillysocks

I'd imagine the reluctance of schools to do this might be down to logistics and reputation. The after school would probably still be known as 'Schools Name After School Club' and if anything happened it would be associated with the school. Also, say for some reason the after school provider pulled out then parents would probably be in banging down the schools door to sort it out etc. You'd also have things like insurance, need for rooms big enough and who clears the rooms as I guess kids wouldn't be expected to sit at desks all evening etc.

Maybe I'm wrong but I imagine it's just too much hassle for schools on top of what they already have to do.

In saying that would love if our school did it! Especially for the hour in between infants finishing and the rest of the school-adds to the logistical nightmare of collections when you've two different times at the same school.

painauchocolat

Another second level teacher here, and I'd just point out that using classrooms for after school stuff is an absolute pain for the teacher! My room is used for study and it massively limits my access to my room. Really simple stuff like hanging posters / resources on walls, updating displays, clearing cupboards, finding notes, prepping classes /correcting without having to lug 60 hardback copies and 5 textbooks to the car/staffroom....

Considering a primary school teacher would want to hang new art / work samples on a weekly basis, I'd imagine they would be reluctant to vacate their room each day within 5 mins of the bell ringing. I know some teachers leave on the dot, but they generally are in the minority (and often arrive very early to compensate). Most teachers I know stay fairly late at least a couple of times a week. Not having access your room really does make a mess of this.

pwurple

Yeah it really is up to parents and their association to sort that stuff out. There is nothing in that for the teachers except a headache. That’s why we took it on ourselves.

We don’t use a classroom, we use the assembly area for drop off and afterschool.

Schools insurance covered it, the minders had to get garda vetted and the whole lot approved by both the school staff and the board.

It’s all doable.

sillysocks

pwurple wrote: »

Yeah it really is up to parents and their association to sort that stuff out. There is nothing in that for the teachers except a headache. That’s why we took it on ourselves.

We don’t use a classroom, we use the assembly area for drop off and afterschool.

Schools insurance covered it, the minders had to get garda vetted and the whole lot approved by both the school staff and the board.

It’s all doable.

That'd be our first issue-there's no common area/assembly area so it would have to be a classroom which as the other poster put better than me would be a disaster and never be agreed by teachers I imagine.
Fair play to ye for getting it up and running though, I'm sure you have a lot of grateful parents!

lonestargirl

In my son's school it's two SNAs who run the 'breakfast club'. It's for the hour from 7.45-8.45 before school starts. The use the science room so it's not a particular teacher's classroom. It's great for me as you can use it on an ad-hoc basis. I normally start at 9 but do 1/6 weeks of early shift starting at 8 plus the occasional early meeting.