What do you do for childcare on a snow day?

almostjennifer

We're having a snow day here and it got me wondering what we will do with our school-age kids when I go back to work and school gets cancelled.  What's your back-up plan?

virginiagirl11

One of us has to stay home. Or, if the roads aren't horrific between our house and our babysitter's, sometimes she'll come over.

jlaOK

The downfall of our daycare is that they follow the public school closing schedule, which is extrememly conservative (which I understand because of bus routes).  We haven't encountered it yet, but I WFH all the time and DH WFH on bad weather days.  We will probably end up splitting the day and each trying to get some work done.

mben1119

Luckily, my mom teaches in the county DS goes to DC in, and they follow the same inclement weather schedule, so if DH or I couldn't stay home, she'd watch him for us.

QueSrah

Whoever has the least hectic day scheduled at work stays home, or we each take a half day (one morning, one afternoon) if we both have work to do. 

Ms5586

Our daycare follows the government work schedule (which I'm on).  So if we're closed, daycare is closed.

Once he's in school, we'll be closer to family, so he'll stay with my SIL, more than likely.

2chatter

Xanax.

Kidding, only sort of...I work from home and really thought I would lose my mind when we had a SNOW WEEK. 

It involved a lot of TV and movies.  My work demands did not change.  It is not fun when it snows.

LoCarb

One of us would have to stay home. Hopefully, when both kids are in elementary school I can network w/ nearby SAHM's who wouldn't mind helping me out on the occasion.

MNgirl326

Its not very often that we even GET snow days.  Apparently Minnesotans can drive in an snow condition as can the bus drivers. 

I have been teaching for 6 years and the last time I remember a snow day was my first year of teaching and that was an early close day not a full day.

But if we did have one, one of us would stay home with LO.  

cchill01

I think our daycare will take school aged children when public schools are closed.  They let them hang out in the kindergarten room-  for a fee of course. Our daycare is only closed during States of Emergency.

Or, one of us will just stay home with them.  We have decent flexibility or can tag team to make it work.

We don't get a lot of snow days here, so not a major issue.

ridesbuttons

Here school never gets cancelled.  Classes get cancelled if busses are cancelled for unsafe driving conditions.

Therefore, if the busses are cancelled, I drive kid/s to school.

ETA: busses have been cancelled here 4 out of the last 8 school days (including the last 3 days in a row) due to freezing rain/poor road conditions.  Parents are losing their minds.

snicksnack

I work from home with the kids at home if I don't have care due to bad weather.  My boss is fine with it mainly because I am on the crisis team for communications so if the weather is really bad I am expected to be online by 5 am and work very late doing updates for our employees.  During hurricane Sandy I was worked off an on from 5 am until midnight and back up at 5 am.  Those types of situations are rare but because I am willing to do it he works with me on the childcare issue when needed.

MomtobeNJ

If it's a Friday, my husband is home. Otherwise I will have to take the day off work. My office NEVER closes for bad weather, so I would need to use a vacation or personal day.

skyejo

One of us stays home.  This past Monday we had a snow day.  Daycare typically follows the school district.  If the school is closed daycare is too unless we're told otherwise.

jteneback

We both stay home and take turns working.

shannm

We try to stay put if the roads are bad enough to warrant school closures.  At least one of us tries to stay home with the kids.

cltk12

I have a very flexible job and most people work from home when it's a snow day if they have kids or not.  The company believes its better to stay home and be productive rather than sitting on the freeway for an hour+ in the morning and an hour+ in the evening.

Cheerio B

Our daycare takes school age children before and after school. If they are enrolled in that program then they can stay all day during a snow day.

ss+el

DS is not in school yet, but my parents live in town, so he would probably go to their house. Otherwise, my next door neighbors on both sides of me are teachers and have kids around DS' age, so eventually I could probably make some kind of arrangement with one of them, as they'd then be home.

cindybaf

Grandma can take them to work with her if absolutely necessary!

jf198400

If DC is closed due to snow we have a couple options.

1.  My mom comes over to watch them.

2.  DH or I take the day off.

3.  MIL is a teacher and is likely to have off, so she could watch them.