For now, I am planning on my ILs helping us out. They watch DD and DS after preschool 4 days a week, so hopefully that will continue. If not, I plan on getting a babysitter for the afternoons and changing my schedule so that I am home earlier. For some reason, I feel really strongly about my kids coming home after school vs. going to latch key care.
DS1 age 7, DD age 5 and DS2 born 4/3/12
Re: s/o what's your plan for afterschool care for when your kids are older?
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
I've always seen the term "latch key care" used for after school care for latch key kids, I guess. Around here it's called prime time care, as in care provided in school after hours. I didn't want to use that term b/c I don't think it's widely used. What I meant was, I want my kids to come home and for someone to be there for them, if I can't be, vs. staying at school late.
But this obviously wasn't until I was in middle school at a minimum. We had a sitter after school when I was younger.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
We don't have any family nearby, so I guess our options are:
1) staggering our work hours so one of us is home
2) after school program (our current daycare has a nice program)
3) maybe we can make arrangements for DS to go to a friend's house after school or something, hard to say when it's so far in the future
When I was around 12 and my brother was 10 we started coming home from school by ourselves. We were really responsible so I wouldn't hesitate to do the same at an appropriate point in time. Before that we would go to friends' houses, after school care, or mom was home. We did all those things at one point.
that is great! I wish I had a set up like that. I consider myself pretty lucky that the elementary school gets out at 4 pm, though. If I tweak my hours a little, I won't miss much in the afternoons.
Matthew Kevin
7/31/83-7/20/11
Met 1/8/00
Engaged 4/21/06
Married 9/29/07
Two beautiful legacies: Noah Matthew (2 yrs) and Chloe Marcella (8 mos)
Day Three
I have two options my best friend who watches him now can pick him up after school or the after school care for an hour. We have a great after school care, where they do crafts, games, snacks and whatnot. But really haven't given it a thought since we have some time.
Right now, I am working every weekend to accomodate school/preschool dropoff and pickup times.
Our "goal" plan is once DS #2 hits kindergarten (fall 2012) and they are both in the same school is to use SAC (school age childcare) in the morning, when I am driving home from work. DH will drop them off in the am on his way to work, and I will have to be up by the time they get off the bus (3:45 pm), which is fine as long as I work nights.
If I switch back to days (7am-7pm), we would use SAC for one hour in the morning and 30 minutes after school on the days I work, so maybe 1-2 times a week?
With my stepson, we took advantage of the after school care they offer at school. When he got older, he was a latch key kid for a couple of months of the year but when sports were in session, he was usually doing that after school and we'd pick him up from there.
With my dd, I now work from home so when she goes to school full-time next year, I'll have her ride the bus home. It drops off at 4:00 in front of my house so it will be easy to have her come home, give her a snack and some TV and finish up my work day.
LOL, my mom went back to work when I was in 2nd grade, and being the drama queen that I was, I made it like I was a latch key kid to everyone, but really my mom paid the mom of my BFF down the street to watch me every day after school.
TTC #1- unexplained...lost left ovary 4/07 IUI #1 2/10/09-BFN IUI #2 3/5/09-BFN IVF # 1-BFP
TTC#2- FET 4/7/11 BFP, Natural mc 5/5/11 IVF#2 ER 9/13/11, ET 9/16/11, Beta #1 9/27/11 BFP 254 Beta #2 9/30/11 793 -Twins!