Conflicting Pick-up Schedule When School Starts

What about another Mom from the class? If you find a Mom who is willing to do this...It can be some extra spending money for her.

we have kindercare centers with busses that pick up kids from school and keep them till their paretns get there.. but 7 is apretty late pickup time..

you might have to hire a nanny and pay good money..

Often there are daycare centers that will pick up from the school. Check around for that. Or sometimes a person that lives near the school will watch several kids. If you ask at the school they may have some names for you. You could even look at having a high school student or a college student watch her until you get home. I had friends in college that did this. You may need to have 2 different people since 5 days is a big commitment and won't leave them any room for appointments, classes and such though.

If you find that you need to pay someone to come into your home, you might consider paying them a bit more and having them do a bit more, i.e. put on a load of laundry, or empty the dishwashers or take out the trash, or cook/ or warm up dinner and have some waiting for you.

I know you said that money is tight, but on the other hand, if you've got someone who is in your home and they can unburden you of not just the worry of receiveing your child, but another task, it might be more worthwhile.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

There are two possible solutions that come to mind.

1) Talk to your employer now and let them know about the change in your family schedule. See if it is possible for you to flex your schedule a little to go in earlier so that you can leave at 5pm, or possibly think about telecommuting and just coming into the office for specific meetings etc, that way you'd be home to get her by 6 even if you still needed to do some work after she was home.

2) The extended care AT the school is NOT the only option for after care. Most daycares provide school aged care in the afternoons (and mornings) with transportation to and from the local elementary schools. Start by asking the current daycare about it. You may be able to keep her there and continue getting her after 7pm.

That being said, 6pm is pretty much the standard pick-up time for daycare centers. That may make it more difficult to find a late pick-up option (unless the current daycare can do it), BUT your HR department has probably had to accommodate parent schedules in the past, so they should be able to work something out for you.

HTH
T.

You might be able to find a teenaged babysitter who can do that last hour, if you're okay with them driving your child. I would suggest looking into other after care programs who might offer later hours, or see if rather than after care, if it's not more costly - if one of the other moms at school offers babysitting. Good luck.

I have a friend that for a few years had a college aged Nanny. She pick up the girls, took them home, gave them snack, helped them with homework and started dinner.

I think she paid her $10.00 per hour and gasoline. This has now been about 15 yrs ago.. Maybe you could start working on this now, for the fall.

She also was smart enough to also have a back up.. so that when this girl was not available another person could fill in.. I think this person was a neighbor.

that IS a terrible predicament! single parenthood is so dang challenging. i'm in awe of your good work ethic, and so sorry this is eating up your evenings and causing such worry.
there aren't going to be any options, short of altering your schedule which doesn't sound as if it's available, that won't cost money, i'm afraid. the first thing i'd do would be to talk to the school and the extended daycare folks and ask them for suggestions. they've probably encountered this before. it may be that one of the daycare personnel will (for a price) stay longer, or know of another mom who may be willing to do a short after-school daycare for you.
good luck, mama!
khairete
S.

Is he friends with any kids in his preschool that is going into his kindergarten?
Maybe you could ask one of those parents to watch him for you that last hour.

No matter what you will have to pay! I would try changing my hours. That is a really long day for a kindergartener. Very different from preschool and daycare. Much more stressful.

I would discuss your hours with your boss because 6PM is pretty standard. 6:30 is on the later end of any daycare I used. If you truly need someone til 7PM, consider a PT nanny/sitter or an in-home caregiver to whom your child can be bussed in the afternoon.

ETA: Even if the preschool doesn't have a driver, there are companies that do only transportation. There were 3 people listed who did/do pickups from our preschool. I would ask the preschool or school if they know of someone who runs such a service if the bus can't drop her there.

Find a child care center that has evening or night time hours. This is usually an option for kids that don't get picked up until later in the evening. I stayed open until 2am for all my little stripper friends that had their kids in my center.

I bet I was the only child care center that got paid daily in dollars.....lol.

I think that if you look around you should be able to find someone that would love to make a little extra money too. Don't you know any of the kids in the neighborhood! Surely one of those mom's could pick your child up with hers and then feed her dinner while waiting for you to get home.

That's what I would do, I'd run an ad on FB or someplace looking for another parent that had kids at that school to just take her home from school with her. It would be mutually beneficial.

is it a daycare / preschool? most of them have a bus that will take the little one to school, pick them up and bring them back. so you won't pay for extended day you will just pay for daycare like your doing now.

If your preschool has aftercare, do they have transportation (will pick child up from school and bring her back to the center)? If not, are they in your school district where the bus can drop her off? If not, can you find one that does offer aftercare and can either provide transportation or is within your school district's busing area?

You will probably have to hire someone to pick her up for an hour, even if it seems like a pain. It's a good job for a college or high school student - someone who doesn't have kids of their own and is looking to make some extra money. I don't think you'd have to pay them a fortune if they are a student.

Maybe you can find a friend in the day care once school starts who is willing to take her home each day for that hour. You could offer weekend or morning babysitting or some other service as a trade. Or you could simply pay them. If they live close by, it would work out well.

Are you friends with any of the moms there? You can ask them to keep your child for an hour as a favor. They may be happy to do so, especially if they have things to do at home, like cooking, and need a break from the kid in order to do so, and having your daughter to play with their child would be the ideal solution. Offer to pay, or offer to take the mom out for dinner a few times a week to thank her for her help. I have had moms pick up my daughter from aftercare and drive her to school for exhibit nights for me as a favor, since the aftercare is out of my way and I can't get out of work too early to go get her and then drive back to the school and make it on time for those exhibit nights. They never charged me and were happy to do so. Good luck.

Is there ANY flexibility to your schedule? That a really long day for a K kid.
Ask done coworkers with kids & similar schedules what they've done. Nothing here has after 6 pick up...