u/Enough_Expression626

My husband has just come back from a 3 week work trip, the (almost) culmination of a +10 year project. We weren't even dated when he started working on this, now the whole thing is reaching a crescendo. This whole thing has taken up most of his bandwidth this year. During this trip our kid started school - I handled everything for this transition, school shoes, uniform, attending the meetings, filling the forms and navigating the total lack of aftercare options available.

well husband is back! and he's sick. Literally landed and 36 hours later he's redecorating the bathroom. He's done one day of drop off and I'm back with it all on me, now with the added bonus of a pile of sweat drenched sheets that I had just changed. We don't have a dryer. This isn't his fault of course but honestly I really really didn't need this. I want to cry, but I of course, will run out of work and pick up our child. What a dumpster fire.

Tale as old as time....

kiddo starts school this year after 4+ year of being in private daycare. It's a big transition, but the local state school is round the corner from us and one of their best pals from preschool is going to be in their class so I'm confident they'll settle in.

I dutifully researched the after care options and settled on the aftercare that's based at the top of our road (amazing location for us!). They pick the kids up from school, walk them to a big airy hall that has several play "stations" where they can hang out for the 2.5 hours between school ending and us finishing our working day (in office). In summer, they take the kids to the local park to run wild. I fill in all the forms the day registration opens, get confirmation that I should hear back and....... nothing.

I politely email them a month after they say they'll get back to us, and I'm told that they're releasing spaces in batches "so as to not overwhelm their inbox". And then we get the email, 3 months before school starts, after the only other after care site has allocated all their spaces, that they are closing due to a "lack of demand".

IS THE LACK OF DEMAND IN THE ROOM WITH US?!?!?

I'm so angry. Mostly at myself for not hedging and applying for the other after school club but I never in a million years thought this club would close! Apparently flexible working and work from home means that numbers have dropped 35%. But this now means that a HUGE number of children currently attending the school, as well as several incoming kids have less/no after care. THREE MONTHS before the start of term.

I don't understand how aftercare is not critical infrastructure in the same way that school is. I can't argue with the economics of the situation if this is indeed the case, but why the fuck is this, and childcare in general, a for profit industry??

We have no local family but we are insanely lucky that both my husband and I can work reasonably flexibly. Current working plan is that I am going to go to the office for 7am to get my hours in while husband handles mornings and drop offs, while husband stays late and I handle pick up and afternoons. Spanner in this plan is that school finishes at midday on Friday so.... I will likely have to work evenings to "bank" time or drop down to 0.9FTE. We live and work within a 20 minutes drive (in 7am traffic anyway...). We'll likely survive, maybe even thrive once we find our rhythm (HA!) but it's going to be a much rougher transition than I anticipated...