I’m toying with a potential schedule change that would have me starting an hour earlier so that I can finish an hour earlier the two days/week I see patients. This would allow me to be home in time for DD’s bus drop off.
All you parents out there, how important and meaningful is it to be home for bus drop off?
I will be home the other three days I don’t work regardless. If I don’t change my schedule, I’d get home an hour after bus drop off. If I do change my schedule, I risk losing some patients. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, I would just have to do more evals for a while until I replaced the lost patients.
So should I inconvenience some of my patients to be there for DD, or just stick with the status quo?
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I’m gonna chime in as a childless adult, so take this with a grain of salt.
I got myself home with no parent around for a few hours after from age 9 onwards and it was fine. I enjoyed having the house to myself for a bit.
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Older kids are definitely fair game to have some solo time after school. DD will be five, so either myself or DH will be home for her. I’m feeling a little sad yet excited about her starting kindergarten, and it’s got me reexamining my schedule to try to feel better, haha.
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Oh yea 5 is young enough a parent should be there but not sure if it it’s important to have both adults there 5x week. I’ll let parents chime in though! Good way to think about things
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For us an hour earlier/later doesn’t make a huge difference, especially after school, so I would base it on how that impacts your morning routine and whether that’s a good tradeoff. Half the time my husband takes them to the playground or library on the way home, so they’re out and about for an hour anyway. But my kids are in daycare/preschool, not K, and no bus.
It’s bedtimes/wakeups that I try to limit being away for (and we notice them missing me) – earlier in the month I had an evening meeting, a morning workout, and then an evening babysitter all in a row so I switched one of them. But I might be hither and yon more than some parents.
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Would there be an adult there other than you? I wouldn’t worry about missing a small bit a couple days a week. You can still show delight upon arriving home.
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Three days a week is a lot! I would only consider making changes if you had some reason to think there was a problem, like an unusually sensitive kids or unsatisfactory options for child care.
The Boy changed his work schedule back in 2018 when the boys were much younger because we just couldn’t care at the times and prices we would need. He was the after school parent Tuesday through Friday and I was the Monday parent.
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It’s historically been kind of my thing to change my schedule every few months or so at work. The office staff used to tease me about it. However it’s been 15 months since my last schedule change, so perhaps I’m overdue. Or perhaps I should just leave well enough alone and continue to enjoy this pretty sweet schedule. I do often wish I started a little earlier and left a little earlier though.
On Tuesdays, DD will have piano lessons and DH needs to be there, as he’s the point person for doing piano stuff the rest of the week. I guess I really don’t need to be there Tuesdays. Thursdays perhaps? I have to change my schedule three months in advance to avoid rescheduling people, so any change I make today won’t take effect until November. I think I should probably just wait a few more weeks to see how the schedule feels as is. I have a lot of excitement and some nerves around the next few weeks. DH is downshifting and DD starts kindergarten. I guess I’m trying to manage my little corner of the world haha. And again, I have always thought it would be nice to start a little earlier and end a little earlier.
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