Childcare at 7.45am

WantToBeSE

I would NEVER let children so young walk to breakfast club by themselves. #

How about asking the school office what other parents do? When I had exams at Uni, I had to be there at 8.30am and it was a 45 min drive away. I was chatting to one of the office staff about this one day and they said I could take my son into the office at 7.45am on the days that I needed to , as they were in the office from 7.30am.

Worth a shot.

Or ask your/your husbands boss if you can arrive 15mins later, and work 15mins later at the end of the day instead?

lazywife

A friend of mine had a senior school girl to watch her children before they went to breakfast club. The senior came at 7.30, did 30 mins homework with them and then walked them to school, and carried on to her own school. She was obviously paid, happy for the job.
Maybe you could come up with something like this?

Mojisola

bylromarha wrote: »

We don't live near the school, it's a 40 minute walk/10 minute drive from our house, so we'd need to drop them with someone - and we don't know anyone!

lazywife wrote: »

A friend of mine had a senior school girl to watch her children before they went to breakfast club. The senior came at 7.30, did 30 mins homework with them and then walked them to school, and carried on to her own school. She was obviously paid, happy for the job.
Maybe you could come up with something like this?

You'd have to find someone who lived near the junior school in this situation - which might be possible.

As others have said, ask at the school - the secretaries and the PTA as well as your children's teachers. There will be a solution out there.

sulkisu

Walking the distance during normal school run hours, when there would be many other parents and children going the same way, still wouldn't be ideal but would be preferable. I would have real concerns about them walking alone so early - with fewer parents around.


You say you have to be on your way from the school at 7.45a.m, TBH instead of leaving them to walk it would be preferable (although not ideal) to drop them at the school gates at that time. Breakfast club may not have started by then, but the chances are the staff will be around - not to take responsibility for your children, but they are probably less vulnerable outside the school gates, within shouting distance of reliable adults than they are walking along the street alone.

bylromarha

Figured the age old "THEY'RE TOO YOUNG TO EVER BE ALONE" would come up.

OH and I are very confident in our kids and their abilities. We wouldn't let them out on their walks alone around the area if we didn't.

Thanks for the idea of asking the school office - forgot what a fountain of local knowledge some secretaries can be.

And to repeat, our job times are just not bendable. There is no 15 minutes to make up at the end. It starts when it starts or you don't have a job.

GobbledyGook

If it was just a case of them walking to school then I would, but not when you don't know any other parents in the area they'll be walking. I think that's different to kids just walking to school

fabforty

bylromarha wrote: »

Figured the age old "THEY'RE TOO YOUNG TO EVER BE ALONE" would come up.

OH and I are very confident in our kids and their abilities. We wouldn't let them out on their walks alone around the area if we didn't.

Ok, so there's no problem then [smiling Smilie]. I'm left wondering why you posted in the first place.

bylromarha

double_mummy wrote: »

at 7 i was doing the walking thing with my younger sister who was 5 for a walk of about 25 minutes make sure you do stranger danger and walk the route with them a couple of times then do a dry run with you at one end and dad at the other if they know the route and are confident in it then let them do it. have you got anywhere like this near you http://www.safetycentre.co.uk/about-us.html very worthwhile and made me as the elder feel much more secure knowing exactly what i had to do in case of an emergency.

congrats to your OH for his new job :):):):):):):):)

Thanks for the bit in bold. So proud of my boy! It's been a while since he was earning, so we're pleased that this role has come along for him.

And LOVE the safety centre! Didn't know place like that existed. We made up our own "safety centre" activities for the kids as part of their road safety/stranger danger training we've been undertaking with them since the word go.

Like I said, we know we can trust them with the walk as we've been trusting them to walk alone to familiar local places since they were 5 and 7. (at which point some of you will be going :eek::eek::eek::eek: ) It's been a priority to us to allow them the freedom to go to the park, the swings and other places independently from us, so we've put countless hours into getting to the point where they can do this.

bylromarha

fabforty wrote: »

Ok, so there's no problem then [smiling Smilie]. I'm left wondering why you posted in the first place.

Because I always like considering all the options.

I could only think of one solution myself, but figured lots of other parents have had this dilemma, so wondered how they handled it so I could see if that option would work better for us.

little_miss_muppet_face

fabforty wrote: »

Ok, so there's no problem then [smiling Smilie]. I'm left wondering why you posted in the first place.

Just what I was going to say, you have clearly made up your mind what your going to do but thought it best to ask on here to justify it.:
Lets hope your not back at some point with an awful story to tell..
They are both too young to walk that far alone., but ultimately its your decision