Work related child care problems

TunaFish

Really struggling with this and hoping that someone can suggest something I haven't thought of.

My gf is having major issues with child care and I am struggling to help her find a workable solution.

Currently my gf works 3 midweek shifts a week between the hours 07:00 - 20:00. She has an arrangement for child care that covers the school drop off and pick up on those days until she gets home from work. Unfortunately, the arrangement has to stop.

No family or friends can help due to various reasons and my work hours make me unavailable for both drop off and pick up. The earliest the school accepts arrivals is 8am (breakfast club) but I would not be able to get to work on time from the school location. Same for school finish time even accounting for after school club until 18:00.

An example of one day last week my partner was in work 07:00 - 20:00 and I was in the office 09:00 - 17:00 I then had to visit a site from 20:00 until midnight. As you can see days like that will now cause huge headaches as well as normal work days.

We have emailed, phoned, searched the internet asked about for child minders but no one is able to offer help due to my partners shifts not being set days.

She has applied for family friendly working hours but again the shifts offered only sort out the drop off and not the school pick up etc.

At present we don't live together.

Anyone have any ideas?

pramsay13

It this your child also?
I'm going to assume it isn't as although you are trying to help the burden of responsibility and changing seems to lie with your girlfriend.
It sounds like you are trying the right things.
It might be worth asking on a local facebook group for some suggestions.
Some childcare providers if they have space might be happy for days to change each week, it is when they are almost full that this becomes a headache for them.
Another option is to pay for a full week but just use the days that you need them, or even just using them anyway to get some extra time.
Another option is to speak to parents of friends of the child. Maybe they could watch the child on those days in exchange for your gf watching their child on the other days.

TunaFish

pramsay13 wrote: »

It this your child also?
I'm going to assume it isn't as although you are trying to help the burden of responsibility and changing seems to lie with your girlfriend.
It sounds like you are trying the right things.
It might be worth asking on a local facebook group for some suggestions.
Some childcare providers if they have space might be happy for days to change each week, it is when they are almost full that this becomes a headache for them.
Another option is to pay for a full week but just use the days that you need them, or even just using them anyway to get some extra time.
Another option is to speak to parents of friends of the child. Maybe they could watch the child on those days in exchange for your gf watching their child on the other days.

Hi,

No the child is not mine.

she has asked as many of the child care providers she can find that operate in that school area and none of them have the space to accommodate the changing days each week.

I am not sure if she is that friendly with any of the other mums. Never heard her mention any and definitely never met any of them. I will suggest it and see what she says.

Rosemary7391

How old is the child? Old enough to walk part way or take a bus if you dropped them on a safe route to the school? Might that help?

TunaFish

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

How old is the child? Old enough to walk part way or take a bus if you dropped them on a safe route to the school? Might that help?

Hi,
The child is 6 years old.

Comms69

What about the other parent?

annandale

Your gf can ask for flexible working hours as far as I know and so could you. My friend asked for them and her employer said no but her husbands said yes.

To have the statutory right to ask for flexible working arrangements, you must: be an employee; and. have worked for your employer continuously for 26 weeks at the date on which you make your application; and. not be in one of the groups of employees who aren't entitled to ask for flexible working.

TunaFish

Comms69 wrote: »

What about the other parent?

Unfortunately, they live in another part of the country and have nothing to do with their child.

Fireflyaway

Could your girlfriend request to change her hours at work? There is no guarantee her work will agree but everyone has the right to ask. Failing that you could look for someone who is willing to babysit after school. Maybe a sixth form student who could do the school run then cook some dinner?
Might sound dramatic but to reduce stress I'd probably look to change jobs. Once my daughter started school I worked 9:30am - 2:30pm every day. That's 25 hours work a week with no childcare costs and a lot less stress! The job wasn't anything fancy but it brought in an income.

annandale

There was an arrangement that has had to stop

TunaFish

annandale wrote: »

Your gf can ask for flexible working hours as far as I know and so could you. My friend asked for them and her employer said no but her husbands said yes.

To have the statutory right to ask for flexible working arrangements, you must: be an employee; and. have worked for your employer continuously for 26 weeks at the date on which you make your application; and. not be in one of the groups of employees who aren't entitled to ask for flexible working.

My gf has already applied for family friendly working arrangements unfortunately due to her job the shifts still cause problems with school collection. I guess one option is to reduce her hours further?

My job isn't really suited to full flexible working due to the nature of it i.e. reactive, project and deadline based with bit of proactive. A lot of my hours are dictated to me by other factors such as the weather or client operating times. I have flexible working for my office based role but most days I am the office in the morning and out on site in the afternoon so can't guarantee finish times.