We’re having another one of those days. I work part time during the day. This is normally just fine: my daughter goes to preschool or to her part time, play-based school. The grandparents pick her up from school on my work days, and all is well with the world. Except when it’s not.
We are lucky that we have two sets of grandparents who do child care. This is great: when one leaves the country, the other set is there. When one gets sick, the other one is there. Except, again, when they’re not. Right now, one set of grandparents is sick while the other is out of the country.
We’ve had backup child care in the past, but it is hard to come by. If your child is not in daycare full time, it’s hard to find someone. Very, very hard. There are babysitters, but they are usually available in the evenings, and I work days. There are nannies, but they work full time most of the time, and when I have found people on call they charge more than I make and my daughter cries the entire time. There are neighbors, but often they are not available because they have their own lives.
When everything fails, the buck stops with me. Sometimes I take days off to deal with child care crises, but between regular days off, sick days, her sick days, and child care problems, sometimes it seems like there’s no point in trying to get to work at all.
Then there is the version we tried the other day: take my daughter to school when it’s not her school day, because it’s photo day and she wants to go. Pick her up after a couple of hours and take her to work, where I have projects ready to go. Attempt to work with her at the office. Have my husband leave work early so that he can take her home. Continue to work. Bring work home in the evening because I wasn’t very productive.
This is one of the reasons that I love my part time work at home job: I can do it when my daughter is asleep. Sleep is excellent child care.
How do you juggle part time work and child care?