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jen 10:08 AM 03-07-2011
Originally Posted by Catherder:
Here the schools plan for most parents working 9-5, so that makes it pretty simple for us. Rarely do they have anything we need to do during a school day and the times they did we had 6 -8 months notice. I know I am very fortunate to have that....

After School activities end at 6pm and I am able to pick up by 6:10 and still be pretty close to the front of the parent line. All plays, band, chorus etc. performances are scheduled at 7pm.

Karate ends at 7pm, they can ride the school bus there. I arranged that before I told my kids they could join, just in case...

DH is home 3-4 days per week (works a 24/72 hour schedule) for Doctors appointments, etc. It takes two alot of the time to keep up with all 3 kids.

The bus gets the kids home at 4pm, I have dinner ready before they get here, last DCK out the door by 6pm, homework is immediately after dinner IF they need help (rarely now that they are in Junior High). Ours has a homework period built in with help available, that accounts for the slightly longer school day.

Some nights we are in the dining room until 8pm doing homework, but typically that is due to procrastinaton or a difficult topic that required more help from an after school tutor. (also available at school til 6pm for $5, so worth it!!)

School is often canceled/delayed/early release on a whim, here, we lost almost two whole weeks in January due to less than 6 inches of snow...there is no way an employer would have put up with that... Because I am home, It did not effect us one bit...

Granted there are a few things I cannot do, but much, much less than most of the other parents around here who seem to work from dark to dark, year round.
You are SO lucky. My dd gymnastics starts at 4:30 on Mondays, later the rest of the week. Ds has homework help after school and needs to be picked up by 4:15, 2 times a week, and basketball starts right after school next year for ds and he needs to be picked up by 5pm. We don't have an activity bus and they cannot take the school bus anyplace other than home or daycare, but it has to be the same place every day. Summer is worse, baseball is during the day, so is tutoring and gymnastics. My 16 year old helps drive to the nearby things, but I used to pay someone to drive dd to gymnastics, $20 a shot!

I love that I never have to worry about them being released early from school due to weather and not getting home in time, but I miss having more flexibility. My dd asks me all the time if we can pick her up from school or come and have lunch with her. It bumms me out because the answer is almost always no.
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