School Half Days: The Bane of Working Parents
I almost laughed in her face, but I thought, Better let her enjoy the fantasy while she can.
And it is a fantasy.
Anybody who has kids in elementary school knows that between the holidays, half days, and mysterious "staff development" days--not to mention those sick days--it's literally impossible to go a month without work interruptions.
This week, my kids had three half days (due to parent teacher conferences). The following week, they'll have one day off for Good Friday and another half day off for mysterious reason. And of course, since we celebrate Passover, the kids will be taking one other day off. Then two weeks later, they have a full week off for spring vacation.
"But they had off a week at the end of February," a friend of mine said. "Did we get that much time off as kids?" It probably didn't matter since most of us had at-home moms or moms whose jobs were part-time and flexible.
Sounds like today, in fact. The difference, though, is that there are some of us--like me--who walk around in our jeans and sweat shirts but actually are have serious work commitments. These mothers and I have our secret code: "Half day," said with eye roll. "I know," said with groan.
What we do is cobble together coverage with babysitters and after care and call in favors and get the rest of our work done at night.
Whenever there are public policy discussions about how to better accommodate working parents, the talk is usually focused on providing subsidized, quality child care. But what about reorganizing the school day so it is structured around modern working life (versus the agricultural calendar of a century ago)?
Stumble It!
posted by pam at 3:15 PM
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