The Snow-Day Scramble
It happens to all of us - plans foiled by a blizzard (or a feverish child) on a Monday morning. No preschool today. And for a working parent, that usually means no work that day either. Unless one of you stays home full-time, you've got to figure out how to get yourself out of this type of jam, and your child safely cared for, in a hurry.
This problem is humorously covered in Paul Nyhan's Working Dad blog from 11/28's Seattle PostIntelligencer. But how does equally shared parenting make it any easier to handle? The answer is in the predictable division of who stays home. In our house, there is only a 2 in 7 chance one of us has to deal with the problem at all; our reduced hours mean that outside childcare is only needed on Mondays and Wednesdays. And since we split things 50:50, we each take a day for which coverage may be needed. I've got Mondays - anytime one of our kids can't make daycare on a Monday, my employer knows I'll be out. Ditto with Wednesdays at Amy's workplace. The beauty of this arrangement is that I will NOT be out any other day but a Monday and my employer knows that too.
posted by Marc @ 8:44 PM
1 Comments:
Marc,
Thanks for the great idea! My husband and I often make plans about who's on duty in case our daughter can't make it to day care, but I never thought about formalizing that plan into a consistent schedule. I also like the idea of sharing this plan with our employers too.
Thanks again!
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