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[SDCyclonesFamily]

Two kids - 12 and 8….both are homebodies and the last week has been their idea of a perfect world since they get to stay home. My husband and I both have worked from home part of the time before so this hasn't been a hardship for us either since we have home offices set up already. Tomorrow the kids' school starts official e-learning. My oldest decided to get started today since most of the stuff is posted online as of this morning. I think she will probably have her week's worth of stuff done by early Wednesday

We have let them do their own thing and just ask that they help with keeping up on dishes and laundry. They've spent a chunk of their time playing xbox online with their cousins but they've also been pretty good about reading and doing craft stuff. This will be the first summer they will be able to stay home by themselves so it has been a good test to see how self sufficient they can be.

 

[Big_Sill]

I saw an interesting survey last night on Twitter. I don't know the accuracy of it. It said people in salaried jobs without kids are having a much better time staying home. They are actually enjoying the time to binge watch TV, read, or works on a new hobby.

Those with young children are in a much worse place because they can't binge watch TV, don't have the freedom to read, and need to supervise their kids, who likely have cabin fever, all day every day with no break.

Which group are you in?

Every personal situation presents its own unique challenges. With 3 kids at home, we are finding it would be manageable were it not for 1 of the kids being a 7 week old newborn. As others have indicated, having a child who demands nearly constant attention makes being productive near impossible. Good luck to everyone.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

Wife is still going into the office daily as some of her team hasnt been able to transition to WFH yet or so she tells me. Of course we have 2 kids at home and a kitchen remodel currently going on so she might just be avoiding the craziness.

 

[jbindm]

Have a 3 year old at home, this is now week 2. My wife is also home but she’s a “meeting person”. Meetings all day every day. So I’m doing my normal job, also trying to keep a three year old entertained, then have to deal with my wife griping that I’m grumpy and just fall asleep every night at the same time as the kiddo does. It’s not great.

Pretty much the same except I also have an eight year old. When we pulled our kids out of daycare last week I kind of knew this was how it would go, but it's not making it any easier. I'm squeezing all my work into short 30 minute bursts and then playing babysitter the rest of the time. I'm stressed as **** right now and it doesn't look like there's any end in sight. Today I got up at 4:30 just to have an hour to myself to get in a short workout and answer some emails and other work stuff because I knew once everyone else got up that was it for alone time for the rest of the day.

In short, this blows.

 

[TexCyted]

Wife and I are both teachers. We are currently holding our classes online every day. We are also home schooling our 1st, 6th and 7th graders as well as our twin 2nd grade nephews. Their parents have essential jobs. Worst part is being the lunch lady and custodian. Best part is corporal punishment BACK!!!!

 

[Gunnerclone]

Pretty much the same except I also have an eight year old. When we pulled our kids out of daycare last week I kind of knew this was how it would go, but it's not making it any easier. I'm squeezing all my work into short 30 minute bursts and then playing babysitter the rest of the time. I'm stressed as **** right now and it doesn't look like there's any end in sight. Today I got up at 4:30 just to have an hour to myself to get in a short workout and answer some emails and other work stuff because I knew once everyone else got up that was it for alone time for the rest of the day.

In short, this blows.

Same. Keep making some time for yourself.

 

[DSMCy]

For those of you that have pulled kids out of daycare, are you still paying for daycare?
If you don't mind sharing.

 

[spinback32]

I'm 100% remote, already - but, I usually travel 2-3 days/week. Full time at home, now. 1.5 year old at home. Wife works 26 hours/week in the E.R. We have an in-home babysitter for about 10 hours/week right now - (still pay for 15 hours/week because she is awesome).

Nothing really changed for us - except knowing that we'll probably get the virus from my wife bringing it home from the hospital, if/when it gets really rampant.

 

[jbindm]

For those of you that have pulled kids out of daycare, are you still paying for daycare?
If you don't mind sharing.

Yep. They had made that decision and let us know a couple weeks ago, so we knew we'd be charged even before we decided to pull them out. Since then they have announced that they'll be backing the tuition rates for kids who are being kept home down to 50%, but it's unclear for how long. I mean, who knows?

Anyhow, I'm OK with it. They've been a really good provider for us for almost a decade now, and if it helps keep the doors open and the teachers employed then whatever. We're all making sacrifices.

 

[cowgirl836]

For those of you that have pulled kids out of daycare, are you still paying for daycare?
If you don't mind sharing.

we paid for last week but then they closed Thurs, said the rest of March will be credited to May and not charged for April. It's a national chain. No idea if teachers are still being paid........I hope so. Have thought about contacting the director to find out. They MAY be allowing healthcare/essential worker children to stay (some locations were doing so) which would allow them to be paid.

 

[jbindm]

we paid for last week but then they closed Thurs, said the rest of March will be credited to May and not charged for April. It's a national chain. No idea if teachers are still being paid........I hope so. Have thought about contacting the director to find out. They MAY be allowing healthcare/essential worker children to stay (some locations were doing so) which would allow them to be paid.

It's a tough spot for everyone. I'm not crazy about paying for a service that I'm not using, but on the other hand eventually the center will re-open and it's hard enough to keep a daycare staffed as it is. The teachers there (or at any good daycare, really) work their asses off and don't get paid terribly well for doing so. I'd like for them to still be able to operate when the world starts back up.

 

[IcSyU]

For those of you that have pulled kids out of daycare, are you still paying for daycare?
If you don't mind sharing.

No. KinderCare isn't charging us but I don't know if that's specifically for our center because of Mayo and their ability to add kids of medical personnel or national policy.

I have reached out to our center director and so far the only people home are choosing to be home and they're being paid.

 

[cyco2000]

Count me in the WFH with kids camp. It's normal for me (full time remote), but it's utter chaos with my wife and both of our kids (5 & 7) at home now too. Somehow my office ended up as the de facto meeting/school work/arts & craft place for the while family during the day so all four of us are spending 8+ hours a day in ~150sq feet of space while the rest of the house languishes.

Fortunately for us our school district got their stuff together for eLearning quickly, but it's more task based with a lot less "teaching" involved in many respects. This is working well for now, since it allows me or my wife to facilitate learning from home without impacting our regular work too much. Of course this goes to crap if both of us have meetings at the same time...

Would you share what school district you're in? Ballard hasn't responded in the same way as your second paragraph.

 

[Gunnerclone]

For those of you that have pulled kids out of daycare, are you still paying for daycare?
If you don't mind sharing.

Our daycare just closed. If you want to ensure your spot when they reopen you have to pay for three weeks after closure. This also allows them to continue to pay the staff and continue their benefits through May (which I have no problem doing, I would go longer than that). After that three weeks they shut off the payment system.

Edit: if you pay the three weeks you also get a one week credit for future use (for a vacation or whatever).

 

[CyOps]

Seven and nine year old at home. Wife's hours at the doctor's office where she works have been cut to two days a week. I work from home when she's at work.

The kids would be fine sitting in front of PS4, Netflix and YouTube all day but we make them do educational and productive things throughout the day.

 

[CySki]

My sister shared a useful website we've used a bit.

getepic.com

Tons of books that they can read or you can read or the app/site reads aloud.

I signed up for Epic a few weeks ago because our daughter does it at school. By default you get a free month trial but I found out that if you create an account but don't subscribe right away then they'll send you an email giving you 2 free months to try to entice you.

 

[grantdd]

For those of you that have pulled kids out of daycare, are you still paying for daycare?
If you don't mind sharing.

We're not entirely sure how it will all end up, but daycare for our youngest is supposed to switch to 50% tuition until further notice, and after school care for our oldest is either going to stop charging entirely or they will credit our account in some fashion. Hard to tell with the latter since pretty much everyone there was laid off when the state closed the schools. (I'm in Illinois - public schools here were officially closed last week and all daycare centers were closed starting today.)

 

[grantdd]

Would you share what school district you're in? Ballard hasn't responded in the same way as your second paragraph.

Apologies - I should have been clearer, especially since I don't live in Iowa anymore. I live in Illinois, in a pretty large suburb of Chicago (suburb might be a stretch, but close enough). Public schools closed on the 13th here and by the 17th the entire district was setup for eLearning, albeit somewhat simple in nature. We have access to a handful of apps/platforms like IXL, Epic, PebbleGo and Seesaw. The elementary schools are using Google Drive to share lesson plans/schedules by grade. Most of the lessons we're doing (1st grade) are task based, e.g. read this book on Epic or Raz Kids then head over to Seesaw and answer some basic questions about the book, fill out this math activity on Seesaw, practice writing high frequency words, etc... Art, music, and PE have lesson plans published as well, suitable for the amount of activity time they would normally get during the week.

 

[KCy]

Funny how people dont want to put up with their own kids and then complain about teachers and schools while voting down funding and levies.

Sorry. I'm a teacher and find this crisis is grounding a lot of people for the better.

 

[cowgirl836]

Funny how people dont want to put up with their own kids and then complain about teachers and schools while voting down funding and levies.

Sorry. I'm a teacher and find this crisis is grounding a lot of people for the better.

For the record, I'd be much better with it if I weren't expected to also get 8 hours of work in. I feel like I'm a half assed parent right now. But I agree with the idea that many belittle and do not value what you do.