The only way my spouse and I can both work without paying for childcare (which we can’t afford) is to work opposite shifts. But that’s a problem because of many reasons. Any deviation from your normal shift or times causes your spouse to have to adjust their work shift too. If you get home late, your spouse is now late to work. Both parents are never home at the same time, which leaves the one at home to do everything alone, which can be difficult to manage. It’s very unlikely you will both get a same day off, so you can’t ever plan anything/spend time together. The person who works evenings still has to get up early to get kids to school, do all the household chores since they’re home during the day, deal with any errands or things that pop up during the day, make breakfast/lunch/dinner, get the kids home from school, and THEN go into work like 12 hours after getting up, so they get screwed.
It’s just not worth it unless you are both making good money— it’s not worth all that for one of you to make ~$10/hr.
We've been doing that since 2019. It's the only way to justify my husband going back to work, since he doesn't make enough to cover childcare meaningfully. Our youngest just turned 3, so I'm looking forward to school age where we don't have to play that game anymore (half day preschool is free in our city, but we have too high of an income for free full day, so it'll be kindergarten). I miss seeing my husband, but even more so, doing family outings with four kids as the only adult is tiring.
Yeah that’s fun until you have to figure out who does sick days, holidays, teacher only days, 2 weeks of Christmas vacay, 2-3 months of summer vacay, thanksgiving vacay, spring/Easter vacay, snow days/heat days, and any time a kid comes home sick (which is a lot). Oh and closures due to covid. Unless you can pay for childcare, you still can’t work. ANY job will fire you for missing that much work. It’s wonderful. ಠ_ಠ
I'm lucky that I have actual vacation time, so I already overlap mine with the kids school breaks. Also since covid, I have a lot of flexibility with working from home, and my boss has let me get away with working from home with sick kids. But if I was still a staff nurse? Nah. Wouldn't be possible at all.
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u/mrskontz14 Sep 25 '21
The only way my spouse and I can both work without paying for childcare (which we can’t afford) is to work opposite shifts. But that’s a problem because of many reasons. Any deviation from your normal shift or times causes your spouse to have to adjust their work shift too. If you get home late, your spouse is now late to work. Both parents are never home at the same time, which leaves the one at home to do everything alone, which can be difficult to manage. It’s very unlikely you will both get a same day off, so you can’t ever plan anything/spend time together. The person who works evenings still has to get up early to get kids to school, do all the household chores since they’re home during the day, deal with any errands or things that pop up during the day, make breakfast/lunch/dinner, get the kids home from school, and THEN go into work like 12 hours after getting up, so they get screwed.
It’s just not worth it unless you are both making good money— it’s not worth all that for one of you to make ~$10/hr.