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Getting Childcare

My friend Susan is an engineer and she’s also a single mom. She has been working some odd hours lately and was having a tough time finding childcare for her 4-year old daughter and her 8-year-old son.

Her daughter, Kimberly, is enrolled in a preschool and Susan is able to drop her off on her way to work. But, the preschool closes at 6:00 p.m. and sometimes Susan can’t get there in time to pick her up.

Her son, Paul, is in the second grade and goes to a public school near their house.

Paul gets out of school at 3 p.m. but Susan never gets off work before 6:00 p.m., and sometimes later.

So, what can she do with the kids after school? I went with Susan to check out a latchkey program at the local community center. It seemed like a good idea. Paul would be picked up from his school and he could stay at the center to do his homework and to play in the center until as late as 7 p.m. The tuition was fairly low and there was rolling admission. The trouble was, there was very little supervision of the kids and the staff seemed inexperienced.

Now, Susan is considering hiring a nanny. The nanny would pick both kids up from their schools and bring them home. The nanny could make dinner for them and stay with them until she got home. This would be ideal, but a good nanny is hard to come by and is very expensive to hire, even the ones who don’t live in.

I don’t envy Susan. Single moms‚ and dads‚ have it tough.