It's school time. Overcoming challenges to after school care for the working parent.

Summer is winding down and the school is finally here! How many of you Moms out there are excited or nervous or maybe even a bit teary eyed? I would say I fall in the excited group as well, it is TIME. Don't get me wrong, I love my children. But, we have had 3 glorious months of quality time together. It is time for them to spread their wings and continue to learn and grow through structure and discipline at school. And they need friends. I have twin boys and of course they have each other, but, do we always want to hang out with our brother? Of course not!

As you may remember, our family moved across the US in June from the East coast to West. Night and day difference. This was a planned move for the military as we are on to the next assignment in Utah. So, we are starting from scratch and learning the lay of yet another land. One would assume, everything is pretty much the same regardless of where you go in the US when it comes to living and schools. Well, that is not exactly the case here. As we knew we were moving months in advance, we wrapped things up with the boys' previous private school (that we loved and happened to be across the street from our house.) We searched for homes in Utah online and ensured the home we really wanted was in the right school district as there is such variability in the school rankings here in Utah! A good neighborhood could still have a poorly ranked school district, so you have to be careful. After extensive research we found the location and finally (the house) in the right school district. After three years of private school, we felt comfortable transitioning the boys to public schools to save money, convenience (the new school was 1/2 mile down the road) and well a bit more diversity in their schooling. We thought everything was going to come together nicely for us with this new move. I called ahead to the new public school to find out when to register the children and was told August. Ok, fair enough, we would wait all summer to get them enrolled in school. I reviewed the school website once we hit the month of July to start reviewing after school care, lunch menus, and also their school calendar. I was surprised how little of information the webiste had and needed to search broader to the school district. Funny, googling where you live to find the school district since I didn't even know! We were new to the area! I found the school calendar and printed it off. There were ALOT of days off throughout the year with multiple four day weekends and also EVERY SINGLE FRIDAY WITH SCHOOL ENDING AT NOON. Why would school end every Friday at noon? Who can swing that with working full time? Shoot. Still no after school care information. I called the school. No answer, they wouldn't return until August to the offices. Then I talked with our neighbors. All of them. I was told several of the neighbor moms watch kids in the mornings or after school. Cool, that was a good start. I had to individually talk to the moms to see what they could or couldn't do and found out they could possibly watch my children, but only on certain days at certain times, and they couldn't always pick them up from school. Well, that would work in good weather, but what about snow days and cold days. My kids couldn't always rely on running home or riding their bike. We DO live in Utah!! Plus, the majority of kids in these at home mom car centers were little babies or toddlers. My kids are both 8. Far from little and very active! On to the next plan......

So, I started calling around. I called Recreation Centers, toured day care centers. Where were all of the school aged children going after school? I couldn't possibly be the only working mom in the area! I called every place i could think of. Time was getting close to school starting. So, I set up a Care.com profile. We had a couple of interested babysitters, but one could work this day or that and no one was consistently able to work with our schedule. I emailed plenty of registered babysitters on there with plenty of "NO" responses. I had what I thought was a sitter, then he fell through and never got back to me. I interviewed a few people. I received random text messages to "call them" from their website. I'm sorry but if you want a job, pick up the telephone and call. I do not believe texting is a good way of doing business. It was frustrating. I applied to transfer the boys to a different school in our area that did offer after school care. (In Utah, you can apply to change schools for your kids in the public school system without any problems). Problem was it was so close to school starting, most classes were already full, limiting our school change. One Sunday, I was looking at the flyers at church and noticed a summer Bible camp for kids that was very inexpensive. I called right away to get my kids in because 1) they needed to meet friends 2) I wanted a break 3) a little Jesus can go a long way. Like the saying goes, The Lord works in mysterious ways. I was talking with one of the moms at this camp while waiting to pick up the boys and she asked me why I wasn't sending them to the private school there as they had a wonderful after school program. Well, I knew we were trying to save money, but this might be our only choice! So, I called the school, we took a family tour, and were able to get them in to after school care. As a military family, the challenges you face when you move are at times so overwhelming. This is an example of just one with this move. As a military wife, you must pick up the pieces and just "roll with it" to take care of the family, which is what we did.

I can say after all of this my kids are finally in their school (although not the original one we had planned). They are in their second week of their new school in a new grade in this new state and so far so good. There will be more bumps along the way I am sure, especially as I will soon start working and everything will shift again. But for now, we are doing just fine and for that I can breathe a small sigh of relief.

Til next time~ Amanda