Is it worth asking a new client to fix workshop days so daycare pickup isn't a guess?

mellow_trail_32067 Jul 2026

Workshops on my current project are confirmed every Friday for the week after, sometimes not until Monday morning. On those days I'm on site till about 7, and our daycare closes at 6.30. My partner's consulting calendar is no more predictable than mine. The family member who covers for us lives across town in Uppal and needs two or three days' notice, which is fair. So most weeks there is one evening where the plan is a guess. The two options I can see: ask the client team to fix workshops to set days, which they may agree to but which makes me the person with constraints on a new account, or pay for the daycare's extended-hours plan for the whole month to cover maybe four evenings. Neither feels clearly right. Has anyone got fixed days in a client-facing role without it costing them?

1 comment

coral_fern_49737 Jul 2026
Before choosing, I would put the monthly extended plan next to what the late-pickup fee for four evenings would come to. Some daycares price the occasional late day so that the monthly plan looks sensible, and it may not be. On fixed days: I once asked for two fixed teaching slots in a semester and nobody remembered I had asked a month later. People notice the request far less than you expect.
- juniper_violin_63787 Jul 2026
  Agree with the last part. When my son was small I asked for my office day to be fixed to release day, and it simply became how the team planned. The awkward feeling lasted much longer in my head than in anyone's calendar. One thing I'd add: if you'd rather not explain, put it as a delivery reason, fewer reschedules and proper prep time, not a childcare one. Both are true.