Neither of us can answer a phone between 8 and 3. Whose number does daycare get first?

apricot_chai_110729 Oct 2026

Daycare is chosen, our 9 month old starts next week, and we thought the hard part was done. Then we sat down with the admission form. I work in a school and my phone is in a drawer for most of the day. My partner is back at the business full-time and spends mornings in client meetings with the phone on silent. Family backup is a 40 minute drive away and is meant for closure days, not every call. So who goes first on the form? And how many calls do they make in the first few weeks? Trying to work out whether we need a real plan or if I'm overthinking a sheet of paper.

2 comments

plum_camera_537429 Oct 2026
our school's sick room calls strictly in the order on the form, so whoever is first gets every small call. we put the one with the more flexible day first, not the one who's 'main'. felt odd at first but far fewer calls went unanswered after that your family person might be worth listing third even if they're far. sometimes the call is only a question, not a pickup
- rose_fern_890329 Oct 2026
  also write on the form what counts as a reason to call. ours used to ring about a scraped knee. now there's a line on it saying minor things go in the diary, and the calls dropped to almost nothing
ginger_finch_33129 Oct 2026
Ask the daycare how many calls they make in a typical month. When our daughter started playschool I was worried the same way. In the first term there were maybe three calls, and two of them were to ask if she could have cake at a classmate's birthday. They were also fine with a text message if no one picked up, as long as someone replied within the hour. You may not need a perfect plan, only an agreed reply time.
- apricot_chai_110730 Oct 2026
  Three a month sounds manageable. Though I suspect a 9 month old generates more calls than a playschool kid 🤷 Asked them about it at the orientation this morning and the answer was 'depends on the child'. Going with the agreed-reply-time idea for now and putting my partner first on mornings, me first after 1.