Working Parents & Childcare

School pickup rota with two other families keeps breaking on the same family's day

maple_compass_9784

Three families from our lane, kids in the same class 4 section, and we split the afternoon pickup. I have Monday and Thursday, the akka from the next building has Tuesday and Friday, and the third family has Wednesday. Three Wednesdays out of the last four, the call comes at 3.15: running late, can someone go. It's usually me, because my office is closest. My caregiver has the little one at home and can't step out. I like this family and I'd hate for this to get awkward, but I also can't keep moving my 3.30 meetings. How have you raised it when one family in a rota keeps dropping their share?

3 comments

  • mellow_lantern_3046

    Have you told her it's become a pattern? People often don't keep count. A short message with the dates, no adjectives, usually does it.

    • willow_compass_2269

      I'd do it in person first, not on the group with dates. In a group it reads like a charge sheet even when it isn't meant that way.

  • cobalt_puzzle_9034

    We had a rota like this. It only held once we added a fixed backup for each day, agreed in advance, so the late call wasn't a scramble. Who is Wednesday's backup right now?

    • maple_compass_9784

      Nobody fixed, that's the problem. It defaults to whoever picks up the phone first, which is me 😊 Will suggest a backup per day.

    • peach_rain_5920

      Replying to @maple_compass_9784

      Or ask the late family to arrange their own backup. Otherwise you're the backup by default forever.

    • rose_river_9242

      Backup per day is the only version that worked for us too. Ours ended anyway when the sections got different finishing times, but it was good while it lasted.

    • maple_compass_9784

      Update: spoke to her at the gate yesterday. Her driver left in July and she's been juggling and too embarrassed to say so. We've moved her to the Wednesday morning drop instead, and the third family is now the Wednesday afternoon backup. Sorted for now.

  • plum_moon_6815

    One thing I would settle before the rota itself: where do the children wait when pickup is late, and who tells them? If it's a 3.15 phone call every time, the children are the ones absorbing the uncertainty.

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