After schoolers

Hi everyone! This is my first post so please bear with me!

I’m pretty new to this, I started properly at the start of the year, I have my own two children, 6 & 2 and at the moment have three children on my books, two of them are after schoolers brother and sister one in reception and the other in juniors and are lovely kids, term time only and I only have them until 4pm. The school staggers the classes leaving so I have to get to the school at 3pm to line up to get the first one who comes out at 3.10 but is always late, that means my child who is in year one who comes out at 3.15 is left waiting for me, then we have to wait until 3.30-3.45 for the junior. The school kicks everyone out of the playground so all the parents have to crowd outside to wait, I have to keep my son in the pram who hates this and gets really annoyed by all the waiting, and my daughter really plays up. I hate the school run with a passion anyway as it’s such a large school and some of the parents are hideous beasts and park awfully causing me to walk dangerously but as I’m there anyway I thought it would be easy and I’ve come to realise that it is making me very unhappy, one of them is off sick at the moment with the dreaded pox so it has made me realise just how much easier it is to just collect my one and leg it.

My question is, should I just suck it up and carry on or should I do what’s best for me and my family? It’s only one hour of my day when you think about it but it’s the worst hour and it makes me miserable. I can’t believe that something so minuscule has affected me so much! Has anyone found the same in childminding? I just don’t know what to do, I don’t want to let the family down and they’re such nice kids but it has really got me thinking about how miserable it’s making me.....

Welcome to the forum and the world of childminding:D

It does seem a palaver doing your school run.

There are lots of cms who dont do school children but equally alot increase their income by adding afterschool children.

You have questions that you need to answer is it financially worth it? Will it change once your school moves up a year?

However if you are being made that unhappy you need to change it.

Dropping the school runs can make things sooooo much nicer! But can you do without the income? If you can then go for it- end of term is an ideal time to give notice- you are running a business, businesses change their services, don't feel bad about it.

I’ve just stopped doing the school run. 19 years including my own sons then continued with minded children. The freedom I feel is fabulous but I’m really going to miss the income. Some of my schooling’s use to be here till 6pm so it added up financially. If you can survive financially I’d say stop at the end of term taking into account what your contacts state regarding termination. This should give the parent time to adjust. In the meantime maybe advertise for an early years child. But please don’t be miserable as it’ll grind you down plus wait till winter. A school run can be very hard over the winter months. Best of luck.