Anyone who works a 9 to 5 with their child in childcare do you get enough time as a family together? How does this work??

This is what I'm afraid of, (following) as I work from home most days but my husband is pushing for childcare...

I work from home, 9-5 and we have good amount of time as a family together. And what matters most to me, it’s quality over quantity. I spend about an hour with my son in the morning and about 2-3 hours in the evening. Sometimes we go to places after work/after childcare and sometimes my husband does pick up after childcare and they go somewhere together, like playground/arcade or grocery shopping.

That’s during the week. And then there’s of course weekends and vacations and midweek getaways we do.

It doesn’t tbh, but you get through it in survival mode.

As a mom who has had to use daycare and now owns a childcare center, you really can’t have quality time with that schedule unfortunately. Unless you put your child to bed absurdly late. My daycare children spend more time with me than their parents, however for some families that is unfortunately the only option.

I work a hybrid schedule 3 days in office, 2 from home, 8-4p typically. We spend about 4 hrs together every evening doing random things. From riding his bike while I walk, my son talks my head off while I cook, he goes to the gym with my husband to play basketball. Now that it’s warmer the kids in the neighborhood are out every afternoon so I watch him play with them. On the weekends, it’s even more time together. I feel like we spend a good amount of time together as a family. My son enjoys it and remembers it.

We both mostly WFH so that helps a lot! I did 9-5 Monday to Thursday for years but I've recently switched to working 5 days but finishing at 2:30 3x a week now my eldest is at school and it's been nice.

However, we're really lucky that they both really enjoy nursery and after school club so feel no guilt whatsoever in having them there sometimes. They love it!

I work full time but it’s not 9-5 (teacher schedule). For one thing, dinner time can be family/quality time. And once toddlers are down to just one nap they often have pretty late bedtimes! My 4 year old still naps at daycare and goes to bed at 9pm.

Small moments of connection can still be very meaningful as well. 3 minutes of cuddles in the morning - you could even read a short book. I do absolutely everything possible the night before.

Also, if you were at home full time yes, your children may be physically present with you for more hours - but not all of those hours would be “quality time.” You may be showering, cleaning something they can’t help with, cooking something they can’t help with, etc.

It will never be “enough” from the kid perceptive because they just want us 24/7 and to have our undivided attention (already impossible if you have more than one kid). This is true of working or stay at home parents. In some ways I find it’s easier to think of it that way.

I work 9-4 four days a week. My partner works 8-4 five days a week and we spend plenty of time together as a family. We both have the weekends off work and I have another random weekday off work. Our daughter goes to nursery 4 days a week and is collected by whichever parent gets there first (her nursery is at the top of the street we live on).

We have a good few hours before our daughter’s bed time (8:30) and all weekend together where we can comfortably afford to do what we like as a family

I only have to do this one day a week but even that makes me feel guilty because the day feels like a write off, so I’ve started getting up earlier to make sure we get an hour of play in. We walk to preschool, which takes about 40 minutes, but I do this intentionally so again it’s more quality time together. I pick her up at 4 and bring food, and then take her to the park and eat dinner there. Sometimes we go out for food and have a little date. There’s also an arcade and soft play right next to her nursery, so sometimes we go there afterwards too. My daughter doesn’t really enjoy preschool and complains she misses me. I also coparent, so she’s also out of the house 2.5 days as well, so I feel really guilty and I’m just trying my best to compensate.