A Mom Compared Her PTO Days With How Many Days Her Kids Are In School And The Math Is Scary
“My kids have only had one full week of school in January.”
If you have a school-aged child, you’ve probably noticed that a “normal” week of school can be fairly elusive. Maybe your child has a half day so teachers can have a professional development session. Or it’s MLK Day. Or there’s a Spring Break coming. Or inclement weather delayed school for two hours.
All those random days and half days can add up, and TikTok creator Paige (@sheisapaigeturner) is saying what we’re all thinking: for working parents, the math ain’t mathing.
“My kids have only had one full week of school in January,” she begins. “ And they’re not even going to have a full week of school the first week of February. And let me tell you: the math just does not add up.”
“Everybody tells you that childcare gets easier as your kids get older,” she continues. “What they mean is childcare gets cheaper. It doesn’t get any easier. And actually, oftentimes, women are leaving the workforce as their kids get older, not when they’re young. Because what happens is you don’t have enough PTO [paid time off] to cover the amount of time your kids are not in school.”
She’s not necessarily talking about summer break or winter vacation, either, though that certainly does complicate matters as well, but at least for extended breaks there tend to be more and better childcare options. Paige is referring more to one-off half days or vacation days sprinkled in here and there.
“This week on Wednesday my kids don’t have school: I can get childcare for that,” she explains. “Their after-school program does run a full day program. But I did the math for my two kids to go. It was going to cost me almost $300 for one day of childcare. And so for me, it doesn’t make sense and for many families it doesn’t make sense.”
Yeah, I’d rather use one of my PTO days to fill that gap than lose $300. But even with that option available families run into problems.
“My husband and I, we try to switch off when it comes to this,” she says. “But last year combined I think we had 35 days of PTO total ... and our children had over 37 days off from school or half days. More than we had PTO. And so if you’re not going to do that then you need to pay and half days cost me $90 per kid so the math doesn’t work. And this is why working parents are so stressed out all the time!”
And this isn’t even counting sick days which, as we know, never fail to rear their ugly heads every few weeks. Heaven help you if you have more than one child, since one will bring home something and then pass it to the next so any particular virus will linger for at least two weeks.
“I say as a SAHM: now that my kids are in school I can’t see myself going to work with these kids' schedules,” says one commenter.
“I work from home with unlimited PTO,” another chimes in. “And I’m always wondering how people do it without those options. Impossible.”
Interestingly, an educator also weighed in on the issue...
“Teacher here. We hate it too,” they write. “The lack of routine messes up the kids. I don’t understand why we have all these random days off either.”
It’s cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless.
So what’s to be done?
“I don’t think schools should offer a solution,” Paige writes in the comments. “I think our workplaces could be more flexible and our government should subsidize childcare.”
We’re crossing our fingers but aren’t holding our breath...
