Julia's blog: The lessons begin

My children are still small (just 1 and 3) but I am already grappling with the hectic ‘back to school’ transition many parents have faced in the last week or so. My daughter attends the pre-school nursery at the local primary school and has done since January. This means we need a childcare system in place which accommodates the school drop-offs and pick-ups, school holidays – and the inevitable viruses picked up at the bug breeding ground. Oh, and the toddler – it’s surprising how often he goes unnoticed given the pitch and volume he can reach when he wants to.

For the past two terms, we cobbled together a system that seemed to work. My husband works full time in the city in PR but flexible hours and an understanding team mean late nights in the office aren’t common. I work three days a week in a city law firm and on the days I am in the office, I can’t always guarantee a timely exit (a trade-off I happily accept as I find my part-time arrangement is respected by colleagues and clients so I am generally guaranteed two work free days to enjoy some quality time with my children). This arrangement tends to leave me responsible for morning drop offs with my husband picking up the baton in the evening. Other crucial pieces in our childcare puzzle are a truly ‘super’ nanny, my amazing mum who helps one day and in-laws who frequently drop everything when one of the puzzle pieces goes missing!

Even with this carefully balanced system in place, I’m finding fitting in with the school routine difficult. Maybe I’m just not in tune with the school grapevine yet, but I seem to find out about key events 5 minutes before they happen. This means I will have definitely not baked anything for the charity cake sale, nor even had time to try and pass something off as my own creation. Perhaps it’s the lawyer in me, but I find the system of communicating with parents flawed to say the least. Putting a piece of paper into a book bag and supposing it will make its way through a three-year old’s hands to an adult is a leap of faith. Even if it does arrive home, there’s still plenty of scope for the adults that form part of the childcare web to lose, forget or ‘miscommunicate’ the ultimate message to the rest of the ‘team’.

I know I have an unnatural affinity with my blackberry, but surely an email would be easier (and friendlier to the planet?!).

Failing to contribute to a cake sale is one thing but this week we seriously dropped the ball. I had been gently prepping my daughter for her return to school for a few days to the point where, on Monday evening, she was massively over-excited about the whole thing. We arrived at the school gates on Tuesday only to discover that, whilst the rest of the school was back in session, the pre-school nursery wouldn’t be open until Thursday. Cue huge meltdown from the three-year old, including real tears and demands to be let into the classroom (directly contrasting with the cause of some other tears being shed by those around us).

Key ‘Cityparent’ lessons learned this week: embrace (and devise a workable system for) the nostalgic paper trail of school communication, never assume that your child’s picture of a turtle is not drawn on a crucial message – and always have a plan B childcare solution in place (thanks super nanny)!

Julia is a senior associate in the tax team at la law firm in The City. She works three days a week and spends the rest of her time looking after her three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son.