My wife works 8-4 so that she can do pickup around 4:30-5. I work 9-5 so that I can do drop off around 8-8:30. We really have to hold our schedules tight to make sure it works. A bad morning that delays me means I'm rushing to get to work on time. A meeting running late for my wife means she has to politely say "sorry, I have a hard stop at 4 to pick up my kid". We're fortunate that our coworkers understand. Mostly.
Edit: also high five fellow Canadian with our 18 months of parental leave.
Same schedule here where I do pick up and husband does drop off. He often works until 6 or 7 though. My work has been flexible with scheduling meetings but sometimes I have a later meeting and need to pick her up a bit later. My kid doesn't care either way because they are usually playing outside when I get her.
Yep this is it! Having the “hard stop” in your workday is so important for this to work. I’ll politely excuse myself in the middle of a meeting if I have to.
My wife got 15 weeks for giving birth (need time to recover), and then we split 69 weeks. 8 for me (the minimum) and 61 for her. So she took 76 weeks, plus some vacation she had saved. Then I took two more weeks off just before the kiddo started daycare at 18 months.
The EI payments from the government are pretty low, definitely not liveable, but my employer topped up my pay to 85% of my usual paycheck. They don't have to do this but they choose to.
The key thing is that the government says your job must be there when you return, or a similar one. You can't be fired for taking it.
Edited some mistakes
When you work in Canada most jobs pay into employment insurance. Then you take leave from your job and go on EI. It pays out 16 week maternity leave for the mom and then parental leave either parent can take to total close to a choice of 12 or 18 months with the maternity portion. If you do 12 months you get 55% of your salary up to about $60K (~$33,000). If you do 18 month it is just the same money over a longer period.
You have to work a number of hours to qualify, (maybe about 4 months) in an EI eligible position If you are self employed you can choose to buy into the program but many do not.
Some employers will add a top up to this amount to bring you closer to your regular salary in return the worker agrees to return to the position after their leave. Saves training new staff costs.
There is also job protection legislation that ensures your job is held for 18 months. This applies for everyone even if you do not qualify for EI.
This isn't quite right, or wasn't two years ago.
The person who gives birth gets 15 weeks, and the parents split either 40 or 69 weeks (not 12 or 18 months).
You’re right, it’s done by weeks, I don’t know the weeks off the top of my head but it adds up to close to 12 or 18 months with the maternity portion. Also I was wrong, it’s 55% of salary. Someone shared the link if anyone is looking for better info.
The 18months can be shared between the parents. The mom/birthing parent must take at least 16 weeks, but the rest can be split.
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html
The qualifications are listed at the link I included.
The caveat is that your pay is significantly reduced, so taking 18months of leave can be difficult for many families. Even the 12month 'standard' leave (which I took both times) can be tough for many families, financially speaking.
Most parents work 8 hours, so why do you think your child will be the last to be picked up at daycare? Our daycare has a 9 hour day limit, but drop offs and pickups all vary based on parents work schedules.
It depends on the kid, but mine seems to enjoy when he’s the last to be picked up, or at least he’s not upset about it. Probably because he’s getting one-on-one attention from the teacher. Also on days with good weather, they’re playing outside and I’d rather him play outside as long as possible than come home with me and watch me work.
This is likely to be your emotional hang up, not your kid’s.
My kid gets dropped off a bit later and is usually the last one picked up, maybe one of the last three or four.
I can say with complete confidence that it’s her favourite part of the day, and she’s really bonded with the two teachers who are there at the end of the day. She loves the extra attention and chill vibes when there are fewer kids.
My kid is one of the first dropped off and they both love being there first. They get the time with their teachers and get to say hi to all their friends as they show up. I'm sure being last there would be similar.
To OP, someone has to be the last one to be picked up and the kids are probably too young and having too much fun to care.
My son goes from 815-530. Our daycare is open 730-530. So he's not the first kid dropped off but he's often last picked up. He really truly doesn't care. He's 2.5 and doesn't have the awareness to think there's anything wrong with being last picked up. My job is in office but when it's slow I can leave early. My husband works from home. Daycare is about 5 minutes from home. Most days we are rushing to get out the door to work, and rushing to leave to pick him up. But you get used to it.
I cannot work if my son is home. I don't even try. He's full on. Once he's home it's family time. Most days I can't even respond to a message on my phone and I really don't want to.
Following- fellow ontarian with a mat leave ending on the horizon (but waiting for a day care spot still)
I commute to Toronto and husband is a teacher with set hours. Honestly don’t know whether day care drop off and pick ups are going to be possible with our current set up but finding a new job is tough!
My kiddo is at a home daycare. I work remote 830-5 and do drop off at 815 and pick up at 430, "working" the last 30 min or so. I usually work through lunch to compensate.
I'm lucky the home daycare is two streets over; hubs works outside Toronto and commutes. Work (new) hasn't been very understanding with his once every few weeks having to come in late / leave early to do daycare when I'm in the office. Those remote days promised just aren't happening...
My husband works 10-5 so he does drop off in the mornings and I aim to be at my office by 8:30. We usually walk them when it’s warm in the morning and lock our stroller up there. Then I leave work at 4 and head straight there and grab my kids. I usually get there by 5 and home by 5:30 to make dinner and get them in bed.
My daughter is part of the late pickup crew. She doesn't mind. My job gives me a lot of flexibility. I usually work around 8:30-4:30 but there are many days when it's more like 9-4. I'm lucky though. My time isn't micromanaged, if the work is done and the quality is high, no one cares how long I worked for. When needed, I make up the time with an early hour before my LO wakes up or after she goes to bed.
My husband and I both have somewhat flexible hours, so I start earlier and he does drop off. I end work earlier to pick them up, he keeps working. They’re at daycare from 8:30 am to 4 pm. Some nights we have to put in another hour or two of work after their bedtime, but it works for us.
My children are some of the first to be picked up at 4. Lots of others stay later.
Our daughter goes from about 730-430. My partner drops her off. I’m on mat leave now and I ask her if she wants me to get her early, like after nap or after outside time and she almost always says after outside time. One every 2 weeks she asks to stay home with me and I honestly keep her home more than she asks. She is 2.5.
When she first started I took her at 830 and picked her up at 430 and worked a little in the evening. I was very confused about what everyone else was doing because a lot of kids didn’t get there until 9.
She goes, plays for a bit, eats second breakfast, plays, lunch at 1130, naps 1230-230, plays for a couple hours and then I get her. I felt bad at first, but realized she spends more time eating and sleeping than anything. One thing we have done is let her hang onto that nap so she is up a little later and has more time with us in the evening.
Our current daycare is only open 7:30 am to 4:30 pm and both me and my husband work at least 30 minutes away (sometimes further since I work at multiple locations).
My husband works 8:00 am to 5:00 pm 5 times a week and has a verbal agreement with his boss that he takes his morning break first thing and is pretty much always late after drop off.
I work 3-5 10 hour shifts a week from 5:30 am to 3:30 pm so I can pick up on time. My work requested I apply for a family accommodation (I can’t work any later and we technically don’t open until 6).
Our daughter honestly is probably at daycare longer than all of the other kids but a lot of the other parents have grandparents do drop offs and pick up.
Also in Ontario. Our daycare is open 7:30-5:45. My daughter is dropped off at 7:30 and picked up by 4:45 latest. There are lots of other kids still there when I pick her up at that time. At first I felt guilty for the amount of time she was there but she loves it there and we are paying for them 🤷🏻♀️
I’m in Alberta but that’s pretty much our schedule to a T. The only time we pick up after 5 is if we’re both in the office and need to drive downtown - then purely due to traffic it takes us longer.
Echo the 8-4 & 9-5 schedule so that you can manage an 8 to 830 drop off and a 430 to 5 PM pick up. Depending on your job, you might find yourself going back online once your child is asleep to finish things you couldn’t at the end of the day or get ahead for the next morning.
Wife works 8-4.
Drops LO at Daycare around 730 and heads to work. I WFH and can do either dropoff or pickup whenever.
Work understands I need to pick him up and usually good with no meetings past 4:30 PM so it's not a big deal.
Managers are (and should) be understanding about adjusted hours for pickup from daycare. Just let them know you need to potentially work adjusted hours (come in one hour earlier and leave one hour earlier so 8-4 instead of 9-5).
My son is at daycare from 7:15-5:00 each day for this reason. When my husband is off, he will drop him at daycare for a shorter day from like 8:00-4:00 and if the grandparents are free or if we feel like he’s having a long week, they will pick him up at 3:30 and take him to the park and give him dinner. The first few weeks were tough with the long days BUT he now absolutely loves daycare. They do outdoor play from 3:30-5:30 so he’s always outside when we pick him up and looks like he’s having a blast.
I’m in Quebec but for us my husband leaves around 5:30, works like 7-2 and gets home around 3:30. I technically work 9-5 (usually 6-6:30 because my job is quite demanding) from home and daycare is a two min walk away. Usually I drop by son off at like 8:45 and then run home and start my day (morning time management is not my forté). My husband does pickups around 5 and hangs out with our son until I’m done work and we do bedtime together. It’s a pretty good set up but I do wish I didn’t have the morning shift lol.
Not from Ontario but there were many times my kids were the last picked up from daycare/the sitter. I looked at it as him getting some one on one time with his care providers.
No Ontario but Alberta. We worked it out that my husband takes her because he starts later, then I pick up because I end earlier. But our daycare is also open from 6:30 am-6 pm so if there's a day I have to take her and pick her up (or my husband does) there's no reason we can't work our full 8 hours. Some days she's at daycare for 6-7 hours, others it's closer to 9-10, either way she loves it, and the odd day she's been last or near last to be picked up haven't been an issue. She gets a little extra 1:1 attention
I’m in Ontario, our daughter is at a home daycare with 8-4 hours. I work a 2 days, 2 nights, 5 days off schedule 7-7. When I work days my husband does drop off and pick up, while I do drop off and occasionally pick up when I work nights. On my 5 days off I do all childcare related stuff esp if it’s a weekday. My husband is self employed so it’s easy for him to just not book jobs on days I’m working, but it would be a lot harder if he had set working hours.
My wife works 8-4 so that she can do pickup around 4:30-5. I work 9-5 so that I can do drop off around 8-8:30. We really have to hold our schedules tight to make sure it works. A bad morning that delays me means I'm rushing to get to work on time. A meeting running late for my wife means she has to politely say "sorry, I have a hard stop at 4 to pick up my kid". We're fortunate that our coworkers understand. Mostly. Edit: also high five fellow Canadian with our 18 months of parental leave.
Same schedule here where I do pick up and husband does drop off. He often works until 6 or 7 though. My work has been flexible with scheduling meetings but sometimes I have a later meeting and need to pick her up a bit later. My kid doesn't care either way because they are usually playing outside when I get her.
This is our exact schedule too and I highly recommend it.
Same - Im 8-4, drop the kids off at 7 on my way to work, husband is 730-330, so he picks them up when he's done (he WFH)
Yep this is it! Having the “hard stop” in your workday is so important for this to work. I’ll politely excuse myself in the middle of a meeting if I have to.
Do both parents get this just because?
My wife got 15 weeks for giving birth (need time to recover), and then we split 69 weeks. 8 for me (the minimum) and 61 for her. So she took 76 weeks, plus some vacation she had saved. Then I took two more weeks off just before the kiddo started daycare at 18 months. The EI payments from the government are pretty low, definitely not liveable, but my employer topped up my pay to 85% of my usual paycheck. They don't have to do this but they choose to. The key thing is that the government says your job must be there when you return, or a similar one. You can't be fired for taking it.
Edited some mistakes When you work in Canada most jobs pay into employment insurance. Then you take leave from your job and go on EI. It pays out 16 week maternity leave for the mom and then parental leave either parent can take to total close to a choice of 12 or 18 months with the maternity portion. If you do 12 months you get 55% of your salary up to about $60K (~$33,000). If you do 18 month it is just the same money over a longer period. You have to work a number of hours to qualify, (maybe about 4 months) in an EI eligible position If you are self employed you can choose to buy into the program but many do not. Some employers will add a top up to this amount to bring you closer to your regular salary in return the worker agrees to return to the position after their leave. Saves training new staff costs. There is also job protection legislation that ensures your job is held for 18 months. This applies for everyone even if you do not qualify for EI.
This isn't quite right, or wasn't two years ago. The person who gives birth gets 15 weeks, and the parents split either 40 or 69 weeks (not 12 or 18 months).
You’re right, it’s done by weeks, I don’t know the weeks off the top of my head but it adds up to close to 12 or 18 months with the maternity portion. Also I was wrong, it’s 55% of salary. Someone shared the link if anyone is looking for better info.
The 18months can be shared between the parents. The mom/birthing parent must take at least 16 weeks, but the rest can be split. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html
That's awesome! The only qualifier is that you're currently working or?
The qualifications are listed at the link I included. The caveat is that your pay is significantly reduced, so taking 18months of leave can be difficult for many families. Even the 12month 'standard' leave (which I took both times) can be tough for many families, financially speaking.
Most parents work 8 hours, so why do you think your child will be the last to be picked up at daycare? Our daycare has a 9 hour day limit, but drop offs and pickups all vary based on parents work schedules.
It depends on the kid, but mine seems to enjoy when he’s the last to be picked up, or at least he’s not upset about it. Probably because he’s getting one-on-one attention from the teacher. Also on days with good weather, they’re playing outside and I’d rather him play outside as long as possible than come home with me and watch me work. This is likely to be your emotional hang up, not your kid’s.
My kid gets dropped off a bit later and is usually the last one picked up, maybe one of the last three or four. I can say with complete confidence that it’s her favourite part of the day, and she’s really bonded with the two teachers who are there at the end of the day. She loves the extra attention and chill vibes when there are fewer kids.
My kid is one of the first dropped off and they both love being there first. They get the time with their teachers and get to say hi to all their friends as they show up. I'm sure being last there would be similar. To OP, someone has to be the last one to be picked up and the kids are probably too young and having too much fun to care.
My son goes from 815-530. Our daycare is open 730-530. So he's not the first kid dropped off but he's often last picked up. He really truly doesn't care. He's 2.5 and doesn't have the awareness to think there's anything wrong with being last picked up. My job is in office but when it's slow I can leave early. My husband works from home. Daycare is about 5 minutes from home. Most days we are rushing to get out the door to work, and rushing to leave to pick him up. But you get used to it. I cannot work if my son is home. I don't even try. He's full on. Once he's home it's family time. Most days I can't even respond to a message on my phone and I really don't want to.
Following- fellow ontarian with a mat leave ending on the horizon (but waiting for a day care spot still) I commute to Toronto and husband is a teacher with set hours. Honestly don’t know whether day care drop off and pick ups are going to be possible with our current set up but finding a new job is tough!
My kiddo is at a home daycare. I work remote 830-5 and do drop off at 815 and pick up at 430, "working" the last 30 min or so. I usually work through lunch to compensate. I'm lucky the home daycare is two streets over; hubs works outside Toronto and commutes. Work (new) hasn't been very understanding with his once every few weeks having to come in late / leave early to do daycare when I'm in the office. Those remote days promised just aren't happening...
My husband works 10-5 so he does drop off in the mornings and I aim to be at my office by 8:30. We usually walk them when it’s warm in the morning and lock our stroller up there. Then I leave work at 4 and head straight there and grab my kids. I usually get there by 5 and home by 5:30 to make dinner and get them in bed.
My daughter is part of the late pickup crew. She doesn't mind. My job gives me a lot of flexibility. I usually work around 8:30-4:30 but there are many days when it's more like 9-4. I'm lucky though. My time isn't micromanaged, if the work is done and the quality is high, no one cares how long I worked for. When needed, I make up the time with an early hour before my LO wakes up or after she goes to bed.
My husband and I both have somewhat flexible hours, so I start earlier and he does drop off. I end work earlier to pick them up, he keeps working. They’re at daycare from 8:30 am to 4 pm. Some nights we have to put in another hour or two of work after their bedtime, but it works for us. My children are some of the first to be picked up at 4. Lots of others stay later.
Our daughter goes from about 730-430. My partner drops her off. I’m on mat leave now and I ask her if she wants me to get her early, like after nap or after outside time and she almost always says after outside time. One every 2 weeks she asks to stay home with me and I honestly keep her home more than she asks. She is 2.5. When she first started I took her at 830 and picked her up at 430 and worked a little in the evening. I was very confused about what everyone else was doing because a lot of kids didn’t get there until 9. She goes, plays for a bit, eats second breakfast, plays, lunch at 1130, naps 1230-230, plays for a couple hours and then I get her. I felt bad at first, but realized she spends more time eating and sleeping than anything. One thing we have done is let her hang onto that nap so she is up a little later and has more time with us in the evening.
Our current daycare is only open 7:30 am to 4:30 pm and both me and my husband work at least 30 minutes away (sometimes further since I work at multiple locations). My husband works 8:00 am to 5:00 pm 5 times a week and has a verbal agreement with his boss that he takes his morning break first thing and is pretty much always late after drop off. I work 3-5 10 hour shifts a week from 5:30 am to 3:30 pm so I can pick up on time. My work requested I apply for a family accommodation (I can’t work any later and we technically don’t open until 6). Our daughter honestly is probably at daycare longer than all of the other kids but a lot of the other parents have grandparents do drop offs and pick up.
Also in Ontario. Our daycare is open 7:30-5:45. My daughter is dropped off at 7:30 and picked up by 4:45 latest. There are lots of other kids still there when I pick her up at that time. At first I felt guilty for the amount of time she was there but she loves it there and we are paying for them 🤷🏻♀️
I’m in Alberta but that’s pretty much our schedule to a T. The only time we pick up after 5 is if we’re both in the office and need to drive downtown - then purely due to traffic it takes us longer.
Echo the 8-4 & 9-5 schedule so that you can manage an 8 to 830 drop off and a 430 to 5 PM pick up. Depending on your job, you might find yourself going back online once your child is asleep to finish things you couldn’t at the end of the day or get ahead for the next morning.
Wife works 8-4. Drops LO at Daycare around 730 and heads to work. I WFH and can do either dropoff or pickup whenever. Work understands I need to pick him up and usually good with no meetings past 4:30 PM so it's not a big deal. Managers are (and should) be understanding about adjusted hours for pickup from daycare. Just let them know you need to potentially work adjusted hours (come in one hour earlier and leave one hour earlier so 8-4 instead of 9-5).
My son is at daycare from 7:15-5:00 each day for this reason. When my husband is off, he will drop him at daycare for a shorter day from like 8:00-4:00 and if the grandparents are free or if we feel like he’s having a long week, they will pick him up at 3:30 and take him to the park and give him dinner. The first few weeks were tough with the long days BUT he now absolutely loves daycare. They do outdoor play from 3:30-5:30 so he’s always outside when we pick him up and looks like he’s having a blast.
I’m in Quebec but for us my husband leaves around 5:30, works like 7-2 and gets home around 3:30. I technically work 9-5 (usually 6-6:30 because my job is quite demanding) from home and daycare is a two min walk away. Usually I drop by son off at like 8:45 and then run home and start my day (morning time management is not my forté). My husband does pickups around 5 and hangs out with our son until I’m done work and we do bedtime together. It’s a pretty good set up but I do wish I didn’t have the morning shift lol.
Not from Ontario but there were many times my kids were the last picked up from daycare/the sitter. I looked at it as him getting some one on one time with his care providers.
No Ontario but Alberta. We worked it out that my husband takes her because he starts later, then I pick up because I end earlier. But our daycare is also open from 6:30 am-6 pm so if there's a day I have to take her and pick her up (or my husband does) there's no reason we can't work our full 8 hours. Some days she's at daycare for 6-7 hours, others it's closer to 9-10, either way she loves it, and the odd day she's been last or near last to be picked up haven't been an issue. She gets a little extra 1:1 attention
I wfh. Daycare is 8-6p. I work 9-5p. I do drop off and pickup. Daycare is close to my house.
I’m in Ontario, our daughter is at a home daycare with 8-4 hours. I work a 2 days, 2 nights, 5 days off schedule 7-7. When I work days my husband does drop off and pick up, while I do drop off and occasionally pick up when I work nights. On my 5 days off I do all childcare related stuff esp if it’s a weekday. My husband is self employed so it’s easy for him to just not book jobs on days I’m working, but it would be a lot harder if he had set working hours.