THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508310423
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Line up the neighborhood baby sitter. Fly in a grandparent. Or dip into that precious stockpile of vacation days.
It's the end of the summer, when even the best-laid child-care plans go awry, leaving parents cobbling together plans to survive until school starts.
Summer camps have drawn to an end. Some day-care centers are having annual training days. Home day-care providers often take vacations before fall semesters begin.
That leaves many two-income families and single parents doing the end-of-the-summer shuffle. ``It can be a scramble,'' says Dana Rosen, a Norfolk attorney. Children's Harbor, the day-care center she uses, closed three days this week for annual staff training. ``But if you plan ahead, it's less frantic.''
She juggled her schedule Wednesday and Friday to care for her sons Evan, 6, and Adam, 3. Her husband, Jeff Rosen, also a lawyer, is caring for the boys this morning. A neighbor and baby sitter will fill in the rest of the time.
``We piece together the days,'' Dana Rosen said.
It's a routine all too familiar to working families. And the bad news is that the start of school next week won't solve the problem. Even during the academic year, there are the predicaments of teacher work days, holiday breaks, snow days, hurricane days andmornings when a child wakes up with a 104-degree temperature and red spots.
Parents' days off from work don't always match their children's days off, despite efforts to synchronize calendars. ``No matter how good you think your child-care arrangements are, they're going to break down once in a while,'' says Judi Presser, senior program manager with Work/Family Directions, a Boston-based company that provides work-family programs for employers across the nation. ``You're never home free.''
A recent study by Lipton Corporate Child Care Centers - a Washington-based company that provides backup child-care for corporations in New York, Philadelphia and Washington - estimates that parents miss an average of eight days a year because of breakdowns in child care.
The study showed August to be the month most likely to cause parents day-care headaches. Twenty-five percent of parents the company surveyed reported glitches in August, compared to 10 percent in April and May, the lowest months.
Parents find a variety of answers to the child-care gaps. They call a relative. Ask a neighbor to help out. Split shifts with the spouse. Take their kids to work. Work from home. Call in sick and hope the boss doesn't figure it out.
The lucky ones take vacation days to cover the gaps and enjoy the time off with their children. ``It's like another vacation for some parents,'' says Susan Pollack, director of Children's Harbor. ``They know when they enroll their child here that we close three days before Labor Day weekend, so parents plan for that.''
John Winters, a manager at a Norfolk asphalt plant, will be taking off three days this week to care for his children, 4-year-old Robert and 2-year-old Katharine, who attend Children's Harbor in Norfolk.
He and his wife, Iva, have backup plans galore this week, because Iva's mother is in town. But they never let down their guard.
``I always save a week of vacation,'' says Iva, a bookkeeper for a group of Norfolk physicians. ``I'm always scared to use it, because it's my ace in the hole.''
Child-care experts say wise parents devise a backup plan before needs arise. They find out if anyone in the neighborhood can care for their children. Trade days off with other parents. Or register in advance with day-care centers that will provide care when primary providers can't.
Dana Fink, who coordinates a child-care resource and referral service for The Planning Council in Norfolk, says parents are often so overwhelmed with finding day care to begin with that they don't plan for emergencies.
That can cost them, and their employers, money. The Child Care Action Campaign estimates that U.S. employers lose $3 billion a year due to ``child care disruptions.''
Because of that, some companies have developed programs for crunch times. NationsBank, for instance, has contracted with Children's Harbor and Boys' & Girls' Clubs to care for employees' children at the bank's downtown Norfolk office if schools close because of snow. The company has even devised an office-friendly curriculum for the children.
``Employers are becoming more and more aware of the needs of families,'' Fink says. ``Supporting their employees during these crises benefits the bottom line, so that's what's driving it.''
Some companies allow employees to use sick time for emergency-care needs, or to adjust their schedules to accommodate their children. Some allow employees to work from home.
Iva Winters says when Hurricane Felix threatened to close down her office for a day, an administrator for the group set up a room with a VCR so employees could bring in their children to watch movies while their parents worked.
While unsympathetic bosses probably still outweigh the family-friendly ones, there does seem to be a growing recognition of the problem of child-care breakdowns.
``People I do business with are empathetic because they've been there, too,'' Dana Rosen says. ``If I call and say, `My son has chicken pox; can we do the pretrial conference over the phone?' they understand that.'' MEMO: SURVIVAL TIPS
Arrange with a stay-at-home parent to keep your children, in exchange
for your keeping his or her children on a weekend.
Go over the school calendar as soon as you can to make arrangements
for days your children will be home from school or day care.
Ask your regular after-school caregiver or day-care provider about
substitutes. Sometimes day-care employees at centers that close on a
snow day are willing to care for your children at home. Make sure you
have their phone numbers on hand.
Take your vacation or use personal days off.
Join with other parents to hire a caregiver for several children.
Stick with a familiar setting or adult.
Split a work day with your spouse, or with a co-worker whose child is
also out of school or day care.
Talk in advance with your employer about company policies on time
missed because of child-care arrangement breakdowns. Is it possible to
work from home? Can you work a night or weekend day to make up for
missed time?
Encourage your employer to recognize the needs of working families.
Serve on a committee to study the issue.
Register in advance at a day-care center that accepts drop-ins so the
center can fill in if your primary child-care provider has an
emergency.
If you're a really organized parent, have a backup plan for the
backup.
Source: Child-care experts and parents
by CNB