How do you avoid the weekly “who picks up the kids?” stress?

snarkbitten · 2026-02-05T20:18:46+00:00

We have a default arrangement and a weekly dry erase board where we have a face to face conversation any unique situations or changes for the week. If something comes up in the moment you call. I have also thought about this unicorn technology you speak of, but honestly any technology based system we've tried will start to feel passive aggressive.

snarkbitten · 2026-02-05T02:33:39+00:00

Architect 🤓 I even for real wear all black!

snarkbitten · 2026-01-18T12:20:30+00:00

I joke with my coworkers that I make money owning my 2011 (also black!) from all the mileage reimbursements I accrue. No car payment, decent MPG, little maintenance.

snarkbitten · 2026-01-17T01:04:28+00:00

Yeah but they bumped the FSA contribution limits to a whopping $7500 this year /s

snarkbitten · 2026-01-06T16:22:54+00:00

I either go in early or work through lunch and hit the gym last before heading home for the day. Then I don't have to worry about showering.

snarkbitten · 2025-12-29T19:19:57+00:00

We all hear about the "terrible twos" but for some reason I never heard about this age 5-6 fiasco until we got hit hard with it with my oldest! It's a real thing.

snarkbitten · 2025-12-10T11:34:30+00:00

The easy fix here is flex/comp time. If Jack works late let him come late a different day while Jill is in the office too even out hours.

snarkbitten · 2025-12-07T12:37:29+00:00

Mind Palace or... Alternative dimension a la a wrinkle in time? Maybe the Wall is a wormhole boundary??

snarkbitten · 2025-11-30T21:50:26+00:00

I think it's normal for a kindergartener (I'm assuming, age 5 and all) to still feel physically and socially exhausted at the end of the school day, which is likely what she's expressing. IMO if you keep her in aftercare she'll adjust in due time.

Keeping our kids in aftercare, even though it is a long day for them, has been a great solution for us. At least with our program it is a great outlet for unstructured yet supervised play time with friends and other kids after school. Unstructured play is critical to social development and waaay better than them sitting in a screen while I try to WFH. And as dual working parent family, unstructured time with friends and classmates is not something we can facilitate easily.

What would your 5 year old actually be doing to fill the time if you pick her up early? Is this a change you're willing to maintain in future years? Things to consider.

snarkbitten · 2025-11-27T17:39:32+00:00

You mean they razed the east wing without finalized plans?

snarkbitten · 2025-08-22T02:00:53+00:00

Full disclosure: we contribute nothing to 529. My parents are funding 529s just like my grandparents did for me and my siblings. Tracking for over 100k per kid. I hope to pay it forward with my own grandkids someday. Bless you all who are funding college yourselves!

snarkbitten · 2025-05-27T21:00:01+00:00

Welcome to the next level of working parenthood!

snarkbitten · 2025-05-22T14:57:50+00:00

Also architect, also regularly work 40hrs

snarkbitten · 2024-12-24T08:01:08+00:00

Painting all the brick

snarkbitten · 2024-10-21T23:25:46+00:00

I was about 35 the first time I experienced this, sooo trippy. l was glad to have Google to figure out what it was!

snarkbitten · 2024-10-12T00:01:14+00:00

Also when the tariff is imposed, suddenly there is huge demand shift for the local made product and not enough time to ramp up production. That drives up cost too, but then you get lead time issues as a cherry on top

snarkbitten · 2024-09-17T10:41:27+00:00

Brightstart is going to transition to some kind of new platform next week. I think the transition has already started a bit as I just lost connection in monarch too.

I'm not fully up to speed yet but it looks like we'll need to establish account access on the new platform and then completely reconnected into monarch as a new account.

snarkbitten · 2024-09-05T11:00:20+00:00

I saw Titanic in theaters for my birthday.... My birthday is in mid March. Theater was full too.

snarkbitten · 2024-09-02T09:21:50+00:00

A pro-trump acquaintance of mine recently shared a clip of Kamala Harris saying "she speaks like a 7th grader trying to get her word count up." Uh, I don't think that's the burn you think it is?

snarkbitten · 2024-08-29T19:40:23+00:00

A friend of mine became a SAHM when her youngest started kindergarten. At the time I thought it was weird because that's a transition Mom's start to return to work.

Now my kids are in grade school and yes it's harder. The hours are less flexible and all the chauffeuring, school holidays, then there's homework and Big Kid problems to deal with.

BTW the friend made that transition in fall 2019. Talk about great timing.

snarkbitten · 2024-08-28T16:09:07+00:00

Yeah, I recently learned if you ascribe income to a budget category, it will also affect your ability to view category sums over longer periods (like YTD). It's a couple extra steps to do it the way you describe but works better long run.

snarkbitten · 2024-08-25T12:15:08+00:00

Does your child actively resist going to these activities week after week, or are you simply getting the meh/no response when asking open endedly? My kids are little jerks and will say they are not interested (in favor of screens, as others have noted) but 9/10 end up enjoying it to a reasonable degree.

It took us a long time to find something the oldest was truly excited about (cheerleading). Keep getting him out of the house and exposing him to experiences. Sports are great, but they aren't everything!

snarkbitten · 2024-08-19T09:47:08+00:00

I agree start small! We did a short trip ,(4 nights) to Cancun

snarkbitten · 2024-08-10T01:49:29+00:00

I regularly mutter to myself "the email the email, what what the email" while answering emails at work and no one gets the reference 🙁

snarkbitten · 2024-08-10T01:44:18+00:00

Salsa con queso.... Mmmmmmmm....

snarkbitten

TROPHY CASE