How do you do the childcare/work thing?

I'm technically not quite ready to post in this forum just yet- my DD's are 10 months, but I thought there might be a better chance that ladies in this forum had other children in addition to their twins.. I'm pg with our 3rd child and I work part-time as a speech therapist in a school district. My mom watches my girls 1.5 days/week and we have a babysitter come to our house 1 day/week. This works for now...... but I'm guessing that once my mom finds out we are pg with #3 she will def bail on helping us the 1.5 days/week... which is fine. The problem for us is that for us to pay for childcare for 2-3 kids 2.5 days per week completely wipes out my income.. I used to work full-time and now it just isn't feasible. I am FREAKING out about making ends meet when #3 arrives. My DH is has a commission-based job and works all the time. My questions: how do you all do it? Do you work on weekends? Have you found jobs from home? Do you work in the evenings? I'm highly qualified for the work that I do, but there just simply aren't therapy jobs out there that I can do that late into the evenings. Thanks for your input ladies!

 

I know this sounds like an overused platitude, but it will work itself out! I'm a type A planner and have stressed over childcare expenses, work, etc. Try not to worry too much yet!

That out of the way- have you tried your local, private social work agencies? They often use therapists (as 1099 labor) and the hours are as flexible as you need them to be.

I'll let you know if any other ideas come to mind. Hang in there!

 

I also have a job that there aren't really any evening hours. I work 2-3 days a week, roughly 9-5. Luckily my husband's job is very flexible and he can work evenings, weekends, etc. So basically I get home from work, he leaves for work and then on my days off he works really long days, and a half day Saturday. It is a hectic schedule but it really works well for us! Any way you could just cut down one half day and your mom might be willing to just to one day, and the sitter on the other?

 

Being broke due to childcare is temporary. That is how I get through it. Basically, when we found out we were having two more instead of 1, we sat down, went through our budget and figured out where we could cut in order to not have to cut the quality of daycare we wanted. We cut out things like our gym membership, cut down on the phone service, cut out one of the tivos and satellite radios. Little things we cut so that over the course of a month, all of that additional money added up. You may want to look into seeing if you can find a nanny to come in 2 days a week and see if you can do paperwork/reports for the 1/2 day, at home. I think a nanny might be cheaper than you expect.

Good luck

 

You may be able to find SLP work with a private company that would work better with the hours you want. I can see my patients pretty much any time that works for me and the family.

Good luck

 

Ditto this! I keep chanting "only four more years, only four more years."

 

I'm an SLP too and work 3 days a week. I don't work in the schools any longer. I've done mostly skilled nursing since I've had my twins, which tends to have much more flexibility and pays a lot better allowing me to use daycare. Before that, I used my MIL. Once I had the twins though, I knew she couldn't handle all 3 kids. There are a lot of places that would love to have just a weekend SLP b/c most just want to work M-F. I am in the process of moving into homecare, which has a lot more flexibility. I just picked up my first 2 pts. and I schedule them on the days/times that work for me. Maybe you can call some contract companies/agencies and see if they have a need for someone for 2-3 days/week. They will pay you a lot more and it'll allow you to get a sitter into the house and keep your foot in the field. It's such a hard balance. Good luck with your decisions.

 

Thanks so much for all of your replies! All of your insights really help! MLH- so nice to know there are other SLP's in these forums! I would LOVE to do skilled nursing facilities, but unfortunately I did all of my medical internships in a private practice setting with ASD kiddos.. then jumped into the schools (I'm really kicking myself now!). I tried a couple of years ago to do work with a contract company and told them I would love to learn to do feeding swallowing evals/therapy (bc I have very little experience in that area and did not feel like I was ethically able at that point to see patients who would need feeding/swallowing). Long story short, I gained a lot of very good experience doing outpatient rehab but I kept running into a ton of ethical issues in inpatient facilities(e.g., they would try to force me to do an MBS when I told them up front that I was not able to do them, but was more than willing to learn). Bottom line, nobody was really willing to teach a contract therapist new skills.. so, I'm looking into doing some contract work (early intervention possibly) but I think I would need to be in a full-time position to learn the skills necessary for skilled nursing facilities. I really feel like I sold myself short with choosing only schools and private practice work... I have actually thought a bit about trying to find more private practice work, but not sure if they would do weekend work..

ECUBitzy- tell me more about the social work options?

Thanks!

 

Well, my girlfriend is the clinical director for a private agency here in NC. Her agency evaluates and diagnoses school age kids with a variety of different things. Based on that information they make referrals for different services. So, if her agency refers a child for speech therapy, they then contact a licensed speech therapist in her area to offer the job and that person provides therapy, bills it through her agency (to the individual, insurance, or Medicaid) and then they are paid. The therapist is not an employee of her agency, but a contractor. At year end they get a 1099 and file their taxes as if they are self employed.

Maybe look up social work in your phone book and call around to see what agencies might handle it similarly? I have no idea what the different state regulations may be, as I'm just on the listening end of work stories and not actually in that field... But it can't hurt to try!

Good luck!

Wow, forgive my typos! All sent on my phone...

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that I've been reading a lot about telepractice. There is a big need for SLP's to provide services to a lot of rural schools. It allows you to work from home it would allow you to work with kids in a setting you are accustomed to. I've been researching some telepractice companies. Let me know if you'd like me to pass along some of the companies I've come across.

 

MLH- please do! I would love to know more!!!! I was actually just wondering if there was such a thing as work from home for SLP's... very interesting.. I've never heard of that! I was going to get on ASHA and see if there was a need for paperwork,editing, etc from home.. who knows!!! Thank you so much!

 

Juggling work and childcare sounds super tough, especially with another little one on the way. Have you thought about giving childtime customer service a ring? They might have some ideas or options that could really help out with your schedule and budget. Hang in there; you're doing an amazing job figuring all this out.