“My daughter's in school and she's not in the same district as me. Her bus comes at 4 o'clock, so I have to be done with my day at 3 o'clock. My contract ends at 3. I have to be done at 3 because I have to pick up my toddler before I get the bus and I have to be home on time to get the bus (….) Part of that has been really good because before she rode the bus home, when I had more flexibility of when I arrived, I would stay longer because there's always something to do, so I would just stay and keep working (….) I'm more efficient at work because I have to be done in this time frame (….) I'm home with my girls for two hours before my husband gets home. So I just have so much more time with them than somebody that works until 5.”
“Scheduling anything after school—I really have to know ahead of time. If a meeting's going to run late, I'm stuck because I'm still in a meeting but I also have this other real hard deadline and responsibility because the bus doesn't wait for me to get there. But working in a school, people do appreciate that. If I'm in a meeting with the principal and I say I actually really have to leave because my daughter's bus is coming, they understand that world much more than my husbands [supervisors]—He's like, ‘I have to get my daughter off the bus.’ They're like, ‘Oh, that's cute.’ He's like, ‘No, really, I have to leave.’”
“I am done at 3 o'clock to go home and get them and they don't have to go to daycare. I am home for all the holiday breaks. That satisfying, too. I think as a parent in today's world—I don't know how other parents do it (….) I think by being in a profession where my schedule matches my kids’ more or less (…) I think that relieves a lot of the stress.”
“We moved back to [this area] after our first daughter was born because this is where our family was from. [It helps] to have grandparents in the area. When we got that call at 6: 15 this morning, that [our daughter’s school] was on a two hour delay, [the grandparents could help out] (…) In terms of being a parent teacher, it has made a huge difference to have family in the area. We have all this time off, except that we don't get to pick and choose. So if we have sick kids, that might not line up with February break.”