It?s 6 p.m. and you?re still 10 minutes away from your toddler?s childcare centre?again.
For a working parent, there are few things more stressful than arriving late to pick-up: Not only can you feel the dollars fly by as the cost doubles (triples") after deadline, but you worry that you’ve just annoyed your child?s caregivers as well. Oh, and your kid may be well aware that you are late, too!
In my case, it only took a few of these missed deadlines for me to realize that leaving 15 minutes earlier would translate into big time savings for me as I beat my fellow rush hour travelers. Indeed, any day I could shift my hours just a little bit saved me so much stress (and money) that I felt like I?d won the working mom lottery that day.
This was long before anyone I knew talked openly about flexible work. I didn?t know my options and honestly, I was too nervous to ask my boss?a single man without kids?for help. (I had good reason to worry. They don?t call it the ?Mommy Track? for nothing.) Instead, I?d look daily for chances to slip out unnoticed, and scramble on days I couldn?t. Talk about stressful.

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