the end. or, a new beginning

For the last 4-5 years, we've had a really decent work/childcare/family arrangement. Steve has worked part-time, 80% time for 80% pay, with a really flexible schedule and a lot of telecommuting. I've worked full time, but with Wednesdays a work-from-home day and an earlier departure, at 4 pm. The children (from 8 months old on) have been at a great daycare center, where we trusted the teachers and made good friends, from 8 to 5. It's a long day for everyone, but it is a schedule that allowed both me and Steve to be around in the mornings and evenings, making and sharing breakfast and dinner with the children. And Wednesdays were great for errands and chores - laundry and groceries and the library and random odds and ends.

Starting next year, all of our various arrangements appear to be ending. Steve has been at his firm for seven years, and he needs to either commit to making partner - which would entail not only a full time schedule but evening obligations as well - or leave entirely, finding a new job. I was told on Friday that beginning in August, all flexible work arrangements were being terminated, so I will have to be physically present Monday-Friday, 9-5. I really don't understand why Columbia has made this decision - it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the quality of my work or complaints from my students or colleagues. But if I can't leave work until 5, I can't pick up Liesl until 6, which is a real problem given that daycare closes at 5:45.  Additionally, Sebastian is starting kindergarten in the fall, so we are trying to figure out after-school and vacation/break child care arrangements for him. If I don't pick up Liesl until 6, does that mean I have to pick him up from somewhere else at 6:15? When do we get home, and what do we eat when we arrive, all famished?  And finally, I just learned this morning that our daycare's landlord had sold the building and they are thus looking for a new space for the center. I fear it won't be as convenient for my commute as their current location and that the community of families and teachers will change, as some will not make the leap.

So now what? New jobs all around? New daycare? Hiring a nanny/babysitter? We have a lot to figure out.  But it's clearly the end of what we have had, and we are trying to be just thankful that it lasted as long as it did - getting us almost all the way through Sebastian's first five years and Liesl's first two.