Work vs. Children and the Childcare Dilemma

If only he could drive himself, right?

There's a Globe and Mail article today about daycares offering night care. Between it, and our current struggles, I'm very interested in how child care/ work hours will shift as economic factors force more parents to work, technology allows more flexible ways to work, and baby boomers retire.

K's getting older and goes more regularly to school (which at this point means an awkward 2 hours, midday) we're struggling with how to manage drop-offs and pick-ups now that I'm needing to work more hours. Dear A doesn't drive and K's current school is 1 hr away by transit (sidebar: this in itself is ridiculous, since its only 8 mins away by car) so without flexible work schedules, we're looking at 2 kids on the bus for about 2 hours each day. Plus while K's in school Dear A and the baby would what? hang out at a coffee shop? All this with a nanny - I can't imagine the struggles for shift workers.

I think we need not only a solution, but a shift in the way we think about the problem.