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The school district waited until 8 p.m. last night to tell parents that the schools would be closed again. For working parents, school closings are complicated enough. The district is making things worse by not giving them time to plan. This week has been especially challenging. For five consecutive days, Norwalk parents have had to juggle schedules and call on family members and babysitters for help.
Dorothy Bothwell, a landscape architect who commutes to New York City every day, took the day off Thursday to take care of her two elementary school boys. They spent the day at the Bronx Zoo. The rest of this week, however, Bothwells mother has driven down from Ridgefield every day. She usually arrived in the late morning, so Bothwells husband Nick Overall, also a landscape architect, would bring the two boys into his office in Norwalk. I dont know what I would do without my mother. I cant imagine what others are doing, Bothwell says. And now I have to think about April vacation.
Maribeth Darcy, a paralegal who works in Darien and whose husband commutes to the New York, says she's lucky to have a couple of babysitters at hand to take care of her daughters who attend Marvin. Its the expense shes worried about. This week, I worked to pay the babysitters, she said. I had budgeted that babysitting money for April break.
Darcy said her colleagues at work were already complaining about how late Norwalk Public Schools are calling to notify parents that there won't be school the following day--and that was before last night's evening call. The notification on Thursday came close to 8 p.m., as well. Thats not enough notice for working parents, said Darcy.
Working parents have been less productive over the last few days. Traci Miller, a recruiter who works from home, estimates that she has logged in half the hours she usually does. Miller says she has traded kids with friends and worked late at night to make up for lost hours during the day. For her, phone calls are the hardest. "I'm constantly telling the kids to be quiet. But when they have a problem, what can you do?" Thursday afternoon, she stopped working and took her two elementary school kids out for ice cream. "I just gave up a little today and went to Mr. Frosty's."
For Parna Chatterjee, her hospitality after the storm had childcare benefits. For the past six days, Chatterjees home has been refuge for an electricity-less family-- two adults, two kids and a grandmother, from Westport. Starting Monday, all four parents would go to work and leave their combined four children with the Westport grandmother. My childcare issues was solved, said Chatterjee. But then I had to worry about feeding everyone when I came home from work.
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