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An uphill task: Parents juggle between working from home and managing toddlers
With day-cares and play schools closed in Pune, working parents are facing a tough time managing work from home, household chores and baby care all at once
With day-cares and play schools closed in Pune, working parents are facing a tough time managing work from home, household chores and baby care all at once.
In an attempt to find a solution, working parents are now preferring to stay in their hometown or at their in-laws instead of a nuclear setup in Pune.
Since April 3, many playgroups and day-cares have decided to shut voluntarily as precautionary measures. There was no mention in the state order to close down day-care centres.
“With the spike in Covid cases, we kept the centre closed and we had also prepared a circular to open it again from April 15th but now all things depend on chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s lockdown decision,” said Monika Kulkarni, director of Aajol who has 22 day-care centres in Pune.
“Things have been hard with handling my 5-year-old son and managing work from home. If the lockdown extends, I will prefer to go back to Amravati and I hope travelling is allowed,” said Shruti Sinha, IT professional, and a resident of Hinjewadi.
The concern for day care was the risk of a child testing positive for Covid-19, hence they preferred shutting down completely.
“We have our SOPs, but we could not risk keeping our centres open. Parents are willing to send their kids back to day-care to decrease their workload,” said Kulkarni.
Riya Marne, a housewife who has already returned to Yavatmal said,’ “I was in two minds before going to my in-laws as cases are increasing but doing office work and handling my 4-year-old daughter was not possible. Now, my mother-in-law handles the daughter.”
Opting for online options
Many playgroup schools in the city have started one-hour online session where they engage kids below six in various activities.
“Business has already been hit badly with the current scenario but the online is one option which parents are showing interest in as the kids are learning something good in their screen time,” said Meenal Dand, teacher from Little Millennium School, Aundh.
“In this age group (below 6) we will also like for physical classes but with no option left we are running online classes where we are conducting dance classes and fancy-dress competition as well,” added Dand.
