I work in a pretty typical office environment. People come and go between 8 am and 8 pm depending on what they are up to. But you know how I can pick out the parents with young kids? They all leave in a hurry. The reason, at least for me? I need to get from Point A (work) to Point B (daycare) in an hour or less.
And in Toronto, that is not an easy trick even if it seems close. By car, the trip is under 10 KMs. But if I actually did drive, it would take forever. My mode of transportation is the TTC. Streetcar > Subway > Subway > Streetcar > Walk. On a good day it takes 30 minutes. On a bad day it can take the full hour. It’s stressful. Nobody seems to be going at the same speed as me. It’s frustrating to get stuck behind dude who is walking and watching CSI on his iPad. It’s annoying when the subway get’s backed up and I have to wait multiple trains. It’s really frustrating when you are stuck inside a train and there are service suspensions. It’s not like I can call daycare and let them know. I am underground.
Katie and I have managed to avoid being late to this point which is actually very impressive. So we have not experienced the late fee that is listed in their rules. It’s a few bucks every minute or something.
Then once I actually have the kids in hand, it’s still a 10-15 minute trip home. So all-in-all, I leave work as close to 5 pm as possible and getting home is more like 6:05 pm. Yes, you should feel sorry for me.
So for those who see me grab my stuff and bolt right at 5 pm, it’s not that I can’t wait to get out of work and I am not giving it my all, it’s that I know I need to take the crazy and stressful trip to kid pick up.
What’s your story? How do you get your kids picked up on time?
Here is how I feel most days.
[embedplusvideo height=”378″ width=”620″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1PRv2FP” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hEJnMQG9ev8?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=hEJnMQG9ev8&width=620&height=378&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep9000″ /]
