Do you have a child care back up plan?

It has been over a year since I ditched the commute and set up my home office. It's very rare that I come across any downfalls to being a remote employee. In the midst of the winter storm last week, my work from home status created a problem, though. When everyone else, including our child care, had a snow day, I still had to work.

The problem was, I had never bothered to come up with a child care back up plan. I know better, but because it's rare that a child care center closes, I had never taken the time to put a plan in place.

The first day was not too bad. My husband was able to take time off to keep our boys entertained. He had one call scheduled for the afternoon but we made it work by turning on the TV for the 3 year old (not my proudest parenting moment but what option did we have?) and I held our baby while listening to a conference call. Then we got the news that the child care center was going to be closed a second day. My husband had to work, although he would also be working from home that day. I planned to take time off but that did not work out how I planned. As soon as I logged onto my computer, I was bombarded with emails and meeting requests.

We survived but it certainly was not an ideal arrangement. We will be better prepared in the future.

Whether you use center-based child care, home-based care, a nanny or friends and family, you should have a plan in case they experience illness, a natural disaster or any other reason for not being available.