Snow days cost parents time, money, and sanity

This week, I’ve been referring to my seven year old, William, as “my assistant.” That’s because he’s been around a lot as I do my job.

“You know how to find those letters so fast,” he said, as I typed in my password. 

Baltimore, where I live, was hit by about a foot of snow last weekend, part of the giant storm that hit a huge chunk of the continental U.S. Public schools here have been closed all week. My husband and I split up child care and have tried to do our jobs with the kids around. (It was mostly Will. Our seven-month-old goes to day care, which was open most of the week.) I’m one of the lucky ones: I can work from home. But for working parents, snow days become this jumble of work and parenting where you feel like you do nothing well. That means trying to do two full-time jobs at once comes with all sorts of costs.

“It's been a bad week. I would say it's been a comically bad week,” said Matthew Johnson, a father of three based in Washington, D.C. He manages a team of developers for a tech company, and his wife works in data visualization. When D.C. public schools were closed earlier this week, they took turns working and caring for their children, which meant taking paid time off.

“We're just burning through PTO while at the same time putting in hours to work to just try to keep — not even the ship running, but just making sure the ship doesn't sink,” he said. 

They’re still paying for child care, even though they weren’t able to access it much of the week. Johnson said there’s an emotional toll, too.

“I love my kids, but it is such a constant-ness that it burns through my patience,” said Johnson. “I find myself getting shorter and shorter with the kids, so there’s a mental cost.” 

Another layer? Some parents have to oversee virtual schooling, as well. I monitored Will as he logged on to his first-ever online meeting. That included introducing him to the mute button. He found the filters on his own.

“Why are you a bunny?” he asked one of his classmates.

In search of quiet, some parents are paying high schoolers to watch their kids for a few hours. Others are calling in favors. 

“I was like, ‘Hey, do you mind if I drop Maxine off for a couple hours? I'll buy Dunkin Donuts,’” said Brittany Croteau, another parent in Baltimore.

Her five-year-old, Maxine, hasn’t been able to go to kindergarten, and Croteau’s husband has been out of town on a work trip. At one point this week, Croteau needed to attend a big meeting without any distractions. So, she dropped off her daughter at a friend’s house. 

“But you also don't want to overuse those things,” she said.

Croteau doesn’t have family nearby. That’s shaped how she prepares for these kinds of situations, including the decision to only have one kid. 

“We just kind of knew that this is what we would be in for, for the snow days, for spring break, for summer, so we just have to be proactive and plan,” Croteau said. 

She loves her job in special education, but said parenting is her first priority. 

“Because we are replaceable, and I'm not replaceable at home,” Croteau said.

There is new research that shows moms bear the brunt of interruptions on snow days. A working paper by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln finds that if a place gets a lot of snow in a month, working moms miss about two days of work on average. Also, moms may self-sort into more flexible jobs, even if they pay less. 

While snow days cost parents, they’re also an opportunity for small businesses. In Baltimore, a dance and art studio called “Dance on the Square” held a “flurry camp” this week for kids ages 3 to 10.

The studio’s owner, Cait Drake, decided to offer camp as soon as school was canceled.

“I actually made the choice to sleep here so that I could open,” said Drake. 

The camp costs $75 for kids to come from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. After care, which goes until 5:30 p.m., is another $25. Spots were filling up earlier this week.

“We filled yesterday, for today, in six minutes, 50 spots, and then we had a wait list of 49 people for today,” Drake said on Wednesday. 

At my house, we also spent some money on a day camp that wasn’t sold out yet. And it’s been nice for Will to see more of what I do. He’s even come up with a new jingle for the show

“It's a train. It's a plane. It's Marketplace,” he sang into my microphone.

Maybe that’s a potential benefit of being a parent working through snow days? I’m passing it on to the bosses now for their consideration.