Parenting
Childcare, school, and keeping the people who help you actually able to help.
Bedtime when you work nights
Leaving for work at the hour your children go to bed — how families handle the handover, and what actually helps.
Read →Childcare options when you work shifts
Nurseries close at six and open at eight. What actually exists for people working outside those hours, and what each option really costs.
Read →Christmas, birthdays and the holiday rotation
The dates that matter most to families are the ones 24-hour operations cannot close for. How to find out early and plan around it.
Read →Co-parenting across two homes when you work shifts
A rotating schedule against a custody arrangement designed for fixed weeks. What tends to work.
Read →Coordinating childcare when your shifts change every week
The system most shift-working families end up with, why the Sunday-night planning session fails, and what to change first.
Read →Explaining shift work to your children
How to make a rotating schedule make sense to a child, at different ages — and why a visible calendar does more than any explanation.
Read →How to let grandparents know when you're working
The people most willing to help with childcare are usually the ones with the least visibility of your schedule. Four ways to fix that, including for grandparents who do not use apps.
Read →School activities when your shifts rotate
Assemblies, parents' evenings, sports day and the clubs that run on Tuesdays — what to do when your working days move through the week.
Read →School holidays when you work shifts
Thirteen weeks a year with no school. How shift-working families actually cover it, and when to start planning.
Read →Shift work as a single parent
No second adult to absorb the gaps. What actually helps — building a bench, choosing the right rotation, and the school's authorised list.
Read →Shift work with teenagers
They need you less and notice more. What changes when children get old enough to have their own schedule.
Read →The guilt
Nearly every shift-working parent describes it. What it is responding to, what it is not, and why it is a poor guide to how you are doing.
Read →When both parents work shifts
Two rotations, one set of school hours, and the days neither of you can cover. How families actually solve this.
Read →When you miss things your children care about
You will miss some. What actually mitigates it, what children remember, and the one thing that does real damage.
Read →When your child is ill and you are rostered
The 6am problem — a sick child, a shift starting in two hours, and a rota that assumed you would be there.
Read →When your shift starts before nursery opens
The gap between a 06:00 start and an 08:00 opening is the hardest hour in shift-working parenthood. What actually covers it.
Read →Other topics
Free… ish. Ready when you are.
Now on iPhone — Android coming soon. Free to start. Free to share. It just wants your week to be a little less of a mystery.