Hi Brazil,

What a tricky situation! I would call the younger daughter's school to see if they have supervised playground time before school. At my son's elementary school, we can drop off up to 20 minutes before the bell rings and there are teachers and/or parent volunteers on the playground supervising play time. If your daughter's elementary school offers the same, it sounds like dropping her a bit early would be the safest solution.

If that's not an option, you could look into whether or not the school has a morning "extended care" program. But if they do, you'd likely have to pay for the full amount of time offered (usually an hour or more before school starts) so that could get expensive for just the few minutes you need coverage for.

If there's no safe option for dropping your younger daughter early, I guess you'll have to drop your older daughter first. You know your daughter best and can probably figure out whether she'll spend the few minutes finishing up homework or chatting with friends or if that time will be an opening for her to get into unproductive activities. It's unlikely the middle school will offer supervised time before school.

One other option would be to try to find another family in the same situation to carpool with. You could drop both elementary girls off and a friend could drop both middle school kids (or vice versa). Then everyone would be on time and no one would be alone for a long period before school. Maybe you could ask around about that at Back to School night or something. It's unlikely you're the ONLY parent in that situation!

Good luck!

Kat

You should drop off the one that looks like a lemon pudding first, B/C she actually have to be to school at 7:55am and then mommy's little snuckems have to be to school @ 8:30