Thoughts on school participation and working moms

How do households with both parents working and school-aged children do it? 

This month I haven't had a moments breath with running back and forth to different things at different schools. June is my son's birth month which means I get to party like I am his age, but also means I had to go to his kindergarten's birthday party event. This is not a complaint by any means. The event was so cute and I got some great photos

But it left me wondering what do mother's who aren't as privileged as I am do. Clearly, they would just have to miss this absolutely adorable moment of their child's life, but June also brings more difficult situations as well. 

Last weekend, my daughter's school had their class participation day on Saturday. That meant the previous Monday was a day off for the students, and the parents were obligated to at least go and pick their kids up from school on Saturday. While I don't mind going to school because I get a close glimpse at what is going on with my children's education, there are others who just can't take work off to watch their kids at school. The Monday off must also be a big dilemma because then who is going to be able to watch their children while they are at work. Usually, the child would be at school. 

Kindergarten-age children must be even more difficult. My son's class participation day happened to be this past weekend and now he has Monday off. Silly non-native Japanese speaking me didn't realize he wouldn't have to go until my daughter told me he shouldn't have kindergarten. I am super lucky she came with me to the class participation, otherwise, I would be standing outside waiting for the bus again, unaware that it wouldn't be coming. I don't have a hard time imagining the Brazilian mothers in my town scrambling to call into work because they can't drop their child off at kindergarten. And it is likely they are like me and unaware until they are at the kindergarten to be told there are no classes that day because they couldn't read the fine print on one of the millions of papers sent home with the children.

When I first met my now husband, his two girls were both still in kindergarten. There were so many times that he had to scramble to find childcare so he could go to work. I remember once he had to pay more than he made in a day, just so his girls would have someone watching them while he worked. Meals and things weren't provided and he had to take his lunch break to bring them bento. 

I have no clue how different things are in the states when it comes to school obligations, but I feel like there are just way too many as a parent in Japan.