Mom's hilarious skit portraying how school hours were decided for kids sparks important conversation

School day hours are never usually aligned with parents' work hours, so kids often have to either be at after-school care or with a relative. Neither of these arrangements really works for the families, but they are forced to opt for them. Understanding this, a mom named Jamie Aderski–who goes by @jamieaderski on TikTok–made a hilarious skit showing how schools may have decided the school hours for their students. 

Aderski started the video by pretending to be a parent, asking a school staff, "The workday for parents is 9 to 5. When should kids be in school?" Then she switched to being the person who would decide the school hours and said, "I don't know. Like, 8 to 2?" So, the parent responded that it would be cutting it close because they needed to be in the office by 9 am. So, the staff, looking confused, responded, "Okay. Uh, 8:30 to 3?" After this, the mother told the in-charge, "I think you made it worse." Then, she changed the subject and asked what the children would do after school because the parents would only be free by five and they needed to get home and all.

So, the school day in-charge asked the parent, "Hmmm. Uh, I don't know. Don't they have, like a great aunt or a grandparent or something?" The parent replied that some do, but not everyone has a person they can rely on. As a parent, Aderski then asked, "Maybe we can come up with another plan?" The school hours in-charge responded, "No, I don't think so. I mean, they'll just make it work, right?" With a deep sigh, the woman replied, "I guess they don't have a choice."

The video was captioned, "100% accurate reenactment of how school day hours were chosen." People in the comments were divided on what Aderski enacted. @mikeynashvilletn commented, "School is not a babysitter for working parents. Don't have children until you and your spouse make enough for one of you to stay home. Or don't have kids." @catladybookworm wrote, "It's not about expecting schools to be babysitters it's about acknowledging that the current schedule clearly doesn't work for families where both parents have to work."

@alyssableus shared, "Nobody is saying the school is daycare, but it's completely reasonable for the hours to be more convenient since it is a legal requirement." @user798210199 said, "Parent and teacher here. I get it, but schools are not a daycare! Parent work schedules should not be anywhere in the conversation regarding school hours!" @junderwood12 expressed, "No one said the school is a daycare, but it's hard to find a job that fits around school or even nursery. Not everyone has a village." @lindsaywd said, "Why are summer camps 9-2? Huh? Our work schedules don't change in the summer." 

In a follow-up video, Aderski clarified that she did not intend to say that teachers should overwork and take care of the kids or that kids should be in schools for longer. She said, "Art is mirroring back what we see in society and this really hit a nerve because this video is well over a million views with tons of comments." She added that this is a problem she and others in her community face of balancing work and school and she doesn't think there is any one right answer to this.

You can follow Jamie Aderski (@jamieaderski) on TikTok for more content on parenting and skits.