In today’s economy, the standard 9 to 5 is changing as parents are working longer hours, taking on second jobs and resorting to odd shifts to make ends meet. In fact, Harriet B. Presser, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland notes that around 40 percent of the American labor force now works unconventional hours, which include evenings, nights, weekends and early mornings. Also, with the expansion of jobs in industries like nursing, retail and food service, the demands are placed on the parents to work after hours.

So what’s a busy working mom to do about child care when many centers often go by a rigid 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule? Take a cue from the many parents out there who are enrolling their children in nighttime centers.

More centers are providing nontraditional hours to help accommodate busy schedules for employees who work at such places like universities, hospitals and casinos. And while it’s still uncommon—but not completely rare—for a center to provide overnight care, evening hours are becoming quite the norm.

Take the state of Ohio, for example. Since 2003, there’s been more than a 50 percent growth of the number of centers offering nighttime hours. And more centers are also opening their doors on weekends, too.

For parents who need to stay late at work or start their job when it gets dark, they’re depending on the center’s staff members to go through the nighttime routine with their children—feed them dinner, help with homework, get their teeth brushed and put them to sleep—until it’s time for mommy or daddy to come get them.

And on the other side of the spectrum, there are children being dropped off before the crack of dawn—prior to 6 a.m.— so that parents that work early hours can make it to their jobs on time.  

Not surprising, what’s also adding to the need for after-hours care is the increase in single-parent households. With the demand of child care being placed solely on one parent, it’s not uncommon for day care to serve the secondary parent role while they’re out making the money. 

What are your thoughts about this new growing trend of nighttime centers?