The decision means thousands of parents are now doubly scrambling for child care: not only were March break plans possibly scrambled but two more weeks without school were suddenly tacked on.

“We’re kind of in shock,” said Malaka Hendela, co-chair of the Ottawa-Carleton Assembly of School Councils. “I have no idea what the next couple of weeks are going to look like for me.”

She said her son’s camp at Carleton University was cancelled at the last minute and now there are two more weeks to find care for an eight-year-old — weeks when group programming will likely not be offered.

She said she has some — but not total — flexibility to work at home in her public-sector job. “Working remotely, maybe work part-time. Honestly, I do not know.”

She and other parents are also wondering whether the suddenly lost two weeks of instruction time, on top of days lost to teacher strikes, represent a kind of “tipping point” for the academic year.

Her co-chair, Christine Moulaison, has four children in the elementary system, aged five to 11. She has the good fortune of being a stay-at-home mom and her husband has been encouraged by his employer to work remotely during the pandemic.

“It’s going to create a difficulty for those homes with two working parents as well as those homes with a single, working parent.”

The lack of city-organized activities for children during the last two weeks — day camps and the like — make it that much tougher for parents, she added.

“I think it’s going to be more complicated,” she predicted. “It’s going to be a very different patchwork of care.”

She’s even cancelled one of her children’s birthday parties at a facility this weekend to not put other parents in the “awkward” position of deciding to take part in a group function right now.

Moulaison has also has stocked up on food and craft supplies, plans some play-dates, and is willing to take in other children for parents in a jam.