Just addressing your last paragraph - it's August, which means rather than the relatively stable school schedule (less so around Mondays and Fridays, for some reason), we're coming off of summer camp season.

We had our kids enrolled in a different camp every week, just to get nearly-full coverage. And they all have different schedules, with similar dropoff and pickup requirements.

To reiterate - US childcare is a joke, and everyone suffers for it.