Childcare-whats your setup?

pollyanna24

I appreciate when it comes to childcare, I am fairly lucky. When my ex left, me and mum sat down, worked out what I could afford to pay her (as she would be giving up her job to mind my two kids three days a week), and with her pension and what I get from child tax credits and maintenance from ex, she would get about the same, so she quit her job and works for me and only has to work three days a week! Sorted!

Bit like I say, I appreciate I'm lucky. I put them in nursery for a few months, but it was so stressful if trains from London decided to run late...

In my case, a win-win situation. My mum treats it like a job cos I pay her, so I don't feel as guilty as I would if u see what I mean.

sweaty_betty

We have paid for childcare 4 days a week, costing over £700/month which is pretty standard for nurseries around here. We're now changing OH's day off so that we only need childcare for 3 days a week. We have no other option (families etc helping out). We can't afford for me to give up work and decided that we need to play the long game with OH's job by keeping him working. It's hard, but needs to be done.

shell_girl

I'm in the same position as Mincepiemonster- stay at home Mum. My partner's wage is slightly lower so we are entitled to a small amount of child tax credit for which I'm very grateful.

I had planned to go back to work part time, but hadn't anticipated exactly how hard it would be to leave my child. If I were working and paying for childcare, as a family we would be about £200 per month better off.

I am incredibly lucky that my partner felt exactly the same as I did about putting our son into childcare, and as a family we have drastically reduced our outgoings.

I'm adding my story as we are now in the one position we hadn't considered before we decided to have our baby - me at home full time. No matter how much research, planning and decisions you make before the baby arrives sometimes everything changes anyway.

Final OT paragraph -

Re the 'sitting about on benefits'... I think if staying at home with your child seems like the easy option then you're probably not doing it right! :rotfl::rotfl:Before I had my baby I had worked full time without any gaps from 18, and had part time evening and weekend jobs from the age of 14. I'm in a position now to say I've experienced both, and what I'm doing now is much harder going than any job I've ever done- but I wouldn't change it for the world as it's the most amazing role I've evr had too.

an9i77

My partner's a SAHD to our 2 year old boy- I was earning around 32k a year although we're swapping places now as I'm about to give birth to our second child. He's struggling to find work atm but expects to be on around 30k when he does find something. Luckily for us, my partner owns a flat in central London outright, which we rent out and that earns 2k a month, so we can afford for only one of us to work at a time. We expect this to continue until both children are at school - after my maternity leave I will return to being the breadwinner. We also have help from family, my mum has my son one day a week but that's more to give us a break and give her something to do as she's retired and bored, than because we really need it from a financial perspective.

notanewuser

I'm mostly a SAHM, although I do do some consultancy. DH is a contractor and can be away for long stretches of time. Until April this year I had the odd afternoon "off" if my mum and dad took DD out. Now that she's almost 3 and a lot of fun they try to have her 2 afternoons a week. I also put her into a welsh playgroup 3 mornings a week in April so that she could start getting to grips with bilingualism. That costs me £42 a week during term time. We spend Tuesdays with her group of friends since birth.

Come January the costs will drop to about £11 a week as she'll get 10 hours a week paid for her. Apart from that we get no government help with her due to our earnings.

penguin83

OH and I both work full time but I am currently on maternity leave after having my third child (and loving it!) Nursery will be £40 a day when I go back to work next year. My Mum doesn't work on a Monday and would like to have our son then and I am hoping to condense my hours to 4 days of 9 hours and have a day off in the week meaning we will need 3 days nursery at £120 per week so not too bad.

I know I could give up work and claim tax credits to cover some of the shortfall but it doesn't sit right with me (although I appreciate those that do are perfectly entitled to do so and I am also aware that a lot of households do not get tax credits so please don't think this is aimed at anyone personally).. xx

Counting_Pennies_2

Childcare is expensive, but I think I would sooner pay for good care than try do have a child cared for on the cheap.

When I had just one I went back to work and had a childminder. When he turned 2 years I put him in a nursery for more contact with other children his age.

When I had two children it was not worth my while returning to work.

I have been a stay at home mum since. I now have a 9 year old and 5 year old.

I would suggest ensuring you do as much saving up now to give you a good buffer. Also factor in the calculations the possibility of you going part time and your DH going part time, to see if it is possible for you to share. That might sort out your concerns about him being isolated.

It is difficult to say how you will feel after baby has arrived, so I wouldn't necessarily suggest putting plans in stone, just do all you can to ensure you have flexibility. That both of you have jobs you enjoy, that you are as settled as you can be on the home front, and have a loving and united relationship and have as much savings as possible.

an9i77

penguin83 wrote: »

OH and I both work full time but I am currently on maternity leave after having my third child (and loving it!) Nursery will be £40 a day when I go back to work next year. My Mum doesn't work on a Monday and would like to have our son then and I am hoping to condense my hours to 4 days of 9 hours and have a day off in the week meaning we will need 3 days nursery at £120 per week so not too bad.

I know I could give up work and claim tax credits to cover some of the shortfall but it doesn't sit right with me (although I appreciate those that do are perfectly entitled to do so and I am also aware that a lot of households do not get tax credits so please don't think this is aimed at anyone personally).. xx

Actually you probably couldn't claim tax credits, if your partner was earning more than 26k. Only those on really quite limited incomes can claim CTC now.

an9i77

Reading all these makes me appreciate how lucky I am to be able to afford to have more than one child. Has anyone stopped at one child rather than have two due to the cost of childcare, or left a large gap between siblings for this reason?

moomoomama27

I work part time hours, and my husband covers the childcare when I'm at work, and I cover when he's at work! We've never had our children in day care, I changed jobs to be able to work around my husbands hours to ensure that our children were looked after only by us as that was really important! Now they are older youngest is 8, I'm now doing a degree and retraining to pick up a career, rather than a job, I'll be qualified by the time youngest is able to be home without childcare.