To hate how mums always have to sacrifice their career...

Get an evening job in a hotel or a pub that fits in with your husband being home.
if he’s willing to pay childcare then why work at all? I’m all for women having independence etc but it’s a ball ache and let’s face it you’ll still be expected to do the majority of household things.
all part of having kids. Before you know it they’ll be grown and the world will be your oyster again.

Childcare is a family expense. Not your personal expense. Mums don't have to sacrifice their careers unless they want to.

I have never sacrificed my career.

Yea you have to take a hit on childcare costs but it isn't forever

I do get it. Sometimes the huge amount of effort in organising everything, plus the childcare costs just makes you think what’s the point? We’d be better off as a family if I didn’t work, or worked very limited roles basically.

I would think you’d be better off looking at part time dental nurse work. Maybe it’s just my area, but dentist surgeries always seem to be advertising for staff. Make your DH responsible for some of the childcare juggling. Yes you might earn essentially hardly anything for a few years until your youngest is done with nursery, but you’ll be doing something you say you enjoy with hopefully some option of advancement in it. And contributing towards your pension.

I would take the receptionist job. The early years (in my opinion) flash by and before you know it they can get free hours at nursery and then start school.
It might be a financial hit for a while but it will give you more family time on weekends, which will be a massive benefit when both children are at school.

I guess she already sacrificed her career leaving her dental job so no one is suggesting that. The issue here is should she work a stressful minimum wage job for NO money, well actually they would be losing money from the combined family pot if her husband had to cover the extra costs. I say no, keep the Cafe job, sacrifice the weekend day until both children are in school. There will always be minimum wage jobs, no shortage of those around.

Unless DH is making so much money they would be comfortable no matter what and then it would be up to OP if she's willing to do it.

I have a 2.5 year old and an 11 month old and have worked full time throughout. My husband briefly went down to four days a week, now back up to full time. Neither mums nor dads HAVE to give up their careers.

That said, the price of childcare is undoubtedly prohibitively expensive and makes it more difficult for parents to work.

Or father.
And what's better for child development is happy parents.

A mother that is mentally well is better for a child’s development. Not all mothers want to stay at home and for some it would be very detrimental to them. I am one of those. I’m also not a childcare professional. I pay a childcare professional to teach my daughter all sorts of things I wouldn’t think to teach her and to play with her in all sorts of ways I can’t even imagine. I’m in total awe at what she learns at nursery. She’s developed so much thanks to nursery.

To answer the OP, women don’t have to sacrifice their careers but it means looking at childcare costs as a family cost, not just out of your wage. It also means having an involved partner. There are times when I need to be more flexible than DH but there are also times when he needs to be more flexible than me. He earns a significant amount more than I do but my career is just as important and this is our shared child.

I went back to work pt when DC were four and five months respectively and the cost of childcare took the equivalent of my wage for over two years.
It preserved my sanity, my skills, the power balance in our relationship and now 20 years on my pension looks great.
Take the short term hit. Think long term.

Forgot to add I mean my wages were lower than the childcare cost. The costs were of course paid for by the shared income pot.

Can you look for another dental nurse role even if it takes a little longer to get a job as it sounds like you enjoyed it and perhaps do a refresher course or top up your skills in the meantime?

It is challenging to maintain a job when a partner doesnt help with nursery drop offs and pick ups. Sometimes its because they dont want to help and sometimes the job they have just doesnt have that flexibility.

Luckily childcare such as a regular childminder or a nursery key person isn’t a stranger. We don’t just shove our children at randoms in the park and hope for the best.

I worked at a loss for 2 years. It sucks but I refused to sacrifice my career.

Your DH should certainly be helping with drop offs.

If you take the job, it will make life easier in the long term imo. There are so many threads on here of women struggling to get work after raising children because of the gap on their CV, putting them in a vulnerable position

I would say that in my experience, childcare gets benchmarked against the lower earner's take home pay (which is not always the woman)

The trouble with the whole childcare thing is with so many couples it turns into a game of chicken - and women tend to lose that, because we don't want to let the kids suffer.

I held onto my career by the skin of my teeth while exDP's soared because at every point, he was prepared to ignore the children, leave the bedtimes and dentists and school runs to me to work around when I wasn't.

And of course it continues now we're exes - I do everything for the kids, he skips a visit whenever he can't be bothered, or he's 'travelling for work', but I have to arrange childcare for absolutely anything I need to do - whether it's work or getting my hair cut.

And yet posters on this thread, on a site mainly for women, are posting in support of the argument that the OP should sacrifice her career.

Isn't it better to be informed about basic topics before commenting? And yet here you are.

No one ever says it?? You live in a very narrow world if you don't think childcare is regularly only benchmarked against the woman's take home pay. Its happening in this very thread!

But they don't. You're making that choice don't generalise to everyone.

Nurseries don't raise children.

Childcare providers don't stay strangers for long!

Are there any other cafes you could look to move to? I was a SAHM for many years, but I now work in a coffee shop 10-2 while the kids are at school. It’s £11ph plus tips (usually works out around £13-14ph depending how busy it is). I don’t have to pay for any childcare and never work weekends. It’s not at all what I trained for at uni but I really enjoy the social interaction and it’s not bad money towards the family pot. If I went back to my professional job I could never work these hours and would have to factor in childcare costs. Maybe look all around your area and see if there is a better cafe position until your youngest is at school?

To hate how mums always have to sacrifice their career
massive generalisation, I don’t know any mums who have

id take the job - there’s more benefits like pension, sick pay, career progression etc. and the child care costs will reduce once youngest gets their free hours. And a bit more financial security for yourself