Hang on in there until school age doesn't work?

They say it because it's financially easier. Logistically tougher, yes, but our childcare bill with halve when youngest goes to school (probably more than halve as we'll move them to the cheaper ASC at school), so that makes the logistics worth sucking up.

@Mistralli

It's a long time to step back from your career if you go p/t at school age, especially if you've a few DC.

If that matters, it doesn't to everyone.

I keep thinking I'm missing something. Gone back to work full time, toddler in nursery nearly 8-9h a day, 5 days per week (though she sleeps 2h of those). I'm thinking I'll work part time when she starts school to help reduce the need for holiday care and wrap around care.

This seems easier to me, as its easy to work full time and have nursery covering long days and a right faff to figure out how to work the 8.30 til 5.15 I do around school hours.

But most people seem to work part time during nursery years and increase hours when they start school. What am I missing?!!!

(Incidentally, full time nursery takes about half my income and I earn somewhat more than my husband, who also works FT)

You're comparing 3days childcare a week to 5 days though

That's why there's not much difference for you

For the families paying for 5 full days of nursery even with 30hrs free then paying 5 days of only wraparound care is going to be much cheaper. Plus as a pp said often they don't need full wraparound care every day so also save that way.

YANBU OP.

I'm in Ireland, so the actual costs and set up aren't relevant as it's quite different here.

But the broad point is the same - I had 3 DC close together so has to pay very high crèche fees (eldest was still in crèche (nursery) when youngest started.

But - these fees were kind of 'it'. I didn't pay extra for food (covered by creche), and their other outgoings like clothes, toys or whatever were minimal.

Once they got a bit older, and I was a single parent, the utter juggling & multiple costs got insane & prohibitive. And they themselves cost more - food, activities, clothes and so on.

Now with 3 teens / nearly teens, childcare itself isn't an issue but the cost of raising teens is far more than what I ever anticipated & much more than even those prohibitive early years

I think the early years / nursery costs are relatively fixed & known, and the challenge as the years go on is the ever-changing nature of costs that can be estimated without being known and often can't be easily reduced (like food costs!)

We've just been discussing this and trying to work out how best to juggle our schedules to use as little childcare as possible.

The free hours being only over term time is really going to cripple us in the summer though as we still have to pay our childminder even if we take a few weeks off with our son (and soon to be second). We only save money if she takes time off.

Sending two kids 8.30-4.30 next year for five weeks will be close to £2k.

This wouldn't necessarily be a problem BUT our mortgage also runs out next summer so we're also going to be paying almost double the amount on that when we re-mortgage 😓

I agree. It seems weird how much money the givernment wants to put (admittedly not enough to pay for it, but that’s another issue!) into under 5 childcare when more parents would choose to work part time if they can. But when most parents want to be working more hours there is precious little help.

I think your nursery costs are very low. About 15 years ago, I was paying approx £1k per month on nursery fees in London, so easily £12k a year on childcare when you throw in the odd bit of babysitting here and there.

Before and after school fees (plus summer clubs) were no where near that amount.

If the government helps out so much with nursery fees now that they're a few hundred a month rather than a grand, I'd be pleased if I were you.

Sorry to add that when the childcare costs finish, the expensive school trips start.

Funded childcare is actually quite a new thing so you may have parents with older kids repeating the rhetoric that it’s much cheaper when they start school simply because that’s how it used to be.

your costs now seem very cheap - ours are teenagers now but we used to pay a fair bit more than that when they were younger.

Agree. School was not cheaper. It was also much harder to juggle life when dc started primary school because the hours are completely incompatible with a working week.

dc now going into year 7 and it is EVEN WORSE! There is no breakfast club or after school club, and school finishes at 3. Very limited holiday clubs and those that do exist are very expensive. So yes technically dc is old enough to be left alone for hours at a time and that is what will have to happen if I am going to continue to work. Pretty miserable all round though.

When people say that, they're talking to people who are paying huge amounts in childcare. As in, over a thousand per child. Usually the parents of tiny ones or those who don't access the full 30 hours funding. We currently pay £970 for three days for our son, a drop to £300 a month WOULD be the "hang on in there" amount you refer to.

While £300 a month is obviously a lot, it's only about six hours a week at minimum wage, so a tiny fraction of the average wage (especially if split with a working partner) and reasonable for childcare imo.

In Manchester it's about a grand unfunded per week at nursery and London is more than double that. You're comparing the funded years with school wraparound costs which is not what people mean when they say it gets easier.

Also £65 for holiday club is ridiculous. I pay £50 for some kind of highly expensive instructor led outdoor pursuits and watersports clubs. A less exciting sports dance or drama club would be £30 (led by useless teenagers but hey).

Can't the kids have a week with a relative?

Or trade childcare with friends.

Ds2 is year 5 and we don't do holiday clubs much any more.

I'd agree that breakfast and ASC is about that cost. Yours is only slightly more expensive than Manchester pricing. I'd fund a way to cut down by starting work later and skipping breakfast club. It's barely worth it. Join the kids sat outside school waiting for the gates to open!

Thank you for this post, OP! I'm glad you're shining a light on this.

With regards to Holiday Club, you need good mum friends so that you can share the burden. On your day off, you take their child so that they don't have to pay for holiday club. On their day off, they take yours. If you plan well, you can probably reduce holiday club to one day a week most holidays that way.

Our DS is 9, year 4. For the last 1-2 years, we've only used holiday clubs when there was something special that DS wanted to do (e.g. a day of Minecraft Coding or Lego Robotics) together with a friend. The rest of the time, he's been at home while we WFH, and entertained himself very well. He had friends over some of the time. He went out for play dates a few times. So it got a lot easier for us.

Really? At our school there are at least a couple of children in every class who do wraparound every day at both ends. And quite a lot who do after school club every day.

Yes, agree with everyone else. You're seem to be in a bizarre area where nursery costs are comparatively low and wrap around and holiday club (in particular) are very high. So, I would suggest that there is probably cheaper wrap around and holiday club available and would recommend shopping about.

We managed this period by working flexibly (one started early, one finished early); child swapping with other parents (which could be ideal for you if you only work 3 days a week). Other parents rely on grandparents to cover odd bits (not an option for us; might be for you).

And yes, we took pretty much opposite holidays to minimise holiday clubs (think we had a week's family holiday together).

The OP only needs 3 days

We're in London and holiday clubs around here are cheaper than that. And as PP have said, you can use tax free childcare.

Also my experience with them is that they do substantial early bird discounts (15-20%), sibling discount (usually 5%) and sometimes also a discount for booking the whole week. Some near us offer a Friday discount too. Once you add those up, plus tax free childcare, you're paying a lot less than the headline rate.

Once ours get a bit older, I intend to try them.on the very cheap local youth club 10-3 type affairs and then WFH with them the rest of the day but I think that will need to wait until the younger one is 7ish

As well as what everyone has said, it's very unusual to go to wrap around care at both ends of the day every single day. In 10 years of teaching I think I've come across this once in all the year groups across the school. There is one child in my daughter's class that does it. It surprises me how few people actually need wrap around.

Your nursery costs are really cheap!!

I pay £900 a month 18 months in 4 days and 4 year old in 3 days. I work 4 days. My mum has 4 year old one day. They go 50 weeks a year. I am praying my bill comes down even with wrap around. I have sources a childminder for school holidays £5 an hour

Sorry if I missed this but can you wfh? It's much easier to wfh with school age children in the holidays than toddlers. I did this when DS was younger, not every day as it's not ideal to be stuck in the house with the telly on 5 days a week but it was much cheaper.

In summer holidays I would book 2 days off every week rather than 2 full weeks off, so it meant I only had to work 3 days a week. Sent DS to the holiday club 1 day a week so I could go into the office then had him home with me the other 2 days while I worked from home. Saved a fortune.

We live in an expensive area of the country. We need childcare 3 days per week.

• Nursery costs for my 3YO 3x week = £900 with 15hrs funded applied which equals around £10,800 a year
• Afterschool/brek club 3x a week when he reaches school age = (£6 brek club 7:30-9am, £13 afterschool until 6pm = £19/day) = £228/month for ~9months per year £2,052pa.

Full day holiday club - £32/day.
We try to avoid this as much as possible and rely on friends, grandparents and leave from work. But even if I had to send DC x3 a week through every school holiday (14 weeks) it would only be £1,344 a year. That still leaves us over £7K better off over the year, in comparison to us paying nursery fees.

I also have an older child too, so have to pay for his wraparound on top of youngest's nursery. I do appreciate that it feels never ending, but it usually IS cheaper once they get to school age
...... you know, before you start adding on all the costs of the extracurricular clubs they suddenly want to join 😂

Also our holiday club is only £25 per day.

Childcare is expensive all round. I do think though that in your case your nursery costs are very low so you won't see as much of a difference

I was paying over 2k/mth before mine started school, so even with bs/as care some days and ~£60/day holiday clubs, I am still better off now

Our nursery was £55 per day and wrap around care only £20 per day, and I had 2 born less than a year apart so when they both went to school it was significantly cheaper for us. We did only take 2 weeks annual year together though, which is when we went on holiday. You seem to be accounting for 2 weeks together to go on holiday and 2 weeks together at home?