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

I agree, you have very low nursery costs. I used to pay £600 a month so now that school club costs around £200 a month I’m happy. Your holiday club sounds very expensive. I live in the north and pay £17.50 a day for 8-4 in the holidays.

Agree with majority that you have unusually low nursery costs together with unusually high wraparound and holiday club costs which narrows the gap significantly. A FT place at DC nursery all year round was £2000/month after funding. I am assuming the wraparound is outsourced to a nursery or other external provider as they charge a lot more compared to when arranged in house. Holiday clubs here are £30-40/day but that is for the 9-3/10-4 hours and easily increases to £60+ if adding on extra hours for 8-5.

I am very much in agreement that life is so much harder when they start school, not easier and the comments of hang in there/increase your work etc are not helpful unless you have a very flexible job that allows you to wfh and do your hours around the children. As many PP have also mentioned, the mental load is so much more when they start school, lots of things to remember, last minute requests for xyz, early pickups, coming in for assemblies etc. Add to that keeping up with progress and work, emotional support etc (basically parenting that comes with a child as they get older) and then sorting out the childcare for holidays. You are always on a hamster wheel.

Society is not set up to allow two parents to work full time. Life is such that you need two incomes to run a house and bring up a family but the support for child rearing is simply not there - the saying 'it takes a village' exists for a reason and there is no such village in todays society, just a bunch of people blaming parents for having children they 'cannot afford' even though said parents are working really hard and doing all they can

It’s because your current costs are minuscule as it is. Some people are paying upwards of 14k a year for childcare in nursery so your costs are pretty minimal if you have two wages coming in.

Holiday clubs are around £35 a day, and I live in an expensive area.

For most of us, nursery costs are far higher, so only paying for wrap-around school care reduces costs massively.

HTH

Yep, such a fallacy. Nurseries are often open earlier and later than after school clubs too, so often the expenses are even higher for wrap around care.

I can't say I've ever heard anyone say that. Of course it gets harder once they start school. Nursery is generally 8-6 5 days a week all year round. With school you have to get back for 3, plus all the school holidays, or to mention all the things the schools expect you to attend.

There isn't really any easy solution. People manage by a mix of part time work, paid childcare, grandparents, wfh.

It might be cheaper if you can work school hours but if you're full time it's even more stressful than nursery.

Tbf £3k / year in childcare isn't that bad is it? For a 5 year old? From a dual income household?

Hard to imagine how your most precious asset could be cared for more cheaply for 14 weeks +

We live in the second most expensive city in the country and our holiday clubs are around £38 a day for 8.30-5pm. There are loads of options where we are- maybe shop around a bit.

I would say though that the childcare costs are only half of it- between 2 primary aged kids we’re funding 6 clubs a week plus 2 swimming lessons (which is actually on the low side compared to friends kids). It’s an additional £80-£90 a week during term time. Obviously none of this compulsory but it’s difficult when children really want to take part and all their friends are going.

Anyway- I agree, financially it doesn’t get at all easier.

I think you've already seen your big drop in costs.

School is effectively 30 hours/week. You've already got that funded so less of a different going into reception. If you weren't receiving that funding the drop would be much bigger. That's what people mean about the "starting school" drop

As pp have said, your nursery costs are really low, so you can't really expect to see much of a difference.

Children do cost money, I'm afraid. With two parents working FT, the costs you quote sound very manageable really. Were you expecting the primary school to provide free wraparound care or what?

From my point of view its easier to negotiate flexible hours around school if you've always worked. You're right that it's not much cheaper once they start school, summer holiday clubs are around £50 a day. But keeping working gives you a pension and hopefully a supportive long term employer.

The very early teens seemed to be the cheapest here. Once they're in fully adult clothes and need driving lessons it's back to burning money again.

She is using it. But does seem to quoting the 80% of nursery costs as the total against 100% of the after school care so it's a bit apples and oranges but doesn't change that her nursery costs are much lower than average and ASC much higher.

OP you know you can use the tax free account for holiday clubs too so that will help.

YABU to say 'it shouldn't be said because it's not true' because for many people it is true'

Why aren’t you using tax free childcare? That’s a bit bananas.

Anyway, you’re not wrong, OP. Everyone is saying £200ish a month is cheap but it’s only cheap if you can afford it. Our primary school doesn’t offer wraparound so I’ve resigned myself to paying £1500 a month for it until secondary. It is what it is.

I think us parents of older children havent caught up, but i remember thinking it wasnt hugely cheaper. It was just over half.

We got 15 free hours not 30 and actually the day rate hasnt changed that much. And our wrap around care was a cheaper. The infant school charged £1 for morning club! Iknpow its now £5.

The main thing i remember was holiday care had annoyingly short hours like 10 til 2, then you paid a massive premium to get a normal working day..

Currently paying close to £1k for DS, 4 days a week nursery with 30 funded hours so personally I can't wait until September!

Could either of you make a flexible working request to at least cover WFH FT for part of the school holidays, and/or negotiate at slightly later start time in the week so that you could do drop-off and avoid breakfast club?

When you say you have no family or friends, is that at all, or just not nearby? If there are darling GPs, can they help in the school holidays, either by having the DC for a week, or by coming to stay and taking them for days out/entertaining them at home while you are in the office?

I don’t have DC so don’t know about actual costs, but interested in parents (usually mothers) being able to afford to work if they want.
Question to others - does it only get cheaper when all the children are school age as op says she can’t change her hours?

it’s also because then you don’t have a toddler at home whilst on mat leave.

I thought having a toddler at home while on maternity leave (and so not paying nursery fees) was one of the advantages of having children close together! Can't imagine anything worse than getting through the preschool years then going back and starting again. And you have kids who are constantly at different stages while living at home. And (from the financial viewpoint) many women will be PT and so earning less for much longer if they choose to space out their kids that much.

It was the logistics of one in school wrap-around and one in nursery that finished me off. Fortunately school holidays weren't an issue for me, but in the terms, both jobs had long hours and were inflexible and after my contract finished I had no mental energy to seek another post. Not helped by it later emerging that one child is autistic. Now DC2 is approaching secondary and gaining independence I'm reviewing my options but it's been a long time.

The nursery years were much more managable for us.

Sorry, poor maths! I'd use 4 days holiday but 8 days childcare would be covered!

This won't help straight away but once we got to know parents and kids formed friendships, we would help each other out, especially to stretch out annual leave.
So in the summer, I'd have friend A twice and friend B twice. Then those friends' parents would reciprocate meaning I've only used 2 days holiday but childcare is covered for 6 days.
Apologies if I missed it, I saw that there's no continuity for WFH, but is there any chance at all for amended hours? So one of you does drop off then works late, the other goes to work early and picks up at 3?

I pay £1600 a month which includes my 15 free hours (not entitled to 30). I will make an enormous saving when school starts. £1600 a month plus massively inflated mortgage costs (5% interest) is truly crippling right now, even for a family with a good income.

If your nursery allows the 30hrs to be allowed to used across 3 days, not a maximum of 6hrs a day, that might explain your lower cost. Because from September, you will still get 30hrs free childcare/education... but its school hours!

Considering my youngest is now 11 (and the last cohort of only 15hrs funded)... 3 days nursery including the 15hrs would have been about £150 a week. 3 days wrap around at her school .. £21 a week (£2 for breakfast, £5 for ASC)

That’s not the only reason they say that, it’s also because then you don’t have a toddler at home whilst on mat leave.