To ask anyone with 2+ kids & working…

I had a good maternity package (NHS) and also my workplace had an onsite nursery that both my kids went to from the age of 1 after my mat leave. It wasn’t subsidised, but it was affordable given our earnings. During my second mat leave my DH cashed in an ISA so we didn’t change our standard of living for those last few months.

This is all well over a decade ago and it was in London but I reckon we benefitted from a manageable mortgage and low interest rates. Also it helped that we were older parents and had good careers and savings behind us. I think it is much harder these days

DS has 30 free hours funding kicking in for September (term-time only contract which helps as hours aren’t spread out) means he’s in for 3 days a week whilst I’m on my second maternity leave with little cost. Without this we would not be able to afford a second maternity leave!

Same as several others, we had a 3 ish year age gap so oldest was on the funded 30 hours when I was on mat leave and then in school by time mat leave finished.
We saved about 3k per mat leave. Luckily I got 80% pay for first 6 months, then SMP, so the 3k was used 1k per month for months 10-12, then month 13-14 was paid annual leave and kit days, and I went back when they were about 14 months old each time.
We also benefitted from cost of living being lower - they are 5 and 8 now. Would struggle nuch more now

Currently pregnant with baby number 2, only went back to work in March after baby number 1 who is now 16 months, will have a 19 month age gap. Both planned pregnancies, my husband & I planned and saved to allow for a year off both times with no real financial worries but we bought a house we could comfortably afford on one income rather than the max we could afford, and although we aren’t particularly careful with money we also aren’t massive spender’s with expensive lifestyles, both have good jobs & I get a good maternity package.

We planned an age gap such that we had no childcare expenses (eldest was in reception, obviously now there is 3 year funding) and we kept our expenses low. Honestly, we didn’t save or do anything special. I think we were just earning enough that me earning less for a bit relative to our expenses wasn’t a big deal.

A 10 year age gap.

I had a 3 year gap so got the 30 hours otherwise we’d have struggled to pay for it all but we did cut back dramatically and had saved up beforehand both times.

maternity pay needs a shake up statutory maternity pay needs to be at least equivalent to a minimum wage job, as does state pension it’s really difficult for people

It’s shit. It’s expensive. Double nursery fees are a killer. We just went with the age gap we wanted and made it work - but it meant no holidays, extras or home improvements for a couple of years.

Mine have grown up now but we waited until we had a 3.5yr (just under in the end) so I pulled DS out of nursery when DD was a couple of months old, ahead of him starting school, so had a good 6 months of no childcare costs. I was fortunate to get 6 months full pay, and 3 months stat at that time. I took 6 months no pay for DS as it was only 6 months then, no mat leave. But with DD i went back at 9 months as I felt 12 months was harder to settle into nursery.

We had 3.5 year gap so free hours had kicked in. I was able to use a year round preschool as I was on mat leave then eldest started school.

My folks waited till each of us was 4 (and in school) before having the next. I was one and done but the people I know who had them close together were all in public service jobs, so got full pay maternity. That’s what many people do those jobs for, the pay is lower but the benefits make it worth it at certain life stages.

I worked in an industry that gave me 6 months full pay then 3 months SMP. I did the same with my first mat leave but my husband took the 3 months SMP as shared parental leave

We were lucky that we could afford to cover the essentials with just DHs salary, including nursery costs, so we just made sure we had enough saved to supplement my maternity pay for the extras we wanted like spending money each, a holiday, some treats. I was also lucky my company maternity pay was pretty good.

Coincided with remortgaging time when interest rates were much lower. Because we happened to have dropped down to the next level of LTV, we got silly low interest rates so it turned out we could borrow a slightly larger amount than needed but also keep monthly payments pretty much the same.

We got VERY lucky.

We had an age gap that meant DD1 got 30 free hours at nursery (she was term time only as well, so this was a big money saver). Some people I know waited til DC1 was nearer school age, so didn’t have to worry about ridiculous nursery fees.