Childcare shock

"Everyone is different but I can't see why so many people are reluctant to stay home."

Because everyone is different!

I was much happier after going back to work - part time so I feel I've got the best of both worlds.

It's a joint cost
Look into tax free childcare
Think long term. Yes it's expensive but it's not for long.

Check your benefits, you might be able to claim back some of your childcare costs

To those of us criticising this new poster referring to childcare coming from the partners salary;
There's no indication of the OP's gender in the post, we could be discussing two women expecting a child.
Does that make a difference to the way we are thinking?

Can’t speak for others but my point is the same regardless of either sex. The figure is coming out of both salaries.

If it is financially not much better to have your partner back at work it isn't so terrible taking time off to be with the baby.
I'm a SAHM to a toddler and it's great. It's a couple of years of her career so personally I think that being able to have the baby's first few years home with mum is more valuable.
Everyone is different but I can't see why so many people are reluctant to stay home.

*But seeing it as a joint expense doesn't magically add money to the equation. It's a pointless "feminist" dig that doesn't help anyone.

Also in the real world not everyone has a job that offers career progression.*

Having just come out the other side the biggest loss that women don’t consider when saying “my salary doesn’t cover childcare” is pension.

In hindsight i would also add pension contributions to the calculations. The “household income” should be high enough to contribute to a sipp or similar for the sahm.

I am now of an age where many male colleagues are retiring on full pension. My female associates are looking at not being able to retire for much longer if they went PT, and even longer if the took a chink of time off.

Seeing childcare as a joint expense means the household income still needs to cover joint expenses like pensions. Having one party just give up work to save childcare isn’t as economical as it seems.

Childminder worked for us. I didn't need the full day of a nursery so we just paid for the hours we used. It is really expensive - we had two years when both of us were in child care and it could cost £1k a month.

It is expensive, we have twins so would have to pay x 2. Because of this I haven’t been able to go back to work.

I aaumed that the OP meant that the cost of childcare would be equivalent of 70% of partner's salary.

To those of us criticising this new poster referring to childcare coming from the partners salary;
There's no indication of the OP's gender in the post, we could be discussing two women expecting a child.
Does that make a difference to the way we are thinking?

Childminders are generally only cheaper if you need fewer hours. If you need say, 10 hours a day you’ll probably find them similar to nursery as they charge by the hour and nursery charge by the day/ half day

This is the exact reason we chose to send DC 2 and 3 to a childminder. They are significantly cheaper, making a return to work actually financially worthwhile. Ask around and go on recommendations.

Using registered childminder, or shared nanny can often be cheaper if you have any recommendations.

I just assumed they were a lesbian couple Tbh

OP add in the benefit of tax free childcare or childcare vouchers (plenty of calculators online) and see where you are then

But yes, the truth is you need to earn a fair amount to pay for childcare. Many parents can’t afford to work

Off topic - but what - 2 hours for a haircut? Yes I pay £40 for my hair to be cut - once every 3 months. That hair dresser spends 2 hours on my hair What the fuck? Are you a prized poodle?

It is shocking!congratulations btw! Have you looked into alternative childcare? My 1 year old DS goes to a childminder 4 days a week including every other Saturday, roughly £460 a month, partner and I split it between the both of us. I find my childminder has more time for my DS and knows him better as she looks after 3 others including DS, it's more personal if that makes sense ? Definitely look into child minding. Instead of 70% of our salaries going into childcare only 40% which saves us a lot of money

Because if his partner does not work there would be no childcare costs.

Or if he doesn’t work. But if they both do. It isn’t solely out of either of their salary. So why phrase it that way?

You may be entitled to UC. And child benefit.
Costs should come from combined HOUSEHOLD income.
Not yours and hers.
Sorry honey.. Not sorry.

I'm always mystified by this 'drop to 4 days a week each' solution. This is what DH and I do but surely if your salary outstrips the cost of childcare (as seems to be the case here), you are better off the more days you work? For DH and I it is a financial sacrifice to work 4 days each, relative to full time. We think it's worth it for the balance between spending time at home with the DC and reasonable maintenance of our careers. I appreciate depending on where you earnings are relative to tax thresholds it could be different though.

@quizqueen what a ridiculous comparison.

Yes I pay £40 for my hair to be cut - once every 3 months. That hair dresser spends 2 hours on my hair and can only do mine, so is charging £20 an hour out of which she needs to pay all her overheads.

Nursery charge £5 per hour per child, for 10 hours a day. Each member of staff can look after up to 8 children (less in baby rooms obviously).

The two are completely incomparable, they’re so miles away from each other you just can’t level them out enough to draw a meaningful comparison.

You only pay £5 an hour for childcare but paid £15k for your car, does that mean your car is more important than your kid? Makes no sense, does it?

My friend has 2 kids under 4 and both in a creche. This costs almost all of her salary but they are doing it because she has a good job with good benefits etc so it is in their interest to suffer for the first few years. This will payoff in the long run rather than her starting from scratch again in a few years time with a low paid junior roll. Depends on what you want.

It's no big secret that childcare is expensive . Our nursery fees are more than our mortgage and council tax combined.

You need to work out what the percentage cost is of BOTH your wages. Also that you will lose out on much more if your wife doesn't go back to work - as well as her limiting her future career profession, pension contributions etc.

Most people are entitled to tax free childcare - basically for every £8 you pay, the government top it up to £10 so it's a good contribution. Again, depending on your income you will also get child benefit of £82 a month.

You say it’s 70% for a nursery but have you looked into a childminder? They are often cheaper.

Both of you drop to 4 days a week, possibly compressed hours. Then you only have three days of childcare to pay for and you both get a one on one day with your dc.

Exactly. So why was he deducting the cost solely from his partner’s salary?
Because if his partner does not work there would be no childcare costs.