SAHM numbers lowest for 15 years - we need your views for Sky interview tomorrow am

I don't really see how it can be financially feasible to go to work. It is so expensive to pay for childcare where I live that if I return to work at the end of my maternity leave, taking everything into account we would be a whole £50 per month better off. Which is not worth it. Perhaps other people have really big mortgages or really big wages or cheaper childcare. I would love to go back to work part time.

How about the government pays parents of children under school age/nursery voucher age the equivilent of say minimum wage for 40 hrs pw? The parent can then choose to either live of this as a SAAHM or use it towards childcare to return to work.

I think that in this way we would be able to choose to either work and pay for extras or spend extra time with our kids- a personal choice not one that is made for us because of finacail reasons.

Also I would like the possibility that a grandparent or other relative could be paid for childcare through the tax credit system as personally i think family care is better for a very young child as opposed to more formal childcare

It is getting harder and harder to afford SAHMdom I should think. I have always wanted to be a SAHM but it has never been financially feasible - we are lucky enough to own our own home (not outright though) but it's a smallish house in a cheap area so relocation isn't an option to free up cash and we can't afford to live on just DH's salary, which far from minimum wage but not exactly generous.

I think that...

if one parent is a SAHP then the other should be given their tax allowance

The tax credit system needs to be looked at - there is a big band of income that receives the same amount or credit (iirc 20 - 50K) which means that even if I were to give up my job we wouldn't get any more tax credits.

Perhaps other measures such as council tax being calculated on the number of income earners in a house, ie a reduction in CT if there is a SAHP.

BUT - all this costs money doesn't it?

Free perscriptions and dental care would be fantastic.
I am a pt worker (16 hours) and 8 of those are on a Saturday so we don't have to pay childcare as DP can look after LO.
I hate having to work weekends as it eats into the little amount of family time we have, but I see no other option.

I'm a SAHM to 1 child who is 2.7yrs.

We are skint. Absolutely skint. But with the skill set i have there's nothing out there that would pay me enough to make it worth the childcare fees etc and be flexible.

and TBH I LIKE being at home with my son despite the financial strain.

I am a SAHM and Dp has,in the past been a stay at home dad.We have always struggled financially.The economy is,wrongly geared around both parents working.
Why can't a parent be paid for staying at home and looking after their children? Rather than having to farm them out to[in some instances dubious providers of childcare]I am not talking about people who choose to work and use childcare.
It is putting immense pressure on parents/children and grandparents.

My ideal would be none of those.

It would be the government to STOP allowing employers to pay people a non-living wage, to outsource work to increase their profits and to actually do something about: the price of property -and therefore rents- in the UK, the increases in council tax and the increases in energy and fuel prices.

Instead of giving money out and putting in another expensive, inefficient bureaucracy like the Tax Credits machine, how about just not taking so much of it from employees in the first place?

OK I am a SAHM of 2 boys 3.2 and 23 months.

In order for me to be a SAHM, we relocated back from Berkshire to the N Yorkshire, where house prices were less.

Although we have family here, we didnt have children for them to be looked after by someone else and also they are there grandparents not their childminders.

Money is extreamly tight and I might have to look for a part time job when DH is at home. We thought we could manage on savings, but car needed unexpected repairs, washer broke etc and also relocation expenses wiped them out. Day to day home fuel costs, increase in council tax and deisel have really hit us hard.

In an ideal world I would like receive a little more child benefit or even receive free percriptions or dental treatment for me, but as DH works we have to pay for my stuff.

Child care costs would wipe out any positive benefit from me going back to work and why pay someone to look after them when both my boys and I enjoy our time together. They are little for such a short space of time and soon they will spend more time at school than they do awake at home. This is the time in their lives that I have the most influenece and I am trying to use it to bring up two well balnced and adjusted gentlemen