Childcare dilema

[Hmmmbop]

WWYD?

We have DS and DD. Have to decide what child care option to pick for when I return to work. Where we are child care is very expensive. It's much cheaper near my work (6 miles away). DS is in a nursey we are very happy with however doesn't take under 2s so DD can't go there and it closes at 5pm.

Options;

1. keep DS where he is, send DD to nursery near by. DH will do drop off, I'll do pick up. Definitely the easiest option, also most expensive.

2. move both children to nursery near my work. For DS this would either be for 9 months until he starts school or he could go to the private school attached to the nursery.

This option saves us £4000 in that 9 months over option 1 but means I'm doing all drop offs and pick ups (not near DHs work, not accessible by public transport, only 1 car).

3. keep DS where he is and send DD to nursery near my work. This means going home to pick up DS, taking DS to pick up DS before we a go home. This is a round trip of 45mins + traffic dependent but would only be for 9 months until DS goes to school. Save's us 2k over option 1.

4. keep DS where he is, send DD to child minder. The one local child minder who has availability I'm not sure about, so would mean leaving DD with someone I'm not 100% about. Same cost as option 2 and DH could do all drop offs.

5. something I haven't thought of.

ARGH. This is keeping me up at night!

Just going off what you've posted I'd pick option 2. Is there a reason that you can't do both drop off and pick up? It sounds like 2 would be the easiest of the lot to me.
Although it is 11 at night so my judgement could be off

I think I'd keep looking for another childminder in the first instance who you are happy with. There's a lot going for leaving your ds where he is settled and having your dd in a homely environment. But obviously you can't use a childminder who you don't think is good enough.

If that wasn't possible I would probably move both dc to a nursery near your work.

Which is the easiest in terms of logistics that you can afford? I would gladly pay more if it meant life was less stressful (assuming I could afford it).

darlingtwinklebum it just means that if I'm on training, or working elsewhere I would still have to do drop off and pick up, there'd be absolutely no option for DH to do it unless in an absolute emergency when he'd have to walk them to a local cafe and wait for me.

Stompythedinosaur I have reservations about child minders generally (I'm a social worker so see the worst of all people) and not sure I could shake that. But even if I could, there's very very few in my local area (and even fewer with full time vacancies).

mindutopia option 1 is least stressful and we can afford it, but it essentially makes my wage £400 a month and that 4k could buy us a lot.

@Hmmmbop I see what you mean now. That could cause quite a few issues depending how often you have training etc.
In that case I'd probably go for 3.
Yes it adds time into your journey but ds can stay in his nursery where he's settled and you don't have to shell out loads more money. Aside from petrol. If it's only 9 month that makes sense.

Get a live-out nanny?

CherrySocks it's marginally more expensive than option 1 when you take into consideration employer pension, insurance and national insurance contributions. If we had 3 kids it'd be the best option but for 2 it's not.

Bumping for the morning crowd

Send them both near your work for 9 months then move dd to ds's old nursery once he starts school? Might be a nuisance for 9 months but 4 grand us a lot of money. Then once you have one in school you can effectively go back to the setup you have just now. If dh has to pick them up occasionally during the 9 months he could get a taxi? It's still cheaper than £4k.

How would you deal with days your don’t work or are off sick but still want to send them to nursery? Who would do the nursery runs?

That problem was one we had when looking at childcare near my work and DH wouldn’t be able to do drop off or collecting. I would have found it too difficult to have Dd with me when ill and we had the odd occasion to have the need for a childfree day as we had no family or friends around who could take her

reluctantbrit child free days would be me or DH if we were both home. If I was ill DH could take them using the car then get the train from there to work (there's a train station near the nursery but on a totally different line to our train station).

Having them near my work is a pain for days I'm not in work for whatever reason but out of rush hour it's a 15minute journey.

Knitwit99 it's just a lit of moving for him (he's moved once already). Our child care costs actually go up once DS goes to school! DD isn't 2 until 2020 so would have to wait until then to move to DSs nursery, so it'll be 9 months of both near my work, then 5 months of 1 near home and 1 near work.

if your saving £4k on option 2 why not earmark £1-2k for taxi/uber so DH can do pick ups when needed.

Di11y it's the carseat situation. I'm not prepared for them to go in a car without carseats and I can't take the carseats out and leave them at nursery 'just incase'.