Corona childcare as a single parent

[larlypops]

Apologies if this has already been discussed but I just wondered how if you’re classed as a non key worker and have no support with childcare how you manage.
My children used to go to holiday clubs and after school clubs all which no longer exists, I have gone from working a mixture of two jobs average 55 hours consisting of night shifts and day shifts with a great balance to 25 hours a week, 5 hours 5 days a week.
My children’s school bubbles make it 10x harder to find a childminder because they start 8.30/9 and finish 2.30/3.20 and even if I did more day hours don’t even know if i would be any better off at this stage. I lost my night shift job in summer because their dad moved further away so I no longer have childcare at nighttime.
I’ve gone from having a small rainy day fund and being comfortable to scrapping by due to reduction in wages and using most of what I did have while UC was being setup also during lockdown I’ve had to replace the clutch and gearbox on my car, washing machine went too so that was over a grand.
My rent is £75 more than I earn a month atm because such decreased hours and UC are kindly topping me up however i get paid last day of month, rent 1st month then no universal credit until 10th. Now I have been putting aside a couple of hundred to cover the rent shortfall from UC payment however this month I had to stay off for 10 days because there was a case in my child’s class, so that was 6 days less wages and now I have less than a £1 to my name luckily I have food and petrol.
I just dread to think when they go back how long will it be before one has to isolate again and if then one goes back the other is told to isolate because that’s 20 days off and could be more than once, will employers be flexible, I won’t have enough AL to cover all the time off and just feel like what is the step when that happens. Can my landlord turf me out. I just feel like that’s all I can think about and it’s affecting me so much. My kids are too young to be at home alone both under 10 and I have family but most are working so little support. I just feel this overwhelming stress with it all.

That sounds really tough, I’m sorry.

The only practical suggestion I can make is to see if you can team up with another family in the same position as a childcare bubble. So you have their kids some days and they have yours on other days

Can their dad have the DC for longer stretches to make up for no loner having them at night - obviously this won’t work in term time but in school holidays or if schools are shut? Appreciate that doesn’t help with regular shifts though.

Thank you, I live in a village and the mums I do know have partners working from home so it’s ok for the odd day we help one another but not consistent and I always feel like a burden. All my friends of 10+ years either live out of town or across town where their kids go to other schools.
Their dad sees them every other weekend and tbh even when I asked him to swap from a weekend to weekdays this week as he was off and I was working he wouldn’t because he was spending time with his gf so I had to drive 30 mins to drop them with my dad everyday. I know it won’t last forever but at the moment it’s just hard to focus on being positive when it’s the unknown of what’s next.

I hope you get CM from him

Yes the minimum he has to pay which is stupid once you’ve paid for school lunches and their clubs but he won’t change.

Sounds really tough and stressful. Is there anything you could do from home in the evenings to make extra money, I realise this is easier said than done, especially at the moment, but I do have a friend who has recently found a call centre job that she's doing from home as an example.
Other than that, hang on in there, one day all this will be gone and things can only get better, as far away as it seems now.