How does childcare work when you do shifts?

[fairgame84]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I used to work normal hours when DS was little so I've no idea how this works.

Im pregnant with DC2 and will be going back to work full time after mat leave. Im a nurse and work 3 or 4 13 hour shifts per week; days/nights/weekends, no set days or pattern.
DH works normal hours, mon-fri 8.30-5.

How does it work with nurseries and childminders?
Do we pay for the days we use or do I pay a retainer for the whole week and just send DC when needed?
Or do we have to send DC for set days and hours?
We have no family that will help so we'd need childcare otherwise DH will have to stay home.

DH is the shift worker in our house and I gave up work while they were little. Where we live (rural Norfolk), we simply didn't have the childcare options and any solutions meant losing money and not paying the mortgage. The solution would have been childcare around the non shift worker but it simply didn't work for us. I went back to work when my youngest was 3 and it was tough relying on a preschool place, family and friends but now they're older, I simply work term time only and dh still does shift work even though I worry it's killing him.

Unless you have family help it just doesn’t work and is stressful

It can work, even without family. You just have to pay for it.

Trying to get childcare for only the days you work is almost impossible on a shift rota. And allows no downtime for the shift working parent. You’re either asleep, looking after your child, or at work. So you have to accept you’ll pay for a full time place.

This is what we did and it was worth every penny for work:life balance and my mental health. No stressing about which days, dh could pick up and drop off- although that’s another rant about men in the workplace and the attitude to them working flexibly for childcare. Dh invariably got “can’t your wife do it” when he left bang on time for pick up.

Yes it’s expensive, but it’s only 3 years. We switched the mortgage to interest only, and went without holidays abroad for the duration. Plus the shift allowance does go a long way- if i’d have done regular hours and still needed that full time place we’d have been worse off, and i’d have seen my child less. So there are benefits to shift work.