2 working parents, school aged children, no childcare. Possible?

[BlueAbacus]

DC2 starts full time preschool attached to the primary school which DC1 attends in September. Feels like a whole new phase and still thrilled to be out of nappies tbh.

I appreciate millions of people must do this, but I can’t get my head round it, so any advice very welcome.

DH and I both work full time. Both can be flexible in terms of home working c.2 days a week, but neither can do compressed hours. Neither of us can (or want to) go part time, mainly for financial reasons.

Up until September, we have had a nanny/childminder to do pick ups, and look after our younger child during the day. She had both in school holidays. Appreciate we have been fortunate with this.

From September, we can’t justify a nanny for after school hours (nor do I think there are a lot of people looking for those hours, from what I can see) and there are no childminders who will just do pick ups in our area. So DH and I will have to fudge termtime with after school clubs and each working from home a few days a week, making up time in the evenings.

But what about school holidays?! We have no grandparents or other family help. Is it just lots of summer camps and me and DH taking annual leave at separate times? Any advice from those who have done/are doing it very welcome.

Always did breakfast club qnd after school club, worked from home during holidays or sent to holiday clubs or sports camps etc

… keep the nanny, same as everyone else is saying.

Please don’t think I am criticising your choice but as a general sort of question, isn’t that going to be a bit unsettling for the child in question?

Check local private schools. Ours does holiday club from 2 years. Check primary schools with wrap around care as well..

We are two full time working parents with one DC in school. No childcare or help from family or friends.
We alternate drop off and pick up so on the days I drop her at school, he picks her up, so I can work late. When it's my day to collect her, I don't have to drop off so can head in early to make up the hours. Sometimes we both have to catch up a little bit after bed time but only at busy times.
Holidays, we use a mix of annual leave and holiday clubs.
It's pretty fully on but was our choice to have a child knowing we have no free help!

I would keep the nappy as you have still got a couple of painful years for childcare.

Where I live none of the pre-school children are allowed to use the breakfast club or afterschool club that the school runs.

There is one holiday club that will accept a 3 year old in the city I live in. Once DS reaches 4 there be one other that would take him but all the others will only take from 5 (which is a pain with a May birthday)

Many holiday clubs where I live advertise that they take children for a ‘full’ day except their definition of a full day is 9-3 or 9-4 which is no good when you have a 9am meeting 30 mins away from the holiday club!

It's not true about holiday clubs not taking 4 year olds as I've found some that do. However they expect your child to go to toilet completely unaided.

This means my autumn born DD could have gone to a holiday club from October half-term.

In reality she learnt to wipe her bum properly this week.

In other words it is not just about your child's age but their individual maturity and as a PP pointed out their sociability.

My child is in preschool attached to a school and her previous nursery offered to take her over summer. Worth a try.

I’m not criticising either, but that setup would have been unsettling for my last two youngest DC at that age. I’m glad it works for some.

Saying that, we felt that we had no choice but to send our middle DC to an ASC at another Primary School 5 mins walk away down the road for the whole of her Reception Year, as the ASC waiting list at her Primary school was full.
We live in London (Tube Zone 4) and this was 7 years ago.

Why any worse than holiday clubs though?

Would you consider a nanny with own child? That’s what I did - I was the nanny. DS came to work with me of an afternoon and holidays. My boss put a stair gate up for me and let me keep a travel cot (for the holidays) changing mat, high chair and box of toys at their house. I did use my own car and they provided a seat for their daughter.
It worked well for us and I know a few nannies who also did that. Also because we came with our own children we were usually a cheaper rate as we couldn’t give undivided attention to their child.

I'd drop preschool and use a childminder and the funding all year round.....around 22 hours....then you're likely to find one who will do your school pick up and the 14 weeks school closures a year.

It's not true about holiday clubs not taking 4 year olds as I've found some that do.

I don't think anyone said all holiday clubs refuse to take younger children, but it's very unusual. Those who take 3 /4 year olds also tend to charge more, and are usually open for fewer hours. For example 9- 12 or 9am - 3pm, which isn't helpful for working parents with no additional support.

We do have family help but I don't like to call upon it often. We have 2 DC in primary school and both work full time. They do breakfast club and after school club during the week and during holidays we use a mix of the holiday club run by after school club, more expensive sports clubs for the odd week and annual leave. Both were in private nursery until they started school as the hours for school nursery didn't work for us.

We don’t have any family nearby to help with childcare. My DD stayed at private nursery until she started school (rather than moving to the preschool at her school) to avoid the issue of before and after school care and covering the holidays for one more year, so I’d suggest keeping the nanny for another year!

Once she started school, I adjusted my part-time hours (I work 0.8 FTE) over five days so I can pick up from school for part of the week, and we use after school club for the other days. DH and I alternate the morning drop offs. For school holidays, we each take leave to cover some of the weeks, and use holiday club for the rest. This means we have one week off together in the summer and another at Xmas (as the holiday club isn’t open then). We plan it all on a spreadsheet to keep track.

DD is now 7, so she can occupy herself while one of us WFH, but it’s not ideal (brings back memories of lockdown) so we only do that if absolutely necessary (like illnesses).

I am thankful that her school runs both breakfast and after school club (which is open until 6), and a holiday club that is open 8-6 - not all schools have this. It was one of the main reasons for choosing her school, as we couldn’t manage otherwise.

We are in this position apart from I work from home full time and younger DD is in private nursery. We make it work by putting older DD into after school club. It’s expensive but just temporary until we get the 30 free hours. Holidays are annual leave and then holiday clubs, and inset days we muddle through working with the oldest DD in front of the TV 🙈

We are in the same position as you excpet working 4 days each. We plan to send dc2 to nursery mornings only to justify keeping our nanny! I can't face her leaving yet precisely because of the holidays but also all the sick days, late finishes etc

Luckily DS school offers wrap around for the full time nursery children. So we used that for before and after school and took separate holidays the first year.

From reception we’ve tried to have a day each off at half terms and used a mix of holiday club and sports camp for the rest.

Used to be childminder, now both parents wfh most days with help of teenage daughter.

Clearly we’re all trying to find the way through with this! Thanks for sharing your setups, lots to think about.

I hope you manage to find a solution that works for you. Even if it means reconsidering the preschool.

I know a few local schools have been stuggling to fill their nursery / preschool classes, as the the shorter hours and lack of childcare options for this age group means it's not suitable for many families.