to think it is blooming tough for mum's to go back to work?

[Shimbo]

I would really love to go back to work part-time now that my youngest is approaching 15 months old. I have interviewed and been offered a job with an annual salary of £38K. I was hoping to start back on 3 days a week and gradually build up to 4 days if all goes well.
I have a 2.5 year old and a 15 month old, therefore neither old enough for school yet. I thought the cheapest childcare option would be a nanny for the days I'll be working. Having spent weeks now looking into nannies and childminders, it seems the average hourly rate is £9-10 net, with NI and tax to be paid on top. We have done the calculations and it seems as though I may be barely breaking even, with my travel taken into account and so on. We cannot afford for us to be making a loss with my working. And we have no nearby family to help out with childcare, and even if they were nearby I am not sure they would!
How on earth do you all manage? I hadn't thought my salary was that bad! Any advice much appreciated, I am trying to see if we can share a nanny with another family, but having just moved to our area it is difficult to find out.

Three days a week for 38K? Nice. I would look at a childminder or nursery, you may be able to get childcare vouchers from work to help with the cost.

Breaking even is different to making a loss.

Even if it is not very profitable at first, you will be keeping current in your work and putting money towards your pension, so it is not pointless.

Childcare is paid by both of you to look after the children you have together - it is not a tax paid by you alone to enable you to work, it is a joint expense to enable you both to work and progress.

Are you sure you've looked into childminders? I don't know any that charge £9/£10 ph and def not with tax and NI on top. I charge £4.50ph (in the South East) and as I am self employed, I pay my own tax an NI from this.

My excellent CM charged £25 a day (DD went there for 10 hours a day).

She was VERY reasonable but even the more expensive ones only charged £33-£35 a day.

Agree with FestiveFrieda that although it might not be very profitable to start with, the long term gain of having been in the workforce for the extra time, will mean much better prospects for you overall. I would look at options for when DC1 turns 3 as there will be some free nursery provision then, and another 1.5 yrs later the same for DC2, just as DC1 goes to school. You don't have to pay for childcare forever.

If you really want to work and can do it without being worse off (and are happy of course with arrangements for DC), then I would find it hard to turn down a good job in the hope that similar would drop into my lap at some more convenient time in the future.

D

Sorry, the £38K is per year, so 3 days a week I think will be pro rataed to £24K or something like that. Childminders charge around £11 per hour as I've two children. I totally know childcare is a joint expense but while I would consider breaking even we cannot afford to be making a loss therefore my salary would need to cover it.

Have you looked into the cost of nursery care? I can't imagine you wouldn't be able to find something that would allow you to still make some profit. I would think very carefully about turning the offer down. Offers to work part time in a profession you like with good pay do not come along everyday. You might really regret not taking it down the road. We tried to get by on one wage without me working and it was really tough. I'm so happy to be working part time now!

Sorry I missed that you had 2dc's.

I assumed nurseries would be more than a nanny - and DC1 is just starting at a brilliant local preschool for two mornings/week so am very reluctant to take her out to put her in a nursery. I know, it will be much better for me to return to the workplace if we can make it work. Thanks for the advice :)

Well presumably you and DH would half the childcare? When DS was with a CM I think we paid about £30/day....wasnt making loads but it was a chance to keep working and getting a foot in the door once DS went to school.

Go for it if you can...time goes so quickly before you know it they will be at school and it wont be so expensive.

I agree and am a SAHM partly for that reason. IME many ladies that go back to work are not doing it for the money as the childcare cost wipes the majority of it unless you are a Dr or lawyer etc or unless they were previously the larger earner in the family. They are doing it as they either love their jobs, need it for self identity, fulfilment, etc or just don't enjoy being with DC 24/7 as it can be isolating, difficult, mundane, etc.

I hated my old job. No way I'd miss my DD for it, even though I'd be @£1k richer each month with nursery fees paid. For me nursery is a last resort so we're downsizing massively (plus I saved up) to afford a few years with 1 earner.

I'm pretty certain nursery would be cheaper than a nanny.

I am earning less than that and have (just about) managed to have two preschoolers in full-time daycare. It is very very hard and at times I have had to cut back on food, etc. However, you will definitely be able to afford something on that kind of salary I'd have thought.

Where you might have to change your plans is the thought of a nanny, or how you recruit one. How large is your house? You can pay a nanny a reduced fee if he/she lives in. There are agencies that help those who want to nanny share. Or you could put an ad in the local paper asking for it. Or you could recruit privately. It requires greater effort in the beginning (in terms of thinking about skills/qualities you are looking for, chasing up references and paying for a CRB check, etc) but you can choose just as good a nanny yourself as you can paying an agency if you know what you're doing. And you could choose someone local and unqualified, which could result in a cheaper hourly rate and help you make friends in the community. Also, you could compromise and offer a lower rate in return for helping the nanny to become an OFSTED approved nanny (like a CM), of which there are very few so could add to the nanny's earning potential when he/she moves on from you.

Failing that, why not consider an au pair or a childminder? The flexibility of a CM isn't as great in terms of working hours and you don't have the luxury of them operating in your own home, but it's a thought. It's worked for me.

Ultimately, though, the biggest thing to get right here is your employer. No matter how good your nanny/cm/au pair, without family or friends to step into the breach on days where something goes wrong with your childcare arrangements, you are going to need some goodwill from your employer and an understanding attitude. Although I am worth every penny of my salary and have more than made up for hours off I have taken, I am under no illusions that I would have lost my job a long time ago if my wonderful boss hadn't been so accommodating about time off at short notice because, like you, I am not local and have no family to help.

One last word, as others have already pointed out. Only half the childcare costs are your responsibility. It took two of you to make your children. So while it makes no difference to the overall family budget, it makes a bit difference in how you think about it psychologically and the cost-benefit analysis in terms of your own employment.

Good luck.

In my view you need to not only look at the financial equation right now but also think longer term. Would going back to work get you pension or promotion prospects that could be valuable? Do you work in the kind of industry where more than a couple of years out could make it very difficult to get back, meaning that you might never have a career again? There is a lot more to it than assessing whether you break even in the short term.

Sooty that's a pretty short-sighted viewpoint. Even if childcare means you don't make a lot in the immediate term, in the long term you are almost guaranteed to be better off financially.

MN is full of threads with women who have been SAHM for 5-10 years and now can't get a job at all. That's a big risk to take, and not everyone is comfortable with it.