To ask how stay at home mums do it?

[CopperCloud]

I have an 8 week old baby and I'm struggling to work out how I'll be able to go back to a full time job as I don't have family who can help with caring for the baby and it seems to defeat the point of working if I spend all my wages on childcare.

My partner earns 35k a year, would it mean us both just living off his income?

It's hard when you effectively lose the 2nd income. I found it just wasn't worth it, racing to nursery, then to work, having to just drop everything to get back to nursery to effectively earn nothing. So I started doing care work, on a Saturday for a 12 hour shift. Then one other day in the week when dh could do the drop off to childminder. It worked well for those early years. I went back to office work a few years later. It's good to clock up pension years though. You will appreciate it later down the line.

It amazes me you take the time to make comments like this. If you've got it all figured out why not be generous instead of so rude?

I'd love to hear how the last year went for you and if you came up with any solutions to your query?

Could you work part time, maybe three days a week or something like that, then you will keep your job

You need to think longer term. When kids are teenagers will you have to start again from square one? Childcare costs are huge but once my children are teenagers I'll still have my job, including all my raises and pension years. I think people forget that the older you get, the less attractive you are to employers for a range of reasons. It's much easier to get a job at 25 than 45. Not necessarily easy to start again.