To be surprised at the cost of childcare

[RueDesIrlandais]

For primary age kids!

Yes, I am being U. Yes, I should have known this and researched it more and I actually probably am not even truly surprised, but I am a bit deflated.

I was basically a sahm for years, following redundancy after I had my first baby. I've been doing little part time jobs since then, like dinner lady at a school and in hospitality.

I've just been offered what I would call a proper job, but it is in a school, so term time only and finishing at the end of the school day. I was so, so excited to be offered it.

I've just looked at after school care which I would need, just for about 45 minutes, and I could cry. It means I will be making approximately the same after childcare as I was was I was a dinner lady! With the added downside that dcs will have to do ASC which they don't exactly love and I'll be working from drop off till pick up so no time to do anything in the house.

I've started now looking at full time jobs in offices which obviously means even more time in childcare for dcs, but the financial return would be potentially worth it.

I had convinced myself that "once they reach primary school" childcare costs wouldn't wipe out my salary and I'm a bit bummed that doesn't seem to be the case.

Aibu and has anyone had similar?

And if I can be very cheeky and ask people who aren't on mega bucks and who work full time weekdays; how much are you spending on breakfast club, after school care and holiday clubs every year? Trying to decide what to do.

Oh, and onde in the school as a TA you may find the school admin jobs are easier to get - especially if they are at the school you are already in.

£10 per day for ASC (15:15-17:45), and £2.50 for breakfast club (8:00-8:45). ASC includes activities like gymnastics and science club though, whereas breakfast club is literally just feeding them cornflakes in the canteen. Zone 2 London. I think that is pretty reasonable myself - an afterschool nanny is £12-16ph, and most non-school clubs (tennis, football, swimming lessons etc) are £10-15 per week for less than an hour.

Great to hear you're going to take the job OP. Not read all responses, but is there a possibility that another school parent could collect the kids for you? 45 minutes is hardly anything- by the time they walk home you'd almost be there? I have this arrangement- only once a week now, but used to be 3x a week- and I pay her £7.50 for the 45 minutes. She's really happy with it as her DC and mine are friends and she gets a little extra each month which she uses to treat her DC.

I used to have a neighbour's older child (at college) who picked up my DC twice a week for the same arrangement.Locally quite a few students do it. I also have a friend who has an older woman who doesn't work pick up her kids and have them for just 45/60 minutes until she gets home. She found her locally by putting a request in our newsagents' window. We're in a big city, so not a village or anything, and people are still available for this kind of work. It's worth a thought.

@theresapossuminthekitchen

Do your kids' school offer any after school sports/arts clubs either by teachers or external providers (as opposed to after school childcare)? This saved me a lot of money in a similar situation to you where I only needed a little bit of time to get to the school (I finished at the same time as them but 10 minutes away - I literally needed 10 minutes care but would end up paying for the full 3.30-6.00!) I ended up able to avoid paying for the ASC at least a couple of nights a week, most weeks. I had to pay for the clubs but that felt more valuable e.g. they were doing sports, etc. and was often cheaper as well.

Yes, I thought about this, as finish time would be about 4 which would give me time to get there. The only thing is that they are frequently cancelled at short notice and if dh was on site that day and I was at school we'd be a bit screwed

@Orangutanteddy I'm in Ireland and we have Afterschool service €5 per hour for one child and €8 for two. Pay as you go....it's amazing!!!

My 2 year old is in nursery - that's £75 a day! Of course it's cheaper when they are in school. Especially as you only pay for what school holiday childcare you need as opposed to paying year round for private nursery yes I know that’s what we paid for our child too- and working around the opening times was v easy.
Two children- £5 breakfast club and £10 after school club each- school lunch in ks2 payments- then still needing flexible working around 8am- 5pm drop offs and pick ups. Inset days/ holidays, camps round here vary between £40-£70 a day per child.
Most women sacrifice their careers in the early years to save on the costs- its delusional for many women to think that it’s easy for them to then return to the workplace and be massively better off financially once kids are in school.

One of the potential advantages of taking that initial TA job is that it gives you experience in a school environment. This automatically gives you an advantage over other applicants for an admin job, especially if you get experience of SIMS/MIS and help with admin where possible - such as with trip admin, producing classroom resources, working with the SENDCO on IHPs and the like.

Also look for where there are additional training opportunities, volunteer, ask about becoming first aid trained to benefit other kids and ratios on trips and events, if you have access to online training, sometimes you can find free access to additional modules without asking.

I went through every single one at one school, got the higher safeguarding qualification just from clicking on the next level up after completing the compulsory one and then started on the other modules, so instead of one certificate, I had twenty education, health and social care ones by the end of the week - all for free, they didn't cost the school any more after they'd paid for the compulsory unit - and they meant I could demonstrate the ability to learn, self motivation to develop and all those growth mindset things Heads and Business Managers like when looking at applications.

The school I was working at didn't believe in giving anybody other than teachers access to qualifications, either. But not all schools are like that.

I've now got access to another training resource and I'm rinsing it before the membership expires for exactly the same reason - it gives me easy access to stuff I don't need right now - but could be useful for other, better paid jobs.

So it might be an investment that could take you from dinner lady money to a more realistic salary.

Good decision OP

Thing is you're paying for someone to look after your children. They need to be paid well or no one would want to do it. Funny though isn't it that SAHM is often looked down upon, but people will pay loads for someone to look after their kid for them.

@RueDesIrlandais

I do have a degree but as I said I don't know if I want to teach. It's a big investment if I went the university route, but if there was on the job training where I actually got paid, that would change things significantly. I'll look into that; thank you

I think if I taught certain subjects at secondary, I'd also qualify for a bursary, but the university fees would eat into that.

Having a degree and experience as a TA would stand you in good stead for a salaried School Direct place. If you have a degree in a specialist subject and want to teach secondary then the bursary will more than cover the fees. getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/funding-your-training#bursaries-and-scholarships

We pay around £84-£104 for wraparound care. Two kids.
Childcarers need to make their money too. In my opinion people baulk at childcare costs but would happily spend that money on something less important. Childcare workers are not valued nearly enough as they should be but that's a whole other topic.

I unfortunately think the reality is that unless you are in well paid work childcare costs are a wash until you get past needing them.

TA roles in my experience are not family friendly as they are inflexible and not well paid. Almost all of the TAs at the school I work at are younger women wanting to go into teaching or older women with older children. Likewise at the school my children are at.

I have an office based job so have managed to structure hours around school. Even as a well paid person the costs were really high.

I think you’d be better looking for a different type of role.

You don’t appear to have calculated the school holiday costs if you work in the private sector.

£80 a day x 5 is £400 a week x 13 weeks - that’s a lot of money.

Can you claim and childcare element? Might be worth looking at entitledto.com

£5 each for about 45 mins breakfast club. £5 per hour so £10 for after school club so £30 per day for 2 dc. Paid in childcare vouchers so there's a 40% tax saving. North West.

My most expensive holiday club is £35 per child so £70 a day. We only do 4 weeks a year of it though, max. It's a really good wood school.

We paid nursery fees for years, so paying asc prices was amazing. But my breakfast club doesn't open until 8. Which is when I need to be in work. We have a cm for mornings and inset days. Then asc until 6. With 1 kid left in primary, we're paying about 90quid a week.

You'll get 20% back from the government x

Honestly, OP with the way things are at the moment, I’d take the job. You are far better placed to be finding something else with this step up on your CV. You are under no obligation to stay in the job forever, just hang on until you find something that genuinely covers your costs and offers something of a future.

I'm NW my GCs ASC is £6 from 3.20 to 6pm...breakfast club is 4£ .... my DD uses ASC once a week....like you she only need it for 45 mins....but gos home first...does a mini midweek clean....gets reay for next day...puts dinner on then goes to collect..

I pay £25 per term for 1 day a week of breakfast club (8am - 9am), plus about £90 per week for 2 afternoons a week of after school care (3:30pm - 5pm), which doesn't even cover my working hours...It really is tricky, OP, and, unfortunately, I haven't found a solution that works. Holiday club (which is the cheapest locally and held at the school) is £54 a day, plus you have to pack the kids lunch and snacks.

"My kids don't enjoy ASC, but I'm pretty confident they would like the childminders as they have gone to her before when tiny. But that's more expensive. She doesn't charge by the hour. She offers an after school service with a flat fee of £20 per child."

Are you sure she's more expensive? Are you comparing like with like?

I charge more than the ASC at the school. I also have expenses that they don't have and that save money for the parents that use us.
I collect from school (petrol costs), provide a snack when they come in and a proper evening meal (ASC provides toast and juice). I also have children much later than they do (they close at 5, we go on until 7).
Of course, if you don't want those things, an ASC will seem cheaper.

I am a childminder my wrap around children pay £5 (7.30-8.45) before school and £5 after (3.15-4.30) so those who come every day pay £50 per week. Could you look at becoming a childminder if as you say there is only 1 who collects from your school and working term time only then do msa as well if you only concentrate on school aged children?

The only childminder who collects from my dc's school is amazing but almost double ASC
Train as a childminder?

@FloralsForSpring

Thing is you're paying for someone to look after your children. They need to be paid well or no one would want to do it. Funny though isn't it that SAHM is often looked down upon, but people will pay loads for someone to look after their kid for them.

Exactly, when I go to work l look at it in terms of overall gain, including career development, enjoyment of job, pension, children getting to socialise and do different activities vs the effort and expense would otherwise have to put into caring for my children myself during that time, also taking into account we do both want some family time together etc. We then decide to do what we feel best for all of us as a family. Sometimes despite really wanting to work my kids have needed me more or it would cost us too much financially. At other times the pluses have far outweighed the minuses. I don’t understand those that seek to view it as a moral decision and feel that parents need to be incentivised one way or the other. Just do what you can/want to do and don’t devalue the time and effort of properly caring for kids

If you are friends with another mum and literally only need a short time after school you might be able to do a childcare swap as you are free in hols. I worked shorter hours so could always pick up/ferry kids to after school activities, in return the mum who was a teacher and couldn’t do that would take mine sometimes in hols.