Not paying for childcare this autumn as bills go up

[Essenceandvibes]

I've just had an epiphany.....I absolutely won't be paying a penny for childcare this autumn as bills increase and I won't be made to feel guilty about it either. I can work from home and watch my baby and pick up my 10 year old from school without the assistance of anyone else and if my employer has an issue with it, he can pay an extra £2000 per month post tax to cover the cost of full time help.

Our bills are going to be about £800 a month just electricity and gas alone for our detached 4 bed house, this isn't even thinking about the increase of petrol or groceries.

The mortgage has also gone up a few hundred quid too....childcare and commuting is now a luxury not necessity and I really hope every parent joins me in asking for employers like it or lump it

Shameful the government have let everything get this far, the knock on effects will be huge

Your employer pays you X amount per hour for your undivided attention.

Looking for cheaper childcare options is good. Not having any childcare for children under 8 is just plain stupid.

For sure they could well be in that position of power, and if they are then obviously they can ask for that pay rise, etc to help with the bills. Not a bad week for working on a sun tan btw!

But for every one person like that though, there are 50+ whose position is far more tenuous. I think until told otherwise we'd have to assume its the latter not your former idea that is truth here. I suspect they are on a decent wage but given the tone of the posts not so much in the way of power. But thats just an assumption, could be wrong of course!

Op. I don't agree but I so get it.

I know I am not alone in using less clubs this summer and WFH with my primary age child.

This is a bloody scary time for loads of families and the political leaders are living the high life, don't get it and won't act. All whilst enjoying subsidised meals and hospitality.

We have cut back on everything but are struggling more than ever. And the real financial shock hasnt even started.

But to answer, you can't WFH with a baby, it is not fair on anyone- including yourself.

Both of the examples you give are for people working in public sector roles, are they? Just fancy that!

As for your assumption that provided something isn’t explicitly forbidden in your contract, it’s OK to do it: really? Unless your contract said, “you can’t come to work dressed as a hippopotamus and crap on the floor in the middle of the office”, you might think, “yes, I’ll do that, they didn’t tell me that I couldn’t!”?

This post is writing itself.

@FinneusMum yeah I'll resort back to my original opinion. Your opinion of yourself is very high. They'd replace you if they needed to.

There's no point paying a specialist to not do their job. That's no different to not having anyone in that role.

Wow! Just leave your job and look after your kids full time... to be fair you'll probably be sacked soon anyway

This.

Come back to us when you've been fired.

I do agree that many more people will need to/should be allowed to work from home in order not to have to pay for wrap around care (school pick ups etc to cover their commute time) as long as they have children that are old enough to be neglected/get on with it for a few hours after school whilst their parent continues to work their contracted hours. However you are unreasonable to think that you can juggle a baby and wfh - at the very least you need to find a local au pair/mother's help to come in during the day to care for the baby.

Also the people doing this always say there’s no issue with their work. Their colleagues would have a different view.

Dh’s work let someone go because of that only recently. She was minding her grandchild, thought it wasn’t obvious but guess what her work suffered and they noticed.

ODFOD.

You seriously think they are going to tax people that can't have DC for example.

This thread is ridiculous

If it’s really that easy and manageable Op, how come you’ve just decided now? You could have saved a fortune before now.

@FinneusMum I’d bet my next salary payment that most people wanting to do this are not in your highly unusual position, and therefore your encouragement of it is mostly irrelevant.

The first line of our wfh policy read/ something along the lines of "Working from home is not a substitute for childcare. Employees working from home, must have childcare in place".

OP, it is strange that you can afford such a large 4 bed detached (800 per month is a lot, are you sure you got the math right?) and not be in a position to accommodate the increase in energy bills and childcare as well.

Seems like you and DH overstretched yourselves financially. Rather than cheat your employer, how about you work that ass harder.

Whilst I agree with you in principle (I couldn't do what the OP is suggesting, I cannot physically do my job from home) is it really fair that we are all working really hard, just to pay essential bills? life is for living, not just scraping by!

Paying my sky high energy bill wouldn't stick in my throat as much if the energy companies weren't announcing huge profits, but while many many households are losing sleep over not being able to pay their bills, we have made a small percentage of the country incredibly wealthy! the Tory government have successfully created a very us and them situation! there are far more of 'us' but nobody wants to rock the boat, so 'them' will continue to get away with it, and live very comfortable lives off our backs.

Thank you! You get it

you cant work from home and care for a baby at the same time. if you could more people would do it. you need to find cheaper child care options, reduce your outgoings by moving house or anything else you need to do. this is not going to be a short term few months type of recession its going to be years and years so everyone needs to put strategies in place to deal with it because this isnt one of them.

More power to you OP.

I hope more people start thinking like you.

I know someone kinda in the same position, they asked for a 50k per year pay rise (they work in big oil) or threatened they'd leave and within the day they came back with an offer for that 50k pay rise. He said to me they could have pushed for 75k and probably would have gotten it but it would have likely come with some extra stipulations regarding work hours, etc so decided to settle on that instead.

So I can well believe those sorts of roles exist. I just personally believe that they are all that numerous in number, at least to that sort of level anyways!

Did your employer force you to get pregnant dis they force you to have more children?

Did they force you to live in a 4 bed house?

No

They didn't it was your choice if you can't afford kids don't have them, i have 1 because I cant afford a second you are being 100000000% unreasonable