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

YABU

You cannot work effectively whilst simultaneously looking after a young child/baby. Unless you work flexible hours, you also cannot just decide you will stop working at school pick up time without negotiating that with your employer.

should you attempt to carry out your plan, it’s well not be a case of “refusing to be made to feel guilty” by your employer, it may be that your employer takes action due to your performance and you may end up losing your job. There is a reason the vast majority of people can’t take their pre-school age children to work.

You don't think it's the government's job to manage increasing costs of petrol, gas/electric, record rent rises, soaring transport costs etc?

Whose job is it then?

OP, I’m guessing you work for the passport office or the DVLA? They’re the two employers who spring to mind when I think about rubbish customer service since COVID.

Or maybe Ryan Air customer services? Maybe they don’t answer the phone because they’re all changing nappies?

I agree, OP. Most work can be done flexibly around other things. If I was your manager I'd be interested about output nothing else.

My only advice is to fix your mortgage then it won't go up this inflation and recession thing is going to last a few years....

@Essenceandvibes I couldn't agree with you more. The amount of people who stick up for capitalism, and support billionaires never ceases to astonish me.

As someone that works in a hospital I find it hard to believe that a child of a HCP would be allowed into a clinical appointment

She should've been more nuanced then.

😂

The OP clearly meant trolling as in she’s starting to take the piss because of some of the responses, not that she’s an actual troll.

What's the difference between someone who trolls and an "actual troll"?

These kinds of comments are ridiculous.

I live alone so luckily only using enough energy for one. I've always used the quickest wash setting, 30° at 30 mins. Don't have a tumble dryer. Just have the light on where I am, it's only a studio I'm living in anyway. Heating on the barest minimum number of hours to keep the damp away (and funny enough I like to be warm as well!) I, like MANY people,don't have wood burners.

What else can I reduce? Any less and I'll be reading by candle light, living like it's the Great Depression.

Sorry, life is too short for that shit. I work minimum 50 hours a week on an average salary and should be able to enjoy those few 'luxuries'.

If an employer doesn’t pay their staff enough to pay their bills, I don’t think they can expect their staff to operate at maximum output. People are human, and if not stressed about being broke, they’re probably either stressed from doing something about it such as having a second job or trying to do childcare and work at the same time. Working people get very little help from the government. Employers need to take responsibility instead.

As someone who WFH with a baby at the end of my maternity leave, I wouldn’t recommend it if you have deadlines to meet but I can definitely see why it would be necessary for some people. You could probably get away with it if your job isn’t very busy though.

Why are some people so accepting of pathetic scraps from their government? Why are some people so determined to force others to live worse lives rather than protest for better treatment?

This really, this is the theme of the majority of the thread, and it's depressing.

We could be reduced to living on £1 a day and mumsnetters would be saying well you should maybe live on 50p then.

I’m certainly not supporting billionaires or capitalism or anything of the sort. I’d just prefer it if my colleagues were doing their jobs rather than being paid the same salary to look after their own children, whilst the childless employees do unpaid overtime to pick up their slack.

I don’t support billionaires and didn’t vote for these fools. I still don’t think the OPs strategy is a wise one though.

@Essenceandvibes

What do you expect your baby to do for 8 hours a day?

This is totally untenable. Been there.

The passport office is dealing with a huge volume of pent up demand this year. Each month they process more passports than any month pre-covid. They are processing about 30% more passports in '22 vs '19.

Pretty much every country has the same problem with the backlog.

People like Jacob Rees Mogg would love you to blame home working but it's really not that.

DVLA has the same issue just to a lesser extent.

I know it's off topic but I'm fed up of the east digs when they are actually doing a great job of coping with massive increased demand.

Er you are believing your own spin here OP. No one is suggesting taxing childless couples other than some Oxford academic after a few headlines.

I fully understand your point, but most parents won’t do what you are doing because they couldn’t stand it / are worried about being sacked.

What about starting a campaign to get big corporations and the govt to dig deep and help w childcare?

I can’t get over the fact you could SAVE £600 on groceries per month. On that basis, I’m guessing your grocery budget must be well over £1,000 pcm. Wtf?! What are you eating… caviar and champagne?

1: I don't believe you should be downsizing unless you really need to. However sometimes you need to make do with the situation you have. For some people its that or risk going bankrupt if this carries on for too long.

2: Stuff paying extra taxes to bail out people who have deliberately overstretched themselves or been too financially careless to know that the gravy train may well end at some point in the future.

When you've got £800 a month bills at this stage for energy something tells me you are being wasteful somewhere and there is alot that could be cut down, rather than complaining that someone should bail you out of the mess created by yourselves.

I stand by the idea that you need to live within your means, and if they change, then sadly you need to also adjust your life accordingly, as nearly everyone will have to bar the millionaires club in the next 12-24 months.

A company/tax payer shouldn't have to suffer because they messed up and over extended beyond their means, or didn't prepare enough savings to cope with this sort of eventuality. Have some responsibility for what you do and not expect the world to bail you out all the time.

I think your in a slightly different kettle of fish though from the OP who from the sounds of things has been hugely wasteful with their money and over extended themselves as a consequence.

For people that are genuinely struggling and have cut back as far as they can then obviously there does need to be some sort of help from the govt. What Truss suggests won't help the most needy in society thats for sure!

But I don't want my tax paying for someone who lives in a 4 bed detached house and spending way over 600 a month on food and 800 on energy. Those sorts of people need to simply accept that the world has changed and they need to accept the change with it.

There are 177 billionaires in the UK. In a population of over 67 million people. Trust me, they are not where all the money is going.

Clearly very few people on this thread understand how businesses work. Businesses are predominantly there to make money to pay out to their shareholders. Their shareholders are not only comprised of the 177 billionaires mentioned. They will also include pension funds and banks - you know, the ones who have lent you the money to buy the four bedroom detached house you think you are so entitled to through your 'hard work'. Plenty of people work hard every day and still can't afford to eat or heat their homes.

I imagine those billionaires think very much like you do, OP - why should they give up what they have worked hard for because the country is in the shit? Can't believe you can't see the irony in that.

I'm not sure where everyone thinks the government is going to get all this money from. To subsidise the cost of heating, food, petrol, childcare. We're already at record levels of borrowing - 84% of GDP - seriously where is this money going to come from? You can tax the rich more of course, windfall taxes etc. But it won't even touch the sides.

And best of luck with your discrimination case when you get sacked for looking after a baby while you're meant to be working. That's not discrimination.

Your attitude sucks, OP, with your £800 bills and 4 bed detached. You aren't struggling. Plenty of people are but it's clearly not you.

This. I am gobsmacked at the entitled shite the op is posting. Someone said a while back that they remind them of narcissistic ranting and I couldn't agree more

Not being funny, but unless OP owns the company or something (and bashing her employer suggests she doesn't), she's not buying a detached four bedroom home on SEO wages. There's other money coming in from somewhere. That's OK, I also have access to money I don't earn, but once again, it puts a different spin on the battle cry to join the homeworking/childcare revolution. Vive la two-hour days and dual/passive incomes.

If you were on my team I'd have no issue with you popping out at 3 or whatever to pick your 10 year old up, most 10 year olds could entertain themselves for a couple of hours while you finish work.

BUT

If I knew you were looking after your baby during your work day (as more than just a one off here and there when childcare went pear shaped) it would very probably result in your dismissal, as meetings would get missed and work would be late or of lesser quality.

Absolute rubbish

I've seen Head of SEO jobs go for over £100k easily. You don't know what you're talking about, you don't even know what part of the country she lives in. She could have paid millions or she could have paid £300k