To put DC3 in nursery 1 extra day to clean/save money ?

[specialk9]

DC3 (almost 3) is about to receive his 30 hours funding after Easter. This will save us £845 a month. He goes 3 days a week whilst we work. This money will go in to savings.

We pay a cleaner £60 a week / 3 hours. It takes 4 hours to clean our house.

On the 2 days I look after DC3 we go to a club, see family/friends and I do whatever cleaner doesn't finish, change the 4x beds and any other 'family' admin etc

Due to the funding we have the opportunity to put him in another day. We could cancel the cleaner and save approx £260 a month. I would then spend day 4 doing all the cleaning/changing beds etc. This money would go in to family pot for days out/treats etc.

We don't have the time / nor do we want to clean at the weekends. Saturdays are spent doing something together or with friends/family. Sundays DC1 (15) and DC2 (7) have sporting commitments.

Positives
All cleaning/beds done in one day
Save an extra £260 per month
I think I actually clean better 😆

Negatives
Lose 1 day a week with DC3 before he starts school (Sept 2025)

WWYD? Just feels a bit bad to put him in nursery another day to essentially clean !

I don't want to clean and ignore toddler though ! I want to spend any time I have with him to do things with him, playing, attending clubs etc

But that's just real life for most people
It will do your toddler no harm to not be the centre of the universe 24/7.
And am I right I'm thinking that you only work 3 days anyway?

@Charlie2121 nobody is forcing you to do anything

@Charlie2121 🤣🤣🤣 can you seriously imagine being that bitter and miserable that you begrudge the thought of a disabled toddler excelling in a nursery setting? There's a reason why the government gives funding to parents receiving carer's allowance/DLA, I'd get the funding regardless of whether I was finishing my university degree or not. I hope you find some peace in your life.

Good luck if we all had that attitude. How do you think everyone would be funded in such circumstances?

The only way that anyone receives any benefit whether that be child benefit, funded nursery, tax free childcare or any other unearned funding is for someone else to do work they are not paid for.

You are conflating 2 very different issues that really are unrelated.

Good grief people can use the 30 hours as they see fit as there is an educational benefit to being in nursery at 3. How is it any different to having a day off while your children are at school.

Some people need to get a life.

As far as I’m aware, all parents are entitled to 15 hours funding regardless of employment status.

If one parent doesn’t work, they may be able to access 30 free hours if they are also in a situation that means they are on some kind of benefits eg carers allowance.

I think your issue here is with the criteria created by the government, not parents trying their best.

If DC enjoys it, totally do the extra day

Jesus you’re talking about someone who already works 3 days and is considering like 6 extra hours a week of childcare. Not the end of the world!

Keep the cleaner. Spend the time with your baby.

Money isn't everything if you have enough and you seem to have enough so enjoy your time. They grow up too fast.

I work full time and have a cleaner once a fortnight just to take the pressure off. Obviously I'm still left with cleaning jobs but I'd not give it up, it's my main luxury. I don't do nails or tans or spas etc.

Use it as you see fit, we pay about £80 a month for fulltime childcare, we both work part time, the way our days fall means there are three days in the week when at least one parent isn’t working, so technically we only need to use two days of childcare for our daughter.

We opt to use three days, so every week we have a day we are both off work and child free for a few hours. It means we can do couply things, sort things like medical appointments, car servicing and just those awkward things that are easier to do while not looking after a two year old. While still leaving each parent a day in the week with our daughter, and two days a week where someone is already at home when our son gets home from school.

Like most people here we opt for fulltime for our daughter, so if something does come up we can send her in for additional days without having to worry about space etc.

I also agree it isn’t a long time to clean a house of that size properly, anything shorter would just be a very basic surface clean.

Funded hours are term time only. I wouldn’t do it, I prefer spending time with my toddler
rather than cleaning. He will go to school soon enough. Get the older kids and DH to help more and reduce cleaner hours.

“Opt for full time”. You talk as if this is funded from a magic money tree when in fact it is funded by other people doing work and not being paid for it.

The sense of entitlement is staggering. We now have only around 20% of people as net contributors. It just isn’t sustainable.

I couldn't get rid of the cleaner, in fact with the saving I'd pay her an extra few hours to do the beds ect.

Stop going on like our income tax isn’t wasted on a load of other shite.

If that’s correct then surely that means even more care should be taken to prevent wastage where possible.

Regardless it is invariably the 80% who are not net contributors who appear happy to throw around money that they themselves aren’t providing.

We’re both net contributors where we live. We pay the full fee here for fulltime childcare for a second child, £80 per month.

Stop going on like our income tax isn’t wasted on a load of other shite.

Exactly, I used to work for an NHS commissioning group and was shocked at how some of the money is spent. Mums need to support each other not drag each other down.

So you must have a household income of around £100k+.

I can assure you that full fees for childcare are more like £1500 per month not £80 so not sure where you get that figure from.

We need to stop the never ending decline towards being a society of dependents. It won’t end well otherwise.

Please get off your high horse and go and enjoy your £100k+ salary. Stop dragging down other mums. Nothing wrong with Op’s suggestion. Like i said, the government dictates 30 hours while working less, so go and complain at them.

Well actually the fee iss £83.26 where we live at the current currency rate. So the figure is from our childcare bill. So I can assure you with 100% confidence that you’re wrong on the cost of our fulltime childcare fees.

Id rather the cleaner and a day with my toddler. That’s basically what I do right now. Plus I wouldn’t want to be tied to the cleaning one day per week.

Yes because putting a kid in nursery an extra 6 hours a week is what is contributing to a ‘decline in society’.

I have a 2 year old and clean with him. When he was smaller I would back carry and use a wrap he loved it and i would sing to him and talk as i cleaned. I live in a 3 story town house - lots of cleaning. And I clean twice a week. Takes me 4 hrs per week for regular clean. A deep clean takes extra. But not as often.

I will have a 2.5 and newborn in July and not much will chanage. Toddler will just follow me about "helping" and newborn being carried in a wrap.
I also keep weekends free to spend with family and have special breakfast/dinner.
I also batch cook sunday afternoon so makes the weeks easier.

You could split cleaning over 2 days and or evenings when your partner is home?