Childcare costs

[LawyerMumAsia]

Good morning. My childcare costs are through the roof. Can somebody please tell me if this is normal. We are two full time working parents with two primary aged children and one toddler. Nursery is £1700 per month and nanny is £3,300 per month including taxes for 36 hours a week. Nursery is 4 days per week but we will be reducing that to 3 days in a few weeks time. We need 36 hours because of school drop off and then nanny comes back again to do school pick up and dinner and to be there during bath time. Her net pay is around £17 per hour. Thank you

Based in London

It’s normal if you have a nanny. But most people don’t have a nanny - afterschool club or a childminder for the big ones would be much cheeper.

I’m guessing your income is too high for the free nursery hours?

Yes.

most people don’t need childcare after nursery so don’t have that additional cost, but yes. If you’re having that much childcare then that’s what it costs.

I don’t quite understand how drop off, pick up and bedtime is over 7 hours a day?

I have a child in nursery 3 days a week, he’s 3 so we get 30 free hours, plus 20% funded through our childcare account. Monthly fees are about £100ish.

When he starts school we’ll be using breakfast club and after school club, which won’t be anywhere near £3k+ per month.

Have you looked into the alternatives? Could you use a childminder or after school club instead of the nanny, or maybe increase the nanny's hours and stop using nursery?

We used full time nursery hours and then at school, breakfast and after school clubs.

Yes, that’s the cost with a Nanny. I don’t have a nanny and don’t know anyone who has one either so the nursery years are the most expensive among my circle of friends and after that, we use breakfast and after school clubs and still cover 7:45 to 5:45 on weekdays. Obviously if both parents work unsocial hours, that won’t help. But for us and most people, there’s always a parent who is available for pick up after wrap around care.

You're asking if it's normal for people to spend 5k a month on childcare?

Obviously not. A lot of people don't even bring home 5k between them.

You have a nanny. You pay the nanny a good wage and rightly are responsible for the costs associated with having someone in your employ. I am a nanny- it’s definitely a luxury to have one and not the general norm. You really need to be looking at whether this is something you can truly afford.

The nanny is working 7.2 hours a day Monday to Friday? Is that 2 hours 7-9am and then 3-8pm?

Can you work from home on any days, do condensed hours or finish at 5pm? Is the use of a nanny because you can’t use after school clubs and get there in time?

To answer your question no this is a lot of childcare costs, for most people the most expensive is nursery and it decreases drastically in primary school.

Most people don’t use a nanny because they aren’t affordable for most people. I assume you have one because you work long hours and that’s why you need support for dinner/bedtime. So you either accept the cost if your job is high paying and you want to keep doing it, or you ask to cut back on hours/find a more flexible job.

Well, you're doubling up with childcare aren't you? It's always going to be more expensive. A nanny is quite a luxury too - the vast majority of people I know use before/after school clubs when children get to primary if they're working full time.

Why does she need to be the there during bath time? I don’t know if that’s normal for me anyway. I pay 50 quid a week for Afterschool care for dc. I collect them at 4:30/5.

It probably averages out as the nanny will likely be covering all school holidays, potentially working 7-7, with less general hours in term time but still available incase of sickness, inset days etc.

It is a lot but you have a nanny.

Well as they can afford £5k pm on just childcare fees, they're fine...

What hours do you actually need to cover, are both you and your partner out of the house 7am to 8pm? Could you find a way to alternate hours, so one starts a little later and the other finishes a bit earlier, that way you could just use nursery/afterschool without needing a nanny. That's how we did it, DH started work at 7am so I could do breakfast and drop off, I worked till 7pm and he did pick up and dinner.

The costs sound reasonable for what you get, it’s a hell of a lot more than most people use.

Depends what your question really is I guess. are you struggling and need to cut back? Then you need to look at reducing or moving some of your hours so you don’t need the nanny so much. Or is one of you actually home some of the time the nanny works? If you’re struggling with the cost then you need to learn to do without that luxury.

In families I know, it’s rare to have two full time workers in the office 8-6, 5 days a week. Because that makes it very difficult to balance parenting. People find ways round it - working flexibly, working from home to skip commute, working part time or compressing hours. In fact the only couple I know who both work full time like that have a full time live in nanny.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to not use nursery and have a au pair who live in?

It’s unusually high because you have an unusually large amount of paid childcare. When our dc were that age, nursery was about £200-300 a month for FT after 30 funded hours. We used no wraparound care because we worked compressed/staggered hours on alternate days. This was with Dh as a company director and me with a London job with long commute, but wfh part of the week. £200-300 per month and we covered the same hours.

Why not just employ a nanny for all your childcare needs? Why the added nursery? That would be cheaper.

Thank you. A few days a week both DH and I are in the office with an hour and 15 minute commute. We need support on those days 7.30am until 9am for drop off and then 3pm until 8pm. On the other days I work from home but the role is quite afternoon heavy and getting up from my desk at 3pm to do school pick up which is a 20 minute drive and prep dinner and do bath time will mean I need to log on at night again and work until 11pm. This way, I can stop work at say 7.30pm and be with the kids, ask about their day, put them to bed etc. We are not struggling to pay it but we are not able to save so something needs to reduce somewhere. Will look into the au pair approach but given we need a driver who is responsible for three kids it’s a lot to ask of an au pair I think. Kids don’t like after school club and we tried that but they were having to do homework so late at night after after school club and they were getting to bed very late. it wasn’t really working for us. So we cut back on after school club and brought a nanny in. Thank you for all your responses.

Agree about reducing nursery and having only nanny but overall her hours would really increase a lot so overall we wouldn’t really be saving much. In fact hourly the nursery is cheaper than the nanny

However we are reducing from 4 days to 3

When I work from home nanny finishes at 7pm. On the in office days I need until 8pm as I work in office until say 6.20pm and then have the commute