Childcare with 2 children

[nkwchu]

Hello fellow mumsnetters. DH and I have a DD aged 2.5 years and are thinking of having a second child. We would need to do so soon as I'm in my late 30s and DH is in his late 40s. DH and I both have (currently mostly home) office-based full time jobs although I have started to return to the office a couple days per week and DH is expecting that his employer will require him to do so soon too. DH's hours are 08:30 - 18:30 and it's pretty much non-stop as soon as he starts. My work can be unpredictable and my hours can sometimes be long and very late if there's a deadline. DD is currently in full-time nursery (5 days a week 09:00 - 17:45). I'm keen to hear from parents who have two or more young children on how they manage childcare and what you've found works well/best for you. Thanks in advance!

I'm a childminder often have families from 7am to 6pm starting at a few months old and staying to their teens. The children treat it like visiting family

My childminder was fantastic at those ages. Tricker as the older one aged out but it was a lovely warm home environment.

I’d go for CM every time at that age.

I have 3 children and had a wonderful childminder until about 3 years ago when I moved. I am now desperate as I can't find one anywhere in the city to do pick ups and drop offs from their schools. I think it's fairly easy when they are younger and require more hours but once they start school, it is extremely difficult to find one in my experience ( even though my old CM did this too). I am really struggling to get back out to work right now. I've been WFH for the last two years and my hands are absolutely tied as nobody wants someone who can't do a full day.

I found a childminder quite by accident for my second and couldn't believe I'd never thought of it before, especially as they are so much cheaper than nurseries. However onto our third child and a new childminder who is very good, but nothing like our previous one who we knew we appreciated and were very lucky to have.

Previous childminder helped with all the little things like when starting out at school on half days around her other mindees, being able to take my child to appointments, cuddling her on the sofa with a blanket if she was a bit under the weather or sick - two sniffles and her nursery would have just rang me to collect her immediately. A couple of times I got stuck in traffic so childminder would just let my daughter have tea with them and put her in the bath and pyjamas so all I had to do after picking up was put her to bed. She was very no nonsense which my daughter needed!

Current childminder does as expected, no.3 likes it there but no real warmth to her, we didn't expect her to be anything like our last one to be fair.

Our nurseries were 7.30-6pm, childminder was 8-5:30 with a bit of flexibility where needed. Current childminder is 7:30-5:30.

Our school has a breakfast and after school club on site so they can be at school from 7:15-6pm.

The thing that's helped the most is me changing jobs though, so still working full time but in a job where I don't risk getting stuck past hours or take my work home any more.

Your working hours/situation sound similar to my DH and me. We used full time nursery when we just had one child but got a nanny when we had our second. It’s worked really well. Now they are both primary school age and do lots of after school activities it is a godsend because otherwise they’d have to be in after school club every day, whereas our nanny takes them to football, tennis, drama etc which means we get to enjoy more family time at the weekends because their activities are mostly done.

Nanny. If your budget runs to a good nanny they make life so much easier in so many ways, crucial when you both have full on jobs. Live in nanny is cheaper if you have the space.