Help with childcare costs

[Eliza1992]

I work part time, 10am to 2pm everyday to my horror the nursery I contacted said they wouldn't charge for those times only, that I'd be charged a full day

I'm estranged from my parents and my partners parents live down south, we have no support of family, I'm horrified, absolutely horrified

I don't know why I thought I'd only pay for the hours I used, we really can't afford full time childcare we would be scraping by, I feel going back to full time work is my only option and I'm devastated. I will do it, if that's what's needed but I can't believe no one told me this

I feel like an idiot, absolute idiot

How do people afford child care, I don't get it, I'm ranting, I'm sorry I'm emotional

We can only afford it because we both work full time. I couldn't afford to pay for nursery on part time wages.

Can you work 2.5 full days rather than every day for a few hours?

Could you look for a childminder rather than a nursery? Those hours would still allow the childminder to do school drop offs and pick ups so may work well.

Maybe try a childminder? Sometimes they can offer more flexibility but generally you have to pay for a full day because if they have your child 10-2 this takes a 'spot' for the day.

It's because those hours are basically half the morning session, and half the afternoon session, so they can't offer the rest of the day to any other kids, but will still have to pay staff for a full day.

Can you not request to shift your hours so they fall more neatly into the morning or afternoon slots? Have you looked at the government's tax free childcare offering?

To be honest, the cost of childcare was a huge factor in us deciding to have kids, we put off TTC for a year to save up for the first few years of nursery fees.

You might need to work full days 3 days a week, rarely will nurseries allow you just to pay for a few hours because they can't take another child around them

You aren’t paying for hours of care, you are paying for a slot in the staff to child ratio. So even if you only need part of the day, unless they happen to find another child to match the hours you don’t need, they can’t fill the rest of those hours and need to charge you for the entire slot.

Some nurseries offer flexi where you pay for different length sessions, however most nurseries have a morning cost, afternoon cost or whole day cost, so 10-2 would fall into the whole day cost.

Can gou change your hours to either morning or afternoon instead?

As others have said have you got a tax free childcare account as well?

And honestly childcare is expensive, thats not a secret, when do you need the nursery place to start? We started looking at nurseries as soon as i was pregnant to see the different session options etc to then plan my return to work and change in my DH's hours to keep the costs as low as we could

Can you do a couple of longer days rather than part time hours every day? Those hours will be ideal when your child is at school so it is only for a few years if you can get through them. Make sure you check out tax free childcare and any “free” hours you can get at 3.

That's why people who use nurseries work full days. It's not financially viable otherwise.
Can you swap your hours at work?
Or you may find a Childminder who'll just charge for those hours as they can then take a child after school so it's not taken over the whole day for 4 hrs pay.

Sorry but of course a nursery can't accommodate the precise hours you want them too, and only that. Of course they can't. I'm really surprised you thought they could.
Think about it. You want 10-2, someone else wants 9-1, someone else wants 10-6 etc etc they have ratios to consider and their own staffs working hours.
They offer what they offer and it was on you/your dh to check what they offered.

We can only afford it because we both work full time. Even then we can barely afford it and we both pick up extra work here and there.

Preschools often do 9-3 hours but I've not seen this offered for babies.

But what I would say is those working hours are like gold dust when it comes to school and being able to do drop off and pick up. I'd be wary of giving them up as getting wraparound care around school can be hard/expensive.

Look for childminders, my childminder looks after children for those kinds of hours (a local employer is well known for offering 'school friendly shifts') she fits them in between her school drop offs and school pick ups and because there is no overlap it works well for her ratios.

have you opened a tax free childcare account? That will knock 20% off your bill too.

What work do you do that's 10-2?! That's gold dust for parents once children are at school. Just not so much now.

Lovely hours when at school. Not so much fir babies /toddlers

what do you do

it’s 20hrs a week

can you condense and do 8/6 twice a week

childcare is costly

a cm is your best bet but unless you are earning lots and not just nmw then you will be paying them 6ph maybe

plus if you work 10/2 prob need 5hrs childcare for travel etc