Childcare for KIT days?

[trrk]

Clueless FTM here. What do people usually do for childcare if they want to take some KIT days towards the end of maternity leave? Don’t have any grandparents nearby we could ask and wouldn’t want my DH to take leave as he’s the higher earner and we need his income to cover expenses.

Family or partner
Do you have a friend you could ask?

Who will be doing the childcare when you go back to work?

He will get paid for taking a days holiday entitlement though, unless he is self employed, in which case he has the day off to be a parent.

Exactly

Dh could use annual leave rather than taking unpaid leave.

Whatever childcare you have in place could do some ad hoc days.

Annual leave for DH seems the most sensible option surely!

Yes, exactly this. Surely he's allowed to take paid annual leave?

That's what we've been doing.

I'm a childminder and usually arrange settling in sessions around mums KIT days.

Thanks for the responses! DH could take annual leave but he might not have much left as we are hoping to make a lengthy visit to family abroad while I’m still on leave as we haven’t seen his family since pre-Covid. Planning to have DD at nursery although struggling to find a place available in time at the moment (have one 2 months too late so far but hoping some availability will come up sooner). Also considering a childminder instead.

I didn't do many KIT days but DH took flexi days when I did.

I didn't bother with KIT days.

DH will have to use AL, you have no other option?

You should get paid for a KIT day.

Your DH would need to take leave to cover your KIT day.

You do the family trip whilst you’re on maternity leave OR either/both of you take annual leave and/or statutory unpaid parental leave at that point.

My colleague has just done this with a combination of the dad using AL, grandparents doing some days, swapping childcare with a friend and a nursery settling in session.

Friends and family had my DD for my KIT days. I didn't do whole days, i only had to go in for a few hours for it to class as a whole KIT day for full pay.

OP may be a good idea to get your DH to take annual leave to get his mindset changed that once you are back at work and your child is ill you need to take turns taking time off, his job isn't more important than yours!

I took mine in for KIT days

But then again was asked in for events and fun stuff - which was a win, getting paid a whole days salary to turn up for a few hours to an event where most people just cooed over DD

But friends and family who haven't been able to take theirs in with them for KIT days usually their DH took the day off, or they wfh and looked after baby

You may have to knock 2 or 3 days off your lengthy trip abroad so that your DH keeps enough annual leave back to cover your KIT days.
As a pp rightly says, don’t get into the mindset of thinking that your DH’s job is more important than yours and therefore the burden of emergency childcare must always fall to you.

My KIT days were either covered by DH taking annual leave, or settling in days with the childminder (he did a few over a couple of months, this may not be usual as the childminder is my friend)

wouldn’t want my DH to take leave as he’s the higher earner and we need his income to cover expenses.

This is a really bad mindset to have and you need to nip this thinking in the bud before you go back to work. You, as the lower earner, are more vulnerable and your career needs protecting just as much as his.

Oh and I took him with me for at least one that was more social with my team

So assuming no family/ other childcare nearby this is what I and people in my team have done:

• DH take annual leave
• KIT day not a full day (ie gone in to do appraisals or a key meeting) so DH just flexed his work around this (appreciate not all can do this)
• use it for last few days when child is also in childcare so you can go in see team, make sure IT works etc
• not everyone (I would say only about 50%) take kit days

Agree with PPs, DH should take annual leave - it’d only be a few days. Ideally he should be as likely as you to take time off if DC is ill or otherwise needs looking after.

I am lucky in that DH and I both work 4 days a week, so I made sure I timed my KIT days to fall on his day off. It also gave him some practice at looking after 2 on his own for when I go back to work! Annoyingly though he is a doctor so not very easy for him to take additional time off at short notice, therefore sick child days always fall to me. Avoid this situation if you possibly can!

Don't forget to allow a few days each parent to cover sick for the child.
The first year of nursery was hard for us as we have no local help and so rely on our holiday to cover sickness.
Chickenpox, sickness bugs, just random temperature so isn't allowed at nursery... The list goes on.

My husbands is the main earner by loads but we still take it in turns to cover sickness-I'm more flexible so if he has an important meeting I may cover but it all balances out in the end.

My partner took holiday so I could go in. Having kids requires taking leave sometimes to accommodate them. You end up using holidays for appointments, them being sick etc. You do not want to end up in a situation where your DH thinks he gets all his holiday for fun, and you end up using yours for the childcare. So good idea to set the tone from the start!

Your partner will I assume get paid annual leave, so you are not losing money by him using it.

Friends? I have often looked after friends childrens when they have had kit days

As a cm I've done KIt days as part of the settling in process we build up a relationship over a few months so baby and parents are relaxed and stress free....id only do this for parents who have take up a full contract not one offs.