There are no childcare options available - what about my career?!

[Mineswithsoya]

As it says in the subject really. Third baby, planned on returning to work when she is 1 year old (3 days a week) but there are no childminders within a ten mile radius available. Nursery is £70.40 a day and we can't afford that. Even if we could, the nurseries are all currently full and we need to sit on a waiting list. So that sort of means, I'm not able to work unless something changes. I have never been a SAHM before, and in my mid-thirties I am very worried about stepping off the career ladder.

I suppose I am looking for stories where mums have done this and it has turned out alright and they were able to start a career again later. Or a radical childcare option. You choose 😄

How many miles away is your work ? Can you expand the CM search radius further? I'm obviously assuming that your are commuting by car and not public transport which would be limiting.

Can your partner alter their hours to cover some of yours, for example working condensed hours and doing a four day week?

Also, what childcare are you using for the older two? Would it be cheaper to have one person look after all of them?

Could you get a Nanny or have family friends to help out whilst a space becomes available at a child minders or nursery?

Agree with this - with 3, would a live-out nanny be doable?

And get on a waiting list for a childminder if that's your preferred option.

Get their name on the nursery waiting list now anyway. We had to put my dd and ds on the waiting list as soon as theybwere born to get a place at 9 months.

How old are older 2 and what childcare do they have?

What is you partner/husband planning to do to change his working hours as well? His career isn-t more important than yours

Look for a childminder further afield. See if you DH can drop a day so you just need 2 days. You might get a Monday and Friday space as lots of people have these days off.
Take an extra 3 months off, while waiting for a space.
Don’t step off the ladder.

When i had my younger child , our childcare plans fell through spectacularly , nursery booked which also ran an afterschool went bust no warning , house renovations not finished 4 months after date given, and we were camping at relatives having overstayed welcome , so to ask them to mind a colicky baby who never slept was too much, I had to return to work when little one was about 10 weeks old so few places/ minders would take a baby ( officially self employed long story) anyway it was a case of find a place -any place or minder and it worked out brilliantly we found a great minder miles away from us but near my dh work, baby only slept in car so got a long sleep there in am dropped off and long sleep home after work. Came home in great form, i found afterschool care much nearer my work for other so we found a solution and it worked for a good two years

Thanks for the replies. My husband works away. He runs a shop fitting company and they work across the whole of the UK. There's nothing he can do about his hours other than closing the company and then we really would be in a mess.
The older two are in school and college and I can't afford a nanny (I think they probably earn more than I do!) but I will look into a wider radius because I don't see any success stories of getting back to your career afterwards 😏

Sorry, if your husband is the boss then he can move things around a bit. That's the perk of being the boss. Half the cost notionally comes from him, so think of only half the cost as against your salary and even if you lose money for a few years by working, it's worth it for career progression and pension.

I’d work and out Dc in nursery. It’ll be worth it for the career progression even if you don’t make money for the first year or so.

Can you look for a nursery near your work?

How old is your baby? Waiting lists can move quite quickly at times. There’s movement after Easter and in September as children move up to school or become eligible for 15/30 hrs of free funding. Put your name down with a couple of childminders and enquire with your local council. Their family information service will know who is newly registered / about to become registered as a childminder in your area. They also used to keep a register of spaces but this may have changed in recent years.

but you are earning more than £35, so half the nursery cost, per day - surely then it’s doable and worthwhile?

I think it depends on your career as to how easy it is to get into it.

Anecdotally I know women who've got back into careers after 3+ years break, but they've had to go backwards before going forwards. If you're committed to building a career and want to at least stay still (which I'm guessing is what you'll be doing working 3 days a week), I would really suggest not doing giving up work. I also think if you don't actively want to be a SAHM you will end up regretting.

.... which doesn't help your childcare issue of course. Can you massively economise to afford nursery till a childminder place comes up? I guess goes without saying that you should grab anything - even if it's (for example) only 2 days and not your preferred days.

Nothing to add but it's outrageous. This shouldn't be happening in this day and age. Childcare should be affordable and plentiful. I have no answers or solutions to the crisis but it's awful. Women afraid to be pushed out of their careers for being a mother and at the same time can't afford to work.

I took nearly 5 years out of my main career - though I did work for a couple of years during that time in a job similar to my career at a lower pay grade. When I went back it was hard for the first year or two. There had been a lot of legislative changes that I had to catch up on. I worked part time and it took me about 5 years to get back to where I was when I stepped out. But I stuck with it, I changed companies about 8 years ago and went full time at that point. Then finally got promoted to director level about 3 years ago. It probably took 10 years to feel like I was back on track.

Why should it be plentiful? If it doesn’t pay to run a childminder/nursery then no one wants to do it. You can’t force people to work in jobs they don’t want to do.

I went back after a 2.5 year break. Changed sector, used it as an opportunity to re-focus and do something different. It worked well for me.

Our nursery is a little more than that and I do 3 days a week, it is stupidly expensive. All I'd ask that I'm not sure if others have said is have you taken off the 20% that the government pays through tax free childcare? It still means nursery is stupidly expensive, but wondered if this would make it affordable for you?

I know someone who worked as a bank cashier, was a SAHM for 5 years, got bored after 1, and home studied ACCA for the rest. Her child went to school at 5 and she took up work to get the practical side of the qualification sorted, was fully qualified by 32.

Depends what you do as a job

I had a 10 year break to raise my children and returned to my same line of work and have been promoted in the 3 years I have been back. I left when i was 30 and came back at 39.

My first went to nursery for a year, starting at 5 months old. But we had to put her on the waiting list before she was a month old to be able to get that space. By the time number 2 came along 1 years later it was unaffordable so I became a SAHM

Have you factored in the 20% govt top up op? So it would take it from 915 per month to 730 per month? Is that any more doable?

@SecretVictoria that's why I said should be....because it's not well paid and it bloody should be. There is a crisis in this country and I don't know what the answers are to sort it but it's a massive problem for women who are mothers/wanting to be mothers, who are expected to work as well...who need to work for financial reasons, especially now with the price rises....obviously it's a problem for the nurseries and child minders too.