WWYD? CM or Nany when return to work?

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I'm considering my childcare options for when I return to work next year (DC's will be 3.8 and 10 months). Both DH and I work full time, and we have no family close by to help.

It comes down to two choices:

1. Employ a nanny for Mon-Thurs, 9 hours per day.

• This would leave us no spare money with which to employ a cleaner, get help with ironing etc. We would also have to be fairly frugal with food shopping etc.
• I would have to make up some extra hours on a Friday afternoon (DH is home by 1.30pm), or on a Saturday morning. Thankfully, I have a very flexible job.
• I work from home a lot, and I'm not sure how practical this would be with a nanny and 2 children in the house. It's no problem going in to work, but that does involve lost time commuting and additional cost.

2. Use a childminder full-time

• We would then have sufficient spare cash to 'buy in' some extra help around the home.
• If I was prepared to squeeze some work in on an evening/weekend, we could possibly get away with a CM for 4 days per week only, thereby saving more money.
• DH leaves the house early so I would be left to do all drop-offs. He could do some collections.

I'm drawn to using a nanny due to the fact we won't need to wrestle two children out of the house each day, and also due to the extra help when children are sick. (DD had a horrendous series of tummy bugs one summer that kept her out of nursery for the better part of 6 weeks.) Then again, we'd have to spend extra time trying to keep on top of housework etc (and we're not very good at that!)

Sorry, obviously that should be nanny in the title. And I should have pointed out that we've only ever used a nursery with DD (that's now out of the question), so don't have any experience using either a CM or nanny.

You can train children not to interrupt you when you are working from home. A little physical distance does help though, if they are having a noisy time when you are trying to concentrate or speak to someone on the phone. Mine play downstairs if I work upstairs, but I don't work from home very often.

There are other costs of nannies as well as tax and NI - have you thought of those? Typically you will provide meals on duty, and she may need some money for entertainment for the DCs, depending where you are and what you want her to do with them. For example, music classes, cups of coffee sometimes in the park. And in winter you need to pay to heat the house during the day, which you wouldn't do if everyone was at work or a CM.

I would say childminder in your situation, as it sounds like you could afford a temp nanny if sickness became a problem.

Hi fridayschild - yes, I've looked hard at the additional costs of a nanny, and I think my figures are pretty accurate. (I've also spoken to agencies and a friend about typical wages in my area.) I'm an academic so work from home 2 days per week during term time and 4-5 days per week during University holidays. I use a spare room in the house to work from so can close the door, but it wouldn't really be quiet.

I would also say consider the CM option more. As you work from home quite a bit, if a child was ill then you could work from home (with the child hopefully napping quite a bit) while other child still went to CM's.

I'm not getting why you would use a Nanny 4-days but a CM 5-days. Am I being thick and missing something somewhere?

What are the actual hours you would need someone, as start and finish times may dictate that a type of childcare is unsuitable.

Sorry, should have explained that Nannynick - it's simply that I've found DD can't manage a 9 hour day outside of the house so I envisaged spreading my work out across 5 shorter days with a CM, whereas (I assume) DC's would cope with longer days at home with a nanny a lot better. Also, if the children were at home with a nanny my DH would be able to come straight back from work to DC's who had been fed and should then be able to put them to bed on his own (leaving me to work late.) We've always struggled for DH to do evenings on his own with DD as she's always so ridiculously tired after nursery that it takes two of us to wrestle her to bed.

If a nanny will be a stretch to afford, then don't go down that route as the cost can be higher than you think plus will change over time, particularly with taxation changes. Also it's not very nice for you or your children to be to struggling financially... give yourself a bit of a cushion for those unexpected costs that crop up when living in a home and to treat your family to a day out occasionally.
Children change over time and are better at being left with some people than others... so you may find that DD does cope with a 9 hour day at a CM's. It would then give you 3 days to devote to her, your other child (DS?) and DH.
Working at home in a room in the house while nanny and the children are in the same house will be hard, unless you live in a mansion and can isolate yourself fully.