Childcare, returning to work. What to do?

[Merrz]

Baby #1 due in January so got a while to think about this but looking for your opinions. I work for my small family business so fortunate that my work situation is very flexible, however it does mean that although i can delegate some of my day-to-day work, i'm the only person within the business who would be able to carry out some of the duties so i will need to be in and out of the office from baby being around 1 month old. My initial plan is just to pop in and out as much as i need to, to keep on top of things and do this whenever suits baby for naps etc. or leave baby with grandparents (i'm speaking maybe 1-2 hours, couple times a week) However from around 6 months i would like to get a bit more structure to it. I'm also very lucky that we live near both our family's so do have babysitter options, DM, MIL and SIL have all very kindly offered to have baby a day (or half day) per week. However do you think this is a bit confusing for baby being passed around everyone and would it be a pain having to take everything with me each day if going somewhere different all the time? The other option is nursery? If we go down the nursery route do we put baby in nursery the whole time or couple days nursery, 1 day mil for example?? I'm confident i could get everything done on around 14 hours/week but i have the option to work as much or little as i want really. So if people were in my fortunate situation, where would you put baby, how many hours/week would you ideally work? Would it be better to do say 2 full days or 4 half days? Like i say work wise i can really work it however suits and although obviously family babysitting would be cheaper than nursery, we're also fortunate that money isn't really a worry. Sorry for the long post!

Sounds great Merrz! I still think that you might do better to get family involved till the baby is say 11 or 12 months old rather than leap straight into nursery, but sounds like you will have loads of flexibility whatever you choose. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

It's great that you have some options. Probably worth looking at nurseries now as places fill up. If you can afford them use nurseries because then you can commit to regular days or hours to be available to work, then you can save family goodwill for emergencies and evenings etc. Top tip don't book on a Monday or Friday unless you really want to as bank holidays aren't covered but its possible you'll still be paying for those days in many cases.

Realistically you won't get much work done when the baby is with you, you might get lucky but even so it's really hard work to be dividing your concentration. Definitely worth setting a regular thing in place.

Some nurseries have a lower age limit - ours was four months, I know some take them from 4 weeks but I didn't like those ones round here. That might mean it makes sense for you to rely on family for a few months but then change to nursery at 6 months

I agree one month sounds mega early to even think about a return to work - I was getting hardly any sleep at that point and the feeding was constant - but obviously your mileage may vary.

Talith a lot of f family childcare arrangements are not just as-hoc “goodwill”, they are proper regular commitments. My MIL looked after my nieces every Wednesday till they went to school, with exactly the same level of commitment as a childminder (minus the pay). The girls really loved spending time with her and their relationship is much stronger as a result.