Help, childcare.

[Babybrain2]

Hi,
Currently 18 weeks pregnant FTM and planning for DD’s arrival in May. Will be taking 9 months maternity leave then returning to work part-time. Tried researching childcare and am struggling to decide what to do for the best.

Wondering if any mums could advise me whether I’m better off returning to work for 3 full days a week or working every day but shorter hours e.g 6 hour days instead of 8 to lessen baby’s time in the nursery.

Can’t find any solid information on whether nurseries charge per day or by the hour and am struggling to know what to do for the best financially and for DD. For info, family may be able to care for DD sporadically but not routinely.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

You need to ring some local nurseryand ask.

I went for a nanny and three days a week. We didn’t want our dcs doing long nursery days and couldn’t find a childminder

You will find most nurseries charge by the half or full day. I do 3 days 8-5 so pay fir full days. Even if I worked 9-3 I’d still pay for a full day. This means I still get 2 full days a week off with DS and DD.

I go back to work in a month after mat leave with DD. Will be paying more in Nursery fees than mortgage!

The nurseries around here you pay for either a morning session or an afternoon session or both sessions if you want all day.

So for example
morning session: 7:30am-1pm
afternoon session: 1-6:30pm

If you were to work 6 hours 9am-3pm, you would have to pay in full for the both the morning and afternoon session so you'd end up paying for a full day even though you were only using 6 hours. Therefore you would definitely be better off working 3 full days than 5 short days.

Childminders tend to be more flexible.

I would always choose to do 3 longer days work/childcare as then you can actually do something meaningful on your days off like go out for the day. I'd see 5 short days as worst of both worlds as you can't actually fit much in around 6 hours work/childcare.

Nurseries tent to charge for full days but childminders often will charge you less if you can collect before the afternoon school run (they can then take on more children for after school care)

Some nurseries qre hourly and others arw daily. You need to ring and ask for price breakdowns.

Mama bears is hourly and very flexible, you can do anywhere between 4-10 hours. I think a few others i looked at were the same. My employers nursery is just set hours for the whole day.

I'd personally do three full days - less time commuting, more opportunity to do activities or meet-ups on your non-work days, easier to find a compatible nursery/carer.