My toddler's nursery has closed unexpectedly due to a tragic fire. No idea when it'll reopen, most if not all nurseries within driving distance are too full or too expensive. I don't drive and her dad works long hours so it being driving or at least bus distance is very important. Same goes for local childminders - I imagine most in my area have become inundated with requests from parents of kids at our nursery!
We have no other help. No family or friends to babysit. Both our mums live four hours away, my mum travelled down for a week (she doesn't drive either) so she could watch our toddler while I WFH. My mum is a bit too frail to carry toddler around and has a bad hand so nappy changes, taking her upstairs or lifting her into her highchair were still on me. MIL works and has pets that she can't afford to have looked after so she can only come when on annual leave, and even then its only for maximum two days.
I just need to vent, before we had our baby we would babysit my niece a lot just because we loved doing it, we didn't expect anything in return. Other family members with kids all have handfuls of friends that'll babysit if needed. It just seems like as soon as it was our turn, we're on our own! We didn't go into this expecting guaranteed help but we are really struggling without it. And then we get comments asking when we're having another - erm are you going to babysit when they're sent home from nursery for whatever reason, so we can continue to work so we can pay rent and not be homeless???
I've offered to pay SIL to babysit until the nursery opens but she works evenings and has two kids already so I feel very guilty asking. I'm also contacting a few childminders but my partner is grumbling a bit about having to get up early to drop her off in time for him to get to work (our nursery is next to his work). I'm now considering taking unpaid leave but I don't know how we'll afford anything without both of our salaries. My boss is very understanding and kindly let's me WFH with her but it is not sustainable, it is not fair on her, my work suffers, customers hear her on the phone and while no one has complained, it's not only embarrassing for them to hear her screaming but it's not fair on her that I can't immediately go to her all the time. For example, I was on the phone to a customer when my toddler fell and banged her knee and cried. I had to rush the customer off the phone - thats unfair on everyone!
Seriously, people shouldn't tell me to pump out more kids if they're not willing to get stuck in and help when we desperately need it!!!