How did you manage childcare before age 3?

[SpiceJourney]

Hi everyone,

I’ll be moving to Edinburgh soon with my family and our little one (age 2).

I’m really curious about how other parents managed childcare before the funded hours at age 3.

• How did you arrange childcare before your child turned 3?
• What was the main reason you chose that option?
• What challenges did you face with it?

I’d love to hear your experiences — it would be a big help as we try to plan ahead.

Thanks so much!

Are you a journalist or did you use Chat GPT to write that?

We used a full time nursery. Nursery was our preferred option and it was an excellent choice for us. I can’t think of any challenges, it worked out really well and our child loved it.

Surely it’s obvious. People will have used paid for childcare (nursery/nanny/childminder) and some will have had family or friends helping out.

We paid for nursery. There wasn’t any other option apart from paying for childcare.

We paid for it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Funded hours didn’t exist with my first. It was £1100 a month. We waited til dd was in reception to have our 2nd. Then again paid from 9 months to 3 years, £1100 a month.

Ultimately, very worth the cost. It was like £50 a day plus lunch costs. When I first started out, after dd was born, I was just about covering that cost with my FT salary. So we broke even with me working. 6 years later, when I went back after ds, I’d more than doubled my salary. It meant we made well above nursery costs even with paying £1100 a month. Once funded hours kicked in and then school, we were very comfortable.

Mine went to private nursery 2 days a week, grandparents 1 day and I reduced my hours to 3 days a week to cover the other 2 days.

Nursery

I changed jobs and worked in the evening 20hrs a week when dh was home and he worked during the day when I was home, therefore no other childcare needed.

I stayed in that job for 18 years then retrained and got another completely different job.

My son went to daycare at five months. I chose it as it was close to my work (they are strict about how many hours a child can remain which I think was ten hours), and it was cheaper than other options. Still cost £65/day (this was 20 years ago). I changed my schedule eventually he went to one closer to home and he quite enjoyed that one and stayed three days a week til reception. My DD went to that one too after she turned a year. Made the transition to reception easy as they were used to full days away from home with other kids.

You pay for it.

We paid for 15 hours private nursery from age 2.5. We didn't need a lot of childcare hours as I work flexibly from home. When she qualified for funded hours, we still needed to pay most of the fee as the funding only covered a small amount. Before age 2.5, we didn't use any other childcare, not even family looking after her - she was with me or DH the whole time.

I’m not a journalist 😊 Just a parent moving to Edinburgh with 5 and 2 years old kids—though I do sometimes use ChatGPT to help me write more clearly.

Thank you for sharing. It’s great to hear nursery worked so well for your family and that your child loved it.

Thank you for your comment. True, those are the main options people rely on. That said, I do worry these paid services are so expensive that it may be hard to manage.

Thank you for sharing. I understand—there really isn’t any other option.

We had 2 bad experiences with childminders before moving to nursery. More expensive but worth it.

Thank you for sharing. £1100 a month is huge, but it’s encouraging to hear it was ultimately worth it and that things became much more comfortable once funding and school started.

Thank you for sharing. That sounds like a good balance between nursery, grandparents, and adjusting your own hours.

People pay for nursery or can’t afford ot and stay home.

I was a SAHM without a real career until my youngest was at school. I love my job now and sometimes feel sad I don’t have as long at it and have missed opportunities to progress due to how late I started. But I don’t think we women can “have it all” so I’ve made my peace with my choices and have no regrets sacrificing my career to an extent to be at home for the early years.

Childminder. I felt a home environment and consistent caregiver was best for my child at that age.

Thank you for sharing. Impressive how you managed childcare by alternating shifts with your husband, and even retrained for a new career after 18 years.

one of you doesn’t work, or you pay or use a combo of paid and grandparents/other family. The latter is what we did. And most of my friends and acquaintances to be honest. The only one that gave up work had 3 under 4 and a not brilliantly
paid job. I earn well and so it made sense to continue my career (plus I’d have been a rubbish stay at home mum!). Very expensive to use paid childcare full time though, we did 2 days a week, grandparents 2 days and I worked 4 days so had a day off with them. This pattern seemed the most common amongst people we knew, or two adults working 4 days a week each, 2 days paid, one day grandparents.

Thank you for sharing. It’s great to hear both your children enjoyed daycare and that it made the transition to reception much easier.

Monday- she was with DSis who worked part time at the time
Tuesday-Thursday- Childminder
Friday- DM
used to be £750 a month