Crushing cost of childcare - how can I return to work?

[EldonAve]

I have 3 kids - 2 in school, 1 in preschool
To cover paying a nanny £10 net I need to earn twice my former salary!

Is everyone else earning £80K plus or am I missing something?

I will BE going back, just need another 15 months and counting, I miss working, even if I am only doing it to break even till DS3 is at school.

I am counting down the months as they pass, it's not forever, and though I'll have two years where I work to break even with benefits, after that I will be better off, with 2 years experience, and 4 lovely DC's.

As with stages your DC's go through, just remember "This too shall pass", your DC's won't be young forever, and Childcare won't be so horrific forever!

Don't want to depress anyone further, but I used to think "this too shall pass," re: childcare fees (when we were just clearing £50 a month, and that was only thanks to lovely mil covering half a day's nursery fees as she felt guilty for minding nephew a ady a week and not wanting to do another whole day for ours).

Now ours have hit the teens, and they're arguably as expensive - no childcare, of course,

oops, pressed post too soon...

...no childcare of course, but they seem to hoover up our income in ways I'd never imagined.

We've also been struggling with childcare. Ttc now and I will not be able to work once it happens.

Tbh if we were already struggling I wouldn't be ttc ( sorry)

We had 4 children within 7 years, and fortunately I have managed to keep working part time. The most I took off was a year after my third. However we have only been able to do this because I do shift work , so I have worked a lot of nights , evenings and weekends and paid minimal childcare. I have also been lucky enough to have family nearby who over the years have filled the gaps. It has been very difficult at times and has meant that we have had to sacrifice family time, which I really resent, especially now all the kids are at school and I miss out on spending time with them at weekends. However overall , I can see the positives, if I had been in a 9-5 job, gettiing back to work would have been virtually impossible and I don't envy anyone trying to afford it nowadays.

I have 2 dc in nursery and work P/T.

I dont really get the it when people say they cannot afford to work because of childcare costs.

I earn about £850 month and pay the same amount in childcare fees BUT we do get tax credits (about £ 400). Is it worth working for that much (or little?) money - some might say yes, some migyt say no. But i can not afford not to work and having £400 makes a real difference for us.
Plus, i see it as an investment into the future. Most of my friends gave up work to raise children and have massive problems to get back into work.

Hey All,

Have been in this conundrum for ages- have been working part time and got offered a couple of FT exec jobs recently but the additional hours on TOP of a nursery day at childcare have made them impossible, that and a lack of back up, i.e. emergency childcare options. I've just taken a new job in a term time only position, using my sons free entitlement, topping it up with afterschool and morning clubs and its worked out well that way. But I did look into aupairs and they are definitely a cheap option.

Finally- If your net income drops as a result of you working you need to work out if you can afford that drop in the short term for long term gains.

I've worked since my little boy was one as a single parent and its not been easy- I've sat on the borderline where I basically get virtually nothing to top up my salary and pay childcare out of my wage- but I've had two promotions and generally speaking become more employable since becoming a parent because I've been determined I should be working for a better wage. Now I can work part time and earn a full time wage.

Why don't you upskill yourself, if you are going to be off, so you're worth more back in the workplace when you do go back, and can make it profitable working? A friend of mine has used the time off to train as an accountant. I did an equivalent of an MBA. We need to make the odd sacrifice I reckon, as much as I love being home with my DS.

I don't think its mother vs job, I've managed to work hard and get promoted on a 3 day a week job over the last two years to CEO, and have still had 4 blissful days with my little boy where I have been able to afford to have fun.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

The only way I was able to return to work was because my parents had dd, I had ds just a year later and they had him too on the 3 days that I worked. Both of them are now in school and I am able to drop them off each morning and my parents collect them. If I had to pay for child care then the cost would have been too high to justify my working. It is a bloody nightmare trying to juggle a family and work commitments still though :(

I was £60 better off for working a month. That was after Childcare and help towards it.

Looks like I will be staying home until the youngest is in school

Hi Op

Its true that your household net income may reduce as a result of going back to work but this won't be forever. I went back to work and after childcare took home net £20 a week for about 5 years. For all the hassle it hardly seemed worth it.

But because of that I remained in the job market and have been able to work continuosly since and have now managed to get a great part time job with a reasonable salary. Our child care costs are much smaller now - both DCs at school so only paying for holiday childcare and my salary makes a hige difference to our household budget.

Maybe you could think of the loss in income (if you can afford it) as an investment in the future. It helps.