Hi all,
I would appreciate some advice on the dilemma I am facing... my son is 2, I have been working full time from when he was a baby (my partner took parental leave). We have baby sitters covering some mornings / afternoons, and we manage to share the childcare between the two of us. It is tough, as we both work and we don't have any family support, so it's literally the 2 of us or the 2 trusted baby sitters, but this was what we wanted and it's worked so far.
We are now in a situation where my work has changed - for the worst - and my salary will go down in a month's time. The babysitters have put their prices up, and we can barely afford the hours now. I started looking at nurseries in our area and it would be cheaper to send him to nursery for 3 days.
There is a nice, homely pre-school in our road, but it is term time only. They finish the day at 3:45 pm and are closed in all the school holidays. This would be incompatible with both me and my partner working full time, as we would struggle to find wraparound care and it would be too expensive.
Private nurseries are not great in our area and the best one I found is very expensive, so I would basically work to pay for the nursery, which is fine if it is for a limited time...But I am now feeling really lost, as I don't particularly like my job, my salary will go down, and I find it depressing to just go to work to pay for a nursery I am not even thrilled about.
The alternative is for me to take a career break for a year, to begin with, settle my son into the preschool, be with him after school and in the holidays... and reconsider what to do with my life once he is at school. Is this a terrible idea?
I've always worked since I was 16 so I am scared of not being employed, it's such uncharted territory for me. But I am also so burnt out from the experience of looking after an extremely busy, demanding, high energy child, working full time, and spending any 'free time' on housework / with my son... So I wonder if having a break from work would allow me to heal and recuperate some energy...
Financially we'll be in the same position so that's not the main consideration.
Thanks for any advice or sharing your experience! All my mum friends either work or have always stayed at home, so don't have anyone to ask IRL.