The costs of childcare - how much?????

We pay a childminder £560 per month for care of our 10 month old son, that's for 5 days per week. We were looking at a few local nurseries, but when we took our son there for a visit he absolutely hated it. Also, I hate to be a snob - but the girls working at the nursery seemed a bit thick. I reckon that the Nursery is probably fine for a toddler who can move about and entertain itself, but for a young baby I would go for a childminder every time. Ours is excellent BTW.

BLT - where is the childminder located? Good to hear of your experiences - thanks.

Jonathan

Jonathan, located west of Glasgow - so probably not much use to you. We actually met her in the Maternity unit as she had her baby a few hours after ours. She and my wife hit it off and when it transpired that she was a qualified Nursery Nurse it was an obvious choice to send the wee fella to her.
Handing your baby over to a stranger to look after is very difficult - especially for the mother.

FIrst of all, congratulations, your lives will never be the same again.

Contact your local council for a list of registered childminders if you want to go that route. If you find one you like then great but do remember that whilst the child's care is the most important thing the relationship between you and the childminder is a business one (with a good one you may become friends as well but that is a bonus). Ensure that it is very clear about how you want your child to be brought up as they will spend a lot of their young lives with the childminder rather than with you.

I feel that it is better for the baby rather than a nursery as the children there seem to become institutionalised by the regimes.

Also, if only Mrs G is earning then ensure you get your Family and Working Tax Credits sorted as you may be entitled to help towards childcare.

One more thing, does Mrs G work shifts? (we know several people who work for BA and they all work shifts) This may or may not be a good thing, depending on whether you are able to look after the baby some of the time. If you cannot, most childminders prefer to have the children between certain hours (usually not beyond 6pm and if that is the case then you would get charged extra).

Jonathan,
Go for the au pair. Friends and colleagues experiences indicate that there is never a dull moment. Invariably sooner or later you will get a complete mentalist / one that falls pregnant / one that moves her sister over to join her who gets pregnant. And you may also get someone who does a really great job. Just make sure you pick a munter.
Simon

There is no longer anything called Family Credit. There will need to be an investigation of Working tax Credit and Child Tax Credit and I would strongly recommend a visit to the Maternity Alliance web pages.

Mike

quote:

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Originally posted by BLT:
We pay a childminder £560 per month for care of our 10 month old son, that's for 5 days per week.

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FREAKING HECK!!! I always said I'd never have or want kids, and that's now just clinched it!

If it's that expensive, unless you or your other half are earning significantly more than that per month, I'd suggest the lower paid one says at home and provides a tradional family unit for the child - though if you're a pilot and your wife is also well paid, my theory goes out of the window - to, err, use a bad pun!

(Apologies for the lack of constructive comments by the way)

__________________________
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HI Jonathan

we've just gone through the same experience down here, it's very hard to actually find a space ("oh the waiting list, try July next year?")... ISTM the best thing you can do is have a couple more, then the payback is complete, and you have the traditional breadwinner/homeexec house plan.

'trust all's well with you, and congrats on manning the tower for the baby stork's "final approach".

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

We live in Sth London and the going rate for a nursery place is about £1k per month - so if you have 2 kids, like us, that's £2k ... out of net pay remember. We're just moving to a nanny which we reckon will cost just a little less than 2 nuresery places. As DomJFBrown notes, unless the lower earner is making at least £35k pa it ain't worth doing.

The pram, cots, nappies, etc all pale into insignificance in comparison.

Phil

Guys,

many thanks for all the replies - this is certainly an expensive business. It seems that a registered childminder or BA nursery will be the best option unless I end up working outside the South East where houses are cheaper and we can investigate the options for Eilish staying at home. Her income will be a significant element of our household income (probably more than my year 1 pilot salary) so I don't see her giving up to become a kept Captain's wife just yet!!

Only around 3 months to go hopefully before I'm trained and can start looking at jobs - can't wait to rejoin the workforce!

Rico - good to hear from you and hope all is well with you down under. Congratulations on becoming a Dad - hope it's not been too much a of a shock to the system!

Jonathan

Jonathan
This isn't going to help at all, but here goes anyway..
The childminding process is a bit of a long termer which was never appreciated initially by myself and my wife. When one gets to the point when you can see daytime space appearing again, another comes along making it a stretch that covers 9 years before the second goes to pre-school in the mornings, and 10 years before we are into full time school. My wife has now not worked for 6 years and we are a way to go yet as my little guy is only just 2. So don't forget that this isn't just a short period to get over - and the sums we did never made it a viable option for my wife to work. My wife did do some playing at teaching last year, but it cost her £25 (cash) to get the little guy looked after in order to earn £23 for a mornings work (before tax). Makes me very angry.

We have friends that just keep "her" in work and "he" looks after the kids because she was the bigger earner. We also have people next door who have an au-pair, but they change fairly frequently & I don't really think the kids see much of the parents as they leave early and get home late. Weekends it is obvious they have no idea what their kids are about as they hardly know them - the au-pair has to oversee to keep control. It's a bit sad. Au-Pairs are very cheap - spare room and pocket money basically. Probably the best option if not looking after them yourselves.
I have a client who started a nursey. Then got another, and another. She has just bought a boat that I know cost over a million. Nuff said.
Really not very easy.
Tell you what though - I envy my wife. To be there every day to bring your kids up personally is a rare chance. Only happens once, and it flys by so fast it is really unbelievable. Money isn't what it's about. This stage is priceless.
Congratulations Jonathan, and I hope you find a way.

My wife and I both worked full time while our children were growing up. We obviously felt we needed the income. I now think it was a mistake.
My 19 year-old daughter says she is happier with the resultant financial security, but I think we missed out.

We made a decision when our daughter was born that my wife would give up work until our daughter started school. It has worked out really well, and while it means I can't splash out on a 552, it's not so bad financially. I think it's really valuable to spend time with your children.

ps. Congratulations Jonathan.

When our family started, we could not afford to give up one salary. It was as simple as that.

What we did do was sacrifice our car and every non-essential outgoing in order to put our children through a private nursery. We scrimped and saved for almost everything and sometimes it felt we were only working to survive.....

We made a pact to concentrate every other minute of our lives on them until they fell asleep - then our time was ours. It seemed to work for us and we have children we love and they love us. They are now a bit older (14 and 9) and achieving high standards at school.

Whatever sacrifice you make, or have to make, in order to give your children the best chance in life you can provide is something to be proud of and it will be repaid by every one of you having a greater appreciation of the foundations of family life.

I'd do the same again. They will pick our nursing home in our latter years and I hope they choose well !

Right on LTD.
The thing is that there is no sacrifice, because when you are so together with the kids nothing else seems important. Ok you have to live and eat, but the other stuff won't matter anyway.
Funnily enough my wife told me today that she has been approached to do some writing for a book, so she is today working out how to do it. At least she can work from a laptop in the garden at the moment - keeping an eye on the little guy. Seems workable, but I bet it doesn't work out that easy!!

Thanks Rasher, the only importance is doing the right thing - especially for the children.

Good luck with Mrs. R's book !

Maybe a dictaphone to take notes when Jnr. is roaming might work with a view to transcribing them later on......

I have thought of buying a house and filling it with paid child carers. I could then ram it full of kids and count the lolly as it rolls in.

It just seems any easy way of making money.

The house would be in tip top shape, modified to comply with regulations and in a good part of town.

It could be open for extended hours as the nurses would work to suit.

Are there any pitfalls you can think of ?

Regards

Mick

L-T-D,

Not having kids myself I cannot possibly empathise with anyone here and in fact had no intention whatsoever of posting on this thread because I don't feel I've got anything to provide, but having read your post I just wanted to say I totally applaud the attitude and the approach you and your wife took on to give the best possible start in life to your kids.

Should the day ever arrive when I, as it were, join the (parental) club, then FWIW I would consider your approach a benchmark.

Regards,

JonR

Mick,

Child minders now come under the control and auspices of Ofsted, so things are a lot more involved than they used to be.

There are strict limits on numbers of children, health and safety issues, educational and other needs that all child minders have to deal with. They are all subject to annual Ofsted inspections these days.

It's far more like a pre-pre school these days than just child minding and although the requirements aren't that rigid, I can't help but feel we aren't allowing our children to be children so much these days.

We used to pay around £4 an hour for a child minder, who was truly great. Lewis was part of a family with her, not a nursery. She no doubt charges around £5 / hour now. We used to use her for 26 hours a week, with my wife working part time.

For Matthew, our newest, a local small nursery looks a better option, as they also run after school clubs which will simplify things once Barbara is back at work and Lewis is at school. The nursery is £5.50 / hour or £42 a day including meals.

Barbara took a year out for both Lewis and Matthew, but ultimately we simply cannot afford to totally lose the second salary, I wish that were not the case. At the end of that year things were tough!

Anyway, congratulations Jonathan and family!

Andy.

Chaps,

I have thought of buying a house and filling it with paid hookers. I could then ram it full of randy clients and count the lolly as it rolls in.

It just seems any easy way of making money.

The house would be in tip top shape, modified to comply with regulations and in a good part of town.

It could be open for extended hours as the nurses would work to suit.

Are there any pitfalls you can think of, and are there any other lines of work this idea could be extended to?

Regards,
Joe

JonR

Thank you, I am humbled.

I hope you have or find a relationship where children are included. They are a marvellous reminder of how amazing life can be despite all the reminders we see on a daily basis.

I am not a benchmark on parenthood or sacrifice. Just took the opportunity at a very early stage to look at things very simply and make my own judgement.

Remember - the best sound you can ever have in a home is not the best hifi system in the world but the laughter of a young child. It's a sound you never tire of.

Why do you mock ?

There is an acute shortage of child care facilities in the UK and I am seriously toying with the idea of providing a service to local people as well as making a bit of cash.

Buying a house is a long term investment and paying professionally qualified staff to provide care to children must surely make a profit.

I take Andy's point that there are rightly stringent regulations and I will be looking into them.

I already own 2 houses whichI rent in the traditional sense and it is fairly lucrative.

I just thought of fulfilling a market need.

Regards

Mick

Mick,

No offence intended, as it was just a joke... one that apparently bombed.

I honestly didn't think you were serious about opening a daycare. But if you are I should point out that of the many facilities I've visited in the past few months (in hopes of finding a gem of a place for my new daughter, Anna) none of the owners seemed to be rolling in lolly.

On the surface it might seem that charging, say, a couple hundred quid a week per child would be an easy way to make money, as you could easily pack 10 or so kids into an average-sized house. But I suspect that after you've paid your bills and wages and bought all the stuff you need to care for children (books, toys, games, play-yard equipment, etc.), not much would be left over in profits. The people who open daycares seem very much like the kind of people who become social workers -- they're in it because they love kids, not because of the money.

This isn't based on any insider info, though. Just an educated guess after visiting a few places and seeing just how great an investment in people and capital equipment a good daycare must make.

Quite honestly, I think you'd be better served opening a brothel. I'm sure you'd look smashing in a purple fedora. ;-)

Joe

I was driving past a house the other day that was obviously being used as a day care centre. I saw lots of children going in and it hit me between the eyes that the parents must be paying for the priveledge.

One lady where I used to work, paid £1100.00 pm to have one child looked after. She was fairly senior and prone to longish hours and she was grateful that the place existed. So there is obviously a shortage.

I shall soon get around to checking out the rules.

Regards

Mick

Mick, the regs aren't that complicated, but you may have problems in getting planning permission - the neighbours may not be keen on the idea. I think that the other big problem is getting (and keeping) staff. I was considering the same business idea myself....