Bad month - Part 1

The last few weeks have been...difficult.

Our childcare arrangements have become too difficult for us to to carry on so my wife has had to give up work.

Over the last year we have made many changes to the childcare to allow my wife to keep working. For the first half of the year we were skinning ourselves as she wasn't earning enough to pay for the childcare.

It costs an average of 30 pounds a day per child, with three pre-schoolers that soon mounts up to a hefty bill. When my wife changed to a better paid full time job we drafted in the help of my mother-in-law to help out for three days a week. It meant she had to stay with us from Sunday to Wednesday and we did pay her a small amount too. The new job was school term time only too so my wife would have the kids during the breaks. With our eldest girl about to start school it meant not having to find childcare during the school holidays so all OK.

Then the nursery we used closed down. All the other ones near us only operate from 9am - 12pm so they were no help. Childminders that had spaces for three chldren were/are as rare as hen's teeth but, we got lucky and found one.

It was still very expensive though and ate all of my wife's wage. Then we found a term-time only nursery near my wife's work that was partially funded and half the price. So when the new term started, our eldest went to school the twins stayed with Nanny Monday to Wednesday and went to the new nursery on Thursday to Friday. Great.

Except the new nursery only runs until 4pm so my wife had to leave work 90 mins early every Thursday and Friday. We couldn't find any childminders that would take two young children for just two small
sessions a week during term-time only. It would use up two spaces for very little recompense so it's not worth their while.

If you're wondering why it's my wife doing all the running around for this and not me well, I work in London which is almost two hours away from home. I leave at 7am and get home at 6:45pm, IF the train are running smoothly. Local jobs don't pay enough to service all our bills and the mortgage. We can't afford to live closer to London without buying either too small a house or living in a rotten area so I commute for 3 and a half hours every day.

Anyway, my wife's work were understanding enough but couldn't keep the reduced hours going indefinitely. Then my mother-in-law twisted her ankle and had to take a break from the kids. My sister helped out for the first week but couldn't do the second. I had some time off to step in but, I don't have much leave left due to taking a lot of leave in January to care for the family when they were all hospitalised with dehydration due to a severe sickness bug.

It then turns out that my mother-in-law wasn't quite as laid up with her ankle as she had made out. She'd been out and about doing early Christmas shopping and the like. Arggh, she just doesn't realise how much of a difficulty this is for us.

My wife spoke to her work to see if she could permanently reduce her hours by an hour and a half everyday so we could move the twins to the nursery five days a week. Unfortunatley they couldn't do it so my wife is now working her notice and will stay at home with the kids until they are all at school.