My deepest respect for working families

[soooexcited!]

Originally Posted by loola30

This has genuinely made me teary. You sound like you’ve done a wonderful job x

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Aww Thankyou. It must have rubbed off on them to some extent. I was doing a tricky degree module a couple of years ago. DD was around 18. I failed one of the assignments and said out loud "That's it I'm done I'm not resubmitting!" DD pipes up "Excuse me missy what sort of attitude is that suck it up and get on with it, that's what you'd tell me!" 😆

[Pumpkin Pie]

I have not read all the posts but a few have mentioned help from parents. I have looked after our grandchildren since my DIL returned after maternity leave. She works 12 hour shifts in the NHS and if she is on nights that can mean having the children 5 days unless weekends when my son takes over.

This is only possible because I retired early but with all the constant changes to pension payouts and people having to work longer and longer it will be more difficult than ever for working parents in the future. I don’t know how single parents manage to be honest and it’s not fair the way tabloid newspapers and the Govt sometimes seem to demonise them.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by vampiress88

Some days I feel lucky others not so much.

We have no childcare but me and hubby. Don’t talk to my family anymore

What has got my goat currently (and I know schools are underfunded) we get 30 hours for 3yr old to go to nursery but as she is in the same school as eldest so we can work school runs we have to pay £2per day which isn’t much but it still adds up per year as they are charging to stay at lunchtime that isn’t within the 30hours. Just feel likes it’s another way to penalise working families to be honest.

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I'd count your blessings ... £2 a day for nursery is an absolute bargain . Take a look at private nurseries (and remember you would pay year round even if the child is sick or on holiday not just term time). Plenty of parents would love to only pay what you pay but their working hours aren't flexible enough to allow it so pay an awful lot more than the cost of a chocolate bar because they have to pay anything over the 30 hours at full commercial rate.

[Floridag1rl]

Your DD needs to write to the Chair of Governors, opening times of a paying breakfast club is something governors may make the decision on, the head should not be deciding things like this as it is a service to the school community. A lot of decisions in schools have to be made collectively not by just one person. The heads reaction was disgraceful.

[vampiress88]

Originally Posted by duchy

I'd count your blessings ... £2 a day for nursery is an absolute bargain . Take a look at private nurseries (and remember you would pay year round even if the child is sick or on holiday not just term time). Plenty of parents would love to only pay what you pay but their working hours aren't flexible enough to allow it so pay an awful lot more than the cost of a chocolate bar because they have to pay anything over the 30 hours at full commercial rate.

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And I get that completely. But we work everything around school so that we don’t have to pay childcare. The government give working parents 30hours which is supposed to help and then we get £400 a year cost for sending them. Just think it’s another kick in the teeth. I’m lucky in that I have managed to sort my work around school and that I don’t have to pay for school clubs.

But if I’m paying for “lunch time” in school and I have an extra £400 for the year then that would mean that most other do to so it will be even worse for them.

I just think it’s unfair that people try to stay in work and low and behold there are somewhere extra costs are added on.

It’s that extra money that for some would push it into being pointless working.

Just really annoys me

[Smilesonfaces]

Originally Posted by duchy

I'd count your blessings ... £2 a day for nursery is an absolute bargain . Take a look at private nurseries (and remember you would pay year round even if the child is sick or on holiday not just term time). Plenty of parents would love to only pay what you pay but their working hours aren't flexible enough to allow it so pay an awful lot more than the cost of a chocolate bar because they have to pay anything over the 30 hours at full commercial rate.

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I went back to work when mine both were around 9 months old. We had no family to help, childcare took over half my wage, no government subsidies and even though I was more or less term time had to pay all year for the place because the nursery wouldn’t do term time places. We ended up with a large age gap because we just couldn’t have afforded two nursery places at the same time. Sacrifices had to be made for me to be part time and we only did caravan holidays.
I do think the governments in recent years have really helped families with childcare. I wish we had been given 30 hours free !

[duchy]

That is pretty much my reaction.
I too paid an absolute fortune in nursery fees and we certainly couldn't afford Florida as well at full price (my free flight tickets that I got as a work perk were the only reason) . People take the nursery subsidy for granted but it's a huge thing and I wish it had been around in its current form when my son was three.
I do think if someone is struggling to pay £2 a day working part time it's time to reassess though as it's probably costing more than that in fuel (although as Vampiress seems to have several holidays booked I suspect she's playing devil's advocate rather than can't afford it ). Our education system is a bargain compared with many countries.

Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces

I went back to work when mine both were around 9 months old. We had no family to help, childcare took over half my wage, no government subsidies and even though I was more or less term time had to pay all year for the place because the nursery wouldn’t do term time places. We ended up with a large age gap because we just couldn’t have afforded two nursery places at the same time. Sacrifices had to be made for me to be part time and we only did caravan holidays.
I do think the governments in recent years have really helped families with childcare. I wish we had been given 30 hours free !

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[vampiress88]

Originally Posted by duchy

That is pretty much my reaction.
I too paid an absolute fortune in nursery fees and we certainly couldn't afford Florida as well at full price (my free flight tickets that I got as a work perk were the only reason) . People take the nursery subsidy for granted but it's a huge thing and I wish it had been around in its current form when my son was three.
I do think if someone is struggling to pay £2 a day working part time it's time to reassess though as it's probably costing more than that in fuel (although as Vampiress seems to have several holidays booked I suspect she's playing devil's advocate rather than can't afford it ). Our education system is a bargain compared with many countries.

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I have two holidays booked currently and never said I couldn’t afford to pay it at all I said it annoys me and that it is just another things that’s lumped on.
As op said they are paying for breakfast club so they could be paying £3a day for that which is £600 but then would have to pay for the lunchtime too that goes up to £1000.

I’m saying that it’s supposed to be a good benefit to work but then they find ways of fiddling in extra costs and this could push some people into the boarder of it not working out enough to work.

I am lucky. I now get to go on good holidays etc. But that doesn’t mean that for years we haven’t had to work hard to get to that position just like many that didn’t have these kinds of holidays in past years.

[JLH]

Originally Posted by duchy

That is pretty much my reaction.
I too paid an absolute fortune in nursery fees and we certainly couldn't afford Florida as well at full price (my free flight tickets that I got as a work perk were the only reason) . People take the nursery subsidy for granted but it's a huge thing and I wish it had been around in its current form when my son was three.
I do think if someone is struggling to pay £2 a day working part time it's time to reassess though as it's probably costing more than that in fuel (although as Vampiress seems to have several holidays booked I suspect she's playing devil's advocate rather than can't afford it ). Our education system is a bargain compared with many countries.

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For me your last line sums it up -it’s an education system not a childminding service , schools are struggling with budgets enough without having to worry about providing out of hours services which inevitably parents aren’t happy with the price of either . Like others on here I wasn’t afforded such help and consequently took a job with unsociable hours , had holidays that were booked through newspaper deals and drove an old banger . However in the ops case I am not sure how much of a saving moving the start time from7-45 to 8 actually makes to the school so it does seem a bit strange .

[duchy]

So does that extra £3 include food at breakfast or lunchtime too then ?
To spend thousands on holidays and then complain that 35 hours of childcare is costing £10 a week total to me seems a bit precious... oh and most of us work hard often fulltime not just part time too ! That's just life !

Originally Posted by vampiress88

I have two holidays booked currently and never said I couldn’t afford to pay it at all I said it annoys me and that it is just another things that’s lumped on.
As op said they are paying for breakfast club so they could be paying £3a day for that which is £600 but then would have to pay for the lunchtime too that goes up to £1000.

I’m saying that it’s supposed to be a good benefit to work but then they find ways of fiddling in extra costs and this could push some people into the boarder of it not working out enough to work.

I am lucky. I now get to go on good holidays etc. But that doesn’t mean that for years we haven’t had to work hard to get to that position just like many that didn’t have these kinds of holidays in past years.

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