Advice on Work and childcare balance

Working 30 hrs, this time around with my second child. My daughter started school last year. So I think I was like you last year with my baby who is now well settled in nursery and does 3 days. So speak to your manager for flexible hours and I think they should be understanding that you have just come back from Mat and need time to adjust.

I work full days but less days, this then helps for the childcare in the holidays as we have less days per week to find. My husband works Saturdays so between us we need childcare after school 3 days a week and same for school holidays. My youngest goes to nursery which is open 51 weeks a year and open 8am-6pm 3 days a week so it is just childcare after school for my eldest. It works for us and when my youngest goes to school she’ll slot into the set up we already have. It is a minefield and hopefully you’ll find a set up that works for you.

I work full time but 3 days a week, I leave the office at 230, get my daughter from school then WFH for a few hours until just past 5. The other 2 days my daughter goes to after club at school.

I work 2 long days 9-5 and 2 short days 9-2. It helps to fit in after school clubs and availability of after school club. I sometimes can use the after school club for some of the holidays but for example they didn’t do the Easter holidays this year so I had to take holidays/rely on family. When my kids were little they both went to private nursery when I went back to work and I did 3 longs days and then 1 in 3 Saturdays which I relied on family to babysit or tried to tie it in with dad having the kids on my working Saturdays. My eldest stayed in private nursery until she was school age and then started school and I put my littlest into school nursery then and started the setup I have now. The private nursery was great though as they only took limited holidays at Christmas time so I didn’t have to find much additional childcare except Saturdays

I work 9-3. In the holidays I either use annual leave or adjust my shifts to start earlier so I’m home quick and work back to back with their dad. It’s temporary hard work but it doesn’t last long before they are back at school and back to normal routine

I work full time but I'm a teacher so it's term time only. Oldest is starting school this summer. We'll be using wraparound care from his current (private) nursery for before and after school. There's a breakfast club at his school which would be ideal as it's free, but it only starts at 8.10 and I really need to be away by 7.45 latest, so paid breakfast club is the only real option for us. Similar with the school nursery which we'd have loved to send him to, but just doesn't open early enough for me to get to work, and my husband starts even earlier. Condensed hours normally works well for childcare costs, as it's often a set price per day rather than an hourly rate, so fewer days works out cheaper, and less commuting is an added bonus.