How Much Do You Pay for Childcare?

Never paid anything I looked after my kids till they go to school and now work around their school hours. I didn't even send my kids to nursery even though it was free.

I gave up teaching to care for my first, as I was paying so much in childcare.

Never needed to

I work school hours, and finish the same time as the kids. So they go to after school club . It Is £7 each. It takes about 30 minutes to get to their school . So I'm paying £14 for 30 minutes every day.

About 1/3 of my wage goes on childcare. I only have one child and they go to nursery 3 days a week. Food isnt included. Its crazy how extortionate it is but it was always really important to me my child socialises as we dont have lots of little ones in the family.

The only child care I ever had for my daughter was paid for. At one time I was earning £21 for 2 hours typing at a local newspaper paying £2 bus fare and £18 in childcare. Basically it was an unpaid break for me but the childminder was worth far more than I paid. They don't get paid enough for the fantastic job they do.

I gave up my job to have kids. I couldn't afford the price. It's ridiculous. I work in that environment now and it's mental. I feel for the owners as they are charged crazy money to rent the place and that's before any other out goings like wages. One company I worked for they were just getting to the point they were making money and covid hit and put them back to square 1. They had to close one of the places they ran after school club as it pretty much was costing them more to pay just the wages then anything else so wasn't worth it. When I started they had up to 60 kids. They ran it from the actual school. Change of head teachers and the new head set up his own after school charging a fraction of the price because he could as his outgoings were less as he didn't have to rent the space so all the parents moved to it bar about 15. He could also pay the staff slightly higher wages and was bringing in outside clubs but because he was doing it he wasn't charging rent. Another club that used the school for after school activities also lost out because he brought other clubs in and gave them the space they were using.

So yes it's ridiculous but for the small businesses it's not that they are taking the mick and majority of staff are highly qualified. For what they do. A large number of us are educated to degree level. I'm first aid trained. We have to be safeguard trained and trained in certain interventions for my school job.

I never paid for childcare. I looked after him until he was old enough for free nursery hours ( I'm in Scotland, they get them free from 3 years old). Once he went to nursery I went back to work. I paid for his food when he was at nursery, it was £2.50 a week.