Farming - childcare arrangements

BG2.0

So with the era we live in it's common for a farmers spouse to work as well giving some childcare issues. My partner goes back to work end of Jan so putting a few plans in place.
What arrangement do folk use, creche/granny daycare/minder for few hours morning+evening?
Working hours at times are (have been), ALOT for both at times ie.. 90-100hr+ the odd week for a few weeks of the year.
The issues start in that she's midway through a post grad/partime work and has forefited payment for an extra research assistant to do a lot of the day to day work. So more 'workplace flexible' theory is how it should work.
Personally at work taking on alot more work for same pay but getting a foreman instead of extra worker so takes about 60% of current workload and left with pretty much all the behind the scenes work. Have the house/good pay in current job so suits to stay working. Hours are 6-6 as a guide for 6mths, 6-4 for 3mths and what ever it needs for the rest ie alot.
No real family around, but few creches that opperate 7-9pm so not too bad just, costly.

Muckit

Childminders/creches are expensive until you ask yourself would you do it for the money?! It's actuallynot a bad number for someone who was minding their own kid's at home and took on 2 more as there are good tax benefits, l think earn up to 15k tax free.

Personally l don't think it's right to be too reliant on gparents if at all possible. They have reared one family that should be enough. Babysitting the odd few hours here and there but not fulltime childminding. I know l wouldn't like to be at it at that age!

Nekarsulm

What age are the children/child?
Local child minder could be best idea, but be prepared to find that they are not all on the same wavelength as you, with regards to parenting methods.
You may find yourselves changing minder a few times.
Crèches are the most inflexible of all choices.

jfh

Go with local childminder when they're babies but creche later on.
Keep parental leave until you need to do home work with them.
Tis only for a few year's

whelan2

what about an au pair?

I said

whelan2 wrote: »

what about an au pair?

Won't be allowed I reckon

whelan2

I said wrote: »

Won't be allowed I reckon

why?

freedominacup

whelan2 wrote: »

what about an au pair?

Can be very good to useless but you're never stuck with the bad ones too long. You will be glad to have your house back when the time for au pairs is over. Biggest problem we had was with a friend of a girl we had gotten on well with. Friend was a disaster. First girl had sung our praises and second girl expected to have it handy. Better that they're s bit worried about how it will go and are pleasantly surprised when they get on well. We're still in contact with a few of the girls, now women who au paired for us to the point that some are regular visitors.

djmc

whelan2 wrote: »

why?

I had that discussion too.
Told she had to be old and ugly as wife worked long hours.
We went with child minder that took kids in her own house in the end.

whelan2

Is it not the same though with any child minder etc. It's a minefield. When my youngest lad started in creche they said he wasn't the type if child they wanted there.

Bullocks

I like the idea of an au pair but we never had one .
If you could get a nice local woman that is a bit flexible time wise it can be a godsend. That's what we had when our 2 were younger and it worked out well . If I had to leave early or not home till later she didn't mind at all and wouldn't take any extra money . I used pay her in kind with odd jobs around the house and maintenance which suited everyone .
Someone who is a bit strict and sticks to some kind of routine is good for kids aswell , some childminders now will plonk them in front of the TV / iPad just because it keeps them quiet .

What are people paying now for childcare after school ? It all adds up and if I was planning having kids in the next life I would have things done in a way that one of us could have stayed home to mind them instead of working like eegits and not spending enough time with kids /each other . There are alot of couples working that haven't much left out of a second wage when childcare and going to work costs are taken out of it

_Brian

whelan2 wrote: »

Is it not the same though with any child minder etc. It's a minefield. When my youngest lad started in creche they said he wasn't the type if child they wanted there.

That's some ignorant statement about any child. !! Be best away from them anyway !!

whelan2

_Brian wrote: »

That's some ignorant statement about any child. !! Be best away from them anyway !!

Never stood in it since.

arctictree

Youngest (2) goes to full time creche. Older boy (6) goes to school and local childminder 3 days a week. (We do the other 2 days). The childminder is on the bus route so the young lad just jumps off at her house and we collect him later. Once she goes to school in a couple of years, things will be a lot easier - and cheaper!

_Brian

It's tough going with two people working be that farming or PAYE.

My oh works bit more than half time but over 4-5 days. Have it split like this to allow school pickups every day and homework etc. I can do school drops few mornings a week and in emergency have the flexibility to be there for 3pm pick up.
Biggest thing once they got to school age was to be there for homework - no one will put the effort into it like yourself. Summer is hard and eldest is in secondary now so an extra month of arrangements to do, I can bring her to work with me a few days a week, the only draw back is she'll realise how crap the job is

Cran

This is about to land on us in 2 weeks when missus goes back to work. 9 month old to creche, thankfully herself can work from home 3 days and niece is in the same creche and if stuck he can be picked up with her.
Working and farming I think is going to get harder now as young lad around and missus back to work, always knew this day would come but trying to get a balance is very difficult......

djmc

Put 3 children through child minding 3 days a week youngest started playschool this year and total came in just under 60k for child minding only.
And l considered what we were paying was cheap enough compared to what others are paying especially in more urban areas.
If childcare costs were tax deductible it might encourage more mother's back to work.
She worked 3 days because if she worked 5 after income tax petrol and lunch at work and extra childcare she would be financially worse off.

Username John

2 kids in creche 3 days a week here - costs enough, I can see why having 3 kids means you'd be better off with one person at home. As financially it'd be the same thing...

Even if we had 2 in creche 5 days a week, you'd be wondering was it worth it...

djmc

Username John wrote: »

2 kids in creche 3 days a week here - costs enough, I can see why having 3 kids means you'd be better off with one person at home. As financially it'd be the same thing...

Even if we had 2 in creche 5 days a week, you'd be wondering was it worth it...

It's only for a few years but its a few years working for nothing in order to keep the job.
Dreading the cost of college in 10 years time

Username John

djmc wrote: »

It's only for a few years but its a few years working for nothing in order to keep the job.
Dreading the cost of college in 10 years time

I know, and then the costs will go down with school and the likes...

But it will be worse in terms of school drop-offs, collections, after-school activities, homework, etc... So then the debate changes from financials to logistics...

Kevhog1988

djmc wrote: »

It's only for a few years but its a few years working for nothing in order to keep the job.
Dreading the cost of college in 10 years time

College can be ok if there part time jobs available. My parents used to give me 50 euro a week and i paid everything myself because i was able to pick up work on sites etc and had a saturday job the rest of the time.

BG2.0

Hi thanks, never thought of an au-pair tbh, maybe for the future.
Have a creche half organised but thinking again a childminder might also be handy as a reserve for times you get caught also, thanks for your inputs!.

KatyMac

Then when you have everything sorted out nicely one of them gets sick! My oldest ended up in hospital a couple of times with asthma when she was very young. Thankfully boss at the time was reasonable (had small kids himself). But it's hard to juggle the minding of them at a time like that.

st1979

Au-pair all the way. Had that crap of dropping off kids to Childminder. You wipe out an hour a day doing that. Cost a fortune as I have twins.
Now on 3rd au-pair and very happy. Kids are at home. I see them all the time. Can easily take them with me or not as and when it suits me. Food on the table every meal time and cost a lot less.
Don't get one through agency. Heard too many bad stories. And from both sides. Go on au-pairworld.net and do it yourself. There are 1000s to choose from and thousands won't suit you or vice versa so its about getting a suitable match for both you and the au pair.