My old employer just rang and offered me my old job back on a temporary basis - November to February.
I reckon it would be really good for me to go back to my part-time job, and for The Little Madam to experience being looked after by people who like child-minding so much they'd make a career out of it. The boy is really supportive too (though I wonder if that just means he's keen on seeing me get off my bum and earn some money).
The major obstacle though, is finding childcare. I rang the place whose waiting list I've been on since I was seven months pregnant (almost a year and a half ago), and they aren't going to have any places until January at the very earliest. Needless to say, other childcare centres whom I didn't bother contacting until today, don't have any places until next year at the earliest either - and people on their respective waiting lists are ahead of me already.
Even if I had returned to work after 6 months as I had originally arranged with my old boss, TLM would not necessarily have a place to go once I was due to start work again.
Which leads to this question - how on earth do mothers synchronise their childcare with their return to work?
5 comments:
Another question I can't answer. I use family..
Maybe your husband could take a leave of absence and take care of TLM, ha,ha..
It's be okay if only we could actually live on about one tenth of his income - which is what I'd be earning!
Maybe you could look into getting a nanny or an au pair. I would imagine it would be pretty difficult to get TLM in anywhere more structured at this time of year. Most people won't be making big changes till after Christmas now. In general there is a desperate shortage of childcare in Wellington. A friend of mine has been waiting 7 months to get her baby in somewhere.
Also, perhaps you could try Barnadoes where someone looks after your child in their home- though to be honest I have not heard anyone say they had a good experience trying that but I'm sure there are some good people doing it.
And the answer to how you synchronise childcare with going back to work--well I don't really know if there is one answer to this but how I did it was getting on a number of waiting lists very, very early & I was very flexible about which days which I think is especially important if you only want part time care because priority goes to the people who want it full time.
Good luck! Hope this wasn't too depressing to read.
Sounds like you have some juggling to do, but congrats on going back to work.
mtnw: I'm going to ring Barnadoes today - one of my mum's group acquaintances uses them for in-home care and seems happy with their arrangement. I didn't even consider being more flexible with days...
Neil: Y'know, the more I think about it the more I think it wouldn't be so bad to stay at home a little longer :-)
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