This summer I’ve been in that black hole that every working mother falls into at some point: when the childcare fails. The person who was looking after my children decided to leave, and I have been struggling to find a replacement. Some women cope by calling in sick; others hunch over the mobile between meetings, organising extended ?playdates? with sympathetic friends and explaining to ageing relatives that Teddy must go in the cold wash, however gooey he is. When you’re in the black hole, the gravitational pull of home can become overwhelming.
I’m lucky. So far I have been able to afford to pay for someone to come to my home to care for my boys, and every childminder I’ve employed has been great. But it’s getting harder. The credit crunch is spooking many professional mothers back to work. I have spoken to two nanny agencies whose books are suddenly full of mothers who had not expected to return so fast, but fear the mounting bills. They would have to make good money though to have much left over from what the agencies say is the going rate for a London nanny: ?20,000 to ?30,000 a year.
Have you visited our sister site – www.lookforchildcare.co.uk, the FREE directory connecting parents to childcare providers?
