What Kind Of Help Do You Have?

Since having Cal I've been really curious about what kind of help other families use in the way of childcare every week. And exactly how each family (not just mums) balance their work and family lives, and specifically how many hours of childcare, babysitters, nannies, family help they get each week in order to get stuff done. Especially those successful types who manage to work jobs, set up businesses on the side and still manage to go out at night to social things. I think a lot of people like me - who have worked a lot during their kid's younger years - would love to see how others do it. But for some reason it feels taboo to ask, or at least a bit like prying. 

So in the spirit of sharing here's how we do it at the moment. David and I are both freelance and work at home. Cal goes to a lovely kindy three days a week and my mum has him one day a week. When I thought I'd be working full time we increased his days to four days a week, but actually this felt like a little too much for him. He was always knackered by the fourth day and it was showing in his behaviour at kindy and home. So when the full-time job fell through I was really relieved we could drop that fourth day, and now he's much happier at home with us on that day, which we try to keep really chill. 

In those three work days a week I manage to work for freelance clients on copy and branding jobs and also have time to work on independent projects like the editorial travelogue shoot that David and I shot up at Byron last week. I could definitely use another day or two a week to really move things along - especially with building my Australian freelance network here, but for the moment this particular juggle is working well for Cal.

But babysitters. And dates. And going out. Just doesn't happen. I think we feel like he's been with other people enough during the week and I personally always feel really guilty spending even more time away from him, and even more money on childcare than we already do. Also, because David and I both work from home, at the moment we definitely see enough of each other through the week, which I say with love ;)

But sometimes we sneak away. Like this morning when seeing the last sunny day forecast for this week we went down to Dee Why for a few hours. David surfed and I walked up over the headland at Longreef and then down around the rocks where I was completely alone except for a single rock fisherman. It's been years since I experienced that kind of isolation in such a place of incredible beauty and my heart almost exploded from the smells and colours and feeling of freedom. And it's important to treat yo self, right?

Hey people - my lovely friend and an editor of www.kidspot.com.au has set up a survey to figure out what Aussie parents want and need from childcare these days. It only takes 10 minutes and it's good to talk to each other about this stuff. Here's the link if you want to join in: http://www.kidspot.com.au/tell-us-your-ideal-childcare-scenario/

Past a sleepy but watchful pelican at Long Reef..

And out on to the rocks at low tide, which may be my new happy place