Being a parent isn’t easy these days — or cheap.
With childcare costs rising to obscene amounts, more and more parents are having to get creative.
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Take Sophie McLaren. She’s a mom of three kids , all under the age of 13, who is forced to leave them by themselves during the summertime .
Doing so had left her with insane amounts of mom guilt.
Believe it or not, the British government doesn’t have a legal age where a child can be left alone.
Of course, parents can’t leave their kids in a situation that could hurt them.
In her case, Sophie has her 13-year-old son, Harry, take care of his sisters, Olivia, 11, and Sienna, 9 during the summer holidays.
Even though she trusts her kids, she’s still terrified of something bad happening.
“I know my children won’t do anything stupid – but what if they eat something and choke?” Sophie asked in an interview with I. “I feel constantly worried at work and message them to check on them.”
Leaving her kids alone is a choice Sophie feels forced to make.
The cost of the living crisis is getting out of hand.
For instance, a survey found that nearly a quarter of UK adults plan to keep their heat off this winter.
They simply can’t afford it, just as Sophie can’t afford childcare.
“It is the fact that we are not doing this because we want to that angers me; it’s because we feel we have to as there’s no other alternative,” Sophie said of leaving her kids alone.
“We need to go to work as we can’t afford to live with just one wage, particularly with the cost of living crisis and everything being so expensive.”
Sophie works in digital marketing, while her husband also works full-time. Both are unable to take time off during the summer, as it’s the busiest time for them at work.
“The six weeks of school summer holidays are crippling and every summer, I start getting stressed and worried about how we’ll manage,” she said.
“We knew it was going to be a particular issue this summer as we were already worried about the price of everything going up and how we will manage as a family.”
When Sophie looked into childcare costs, she was horrified to discover that it would cost around $7,613 dollars — about a quarter of her $35,000 salary.
Since they live in a rural area, they don’t have grandparents that are right next door.
“We don’t have grandparents who can help with childcare as they are still working and I live five hours away from my family,” explained Sophie.
“When the kids were younger, I sometimes took the summer off unpaid, but that just isn’t feasible as I’m needed at work over the summer and the cost of living crisis means I just can’t afford not to be paid.”
Sophie’s situation is tough, but not unique.
One mother, Kim Johnson, told Metro that she has a “nocturnal summer” in order to care for her five kids and stepson, all ranging from ages five to 17.
This means that she will take care of the kids during the day and work at her copywriter job at night.
This leaves her with only four hours of sleep each night.
“The “holidays” are not a break for me. I am self-employed and if I don’t work, I don’t get paid,” she said.
The cheapest childcare option she found also cost over seven thousand dollars.
It’s a situation that’s bringing parents to their breaking point.
“It’s a constant juggling act,” Kim said. “You juggle the work guilt and you juggle the mum guilt. It’s stressful. Time for myself goes out of the window completely. I manage to get everything done purely because I just don’t sleep. But there is no time for self care.”
