Hey Flutter - how are you today?
I'm sorry to hear about your childcare woes. I totally hear you on that one - when I first moved to Scotland, I beat 82 other applicants for an NHS job (a job I really wanted - working on cutting down waiting times for cancer patients). Turns out, the final salary offer was meager... after paying childcare for one child and the petrol needed to get to work, I'd be bringing home £50 a month. I didn't take the job.
Since then, I've become a mobile nail technician, which as been quite lucrative over the past 3 years (am in a bit of a lull right now though... no one can afford such luxuries in this economy!) but I'm not starving. I've not had to put my kids in childcare, and I'm earning more than £50 a month
When my youngest is a bit older and going to nursery, I'll go proper part-time and eventually full time, but for now, this works for me.
I really hope you find a way around this - working when you have kids is stressful enough!! I wish your mum thought about what she was doing to you by making this decision... perhaps she needs to know?