Bet01 - only joking (slightly) - i have a 6 year old and a 20 month old baby. i work full time as does partner. its a case of seeing what works i think. as my partner works in restaurant/bar - he does main childcare in mornings - get daughter ready for school, school drop off. Collect daughter at 3.30pm. Has son during week. Son is in nursery Thurs and Fridays so that partner can fit his shifts in. I work west end so have to manage with work in getting back sometimes by 5pm normally by 545pm so partner can get to work. When we get stuck i used to have a couple of babysitters i could call. This is no longer the case so I will now be advertising again for some childcare. its always good to have seen a couple incase you get stuck. I sometimes have to ask daughters school friends to have her - not ideal but would offer back. Occasionally I would have to work from home which would mean getting up at like 5am to get work done before son is awake as at 20 months he is full on. I would have preferred the childminder option but its just not workable for us at the moment. It might be worth advertising now. Last year we used an au pair on her days off. Good luck and keep us posted!