£100k stay-at-home dilemma: should I give up work to raise my child?

Yes.

So the other elements might add up to a few thousand pounds a year-

Mm-hmm

...

if you get maximum, sort of, use out of them.

The free childcare could be significantly more than that, right? Um, it isn't completely comprehensive.

It's not like every childcare cost you have is gonna be paid.

You may still have to pay for some childcare even if you're eligible to get it, right?

Yes.

So if I set the scene a little bit, every three and four-year-old in England is entitled to 15 hours per week of free education-

Okay

... and that's everyone.

Doesn't matter what your parents do, what your family does, all children get that.

Okay.

But then there's this extra provision, um, that's the really valuable bit, and that's called free childcare for working parents.

And that basically kicks in when a baby is nine months old and can last all the time up until they go to school.

Mm-hmm.

And it's basically entitles you to 30 hours of free childcare every week.

So it's very valuable, and it actually has got significantly more generous in the last couple of years.

But as you say, it's not comprehensive because it's 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year, and that roughly aligns with school terms-

Yeah

...

but it does leave quite a lot of the year where it's like, okay, what are we gonna do then?

Yeah.

So you could be in a position, if you have one or two children, you're using those free hours, but you're still paying hundreds if not thousands of pounds a month to sort of top them up.