I have looked after my three grandchildren 1-2 days a week (including a sleepover) since they were all around 6 weeks old when DiL went back to work. The other gran does one day and the children all went to nursery on the other days. Neither my son or DiL have very well paid jobs (DiL works shifts) and at one very low point, when there were 2 of them in nursery, my DiL's entire wage was paying the nursery fees. We are fairly lucky in that having our own small business I am often able to juggle things around to take the children at the last minute if an emergency arises and do doctors, dentists etc. but I know that if I worked for someone else I probably wouldn't have a job by now. The demands on my time from 3 grandchildren plus elderly parents and my grandma too means that I am often called out of work. Speaking as an employer MamaCaz is dead right. Small businesses are already extremely reluctant to take on young women (and men) as they cannot afford the additional demands for maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave and last minute childcare etc. Its fine for governments to make sweeping promises of more time off, flexible working patterns etc. which can probably work in a large organisation or the public sector but can be the nail in the coffin for a small business.