Looking for experiences from working parents

I don't think it's an unreasonable question at all. Once you're pregnant, before you know it, 9 months have passed. So it's only good that you're thinking about this in advance. I stopped working myself, but that's because I want to start a training course again once the little one is born. My husband is self-employed, so he's often at home during the day.

I worked 20-28 hours for the kids, and after the oldest was born, I went back to 16-24 hours. My partner works 36 hours. We both also worked part-time in shifts, so we needed at most 2.5 days of childcare.

Fortunately, those days could be covered by a caring grandma and great-grandmother. So we didn’t need any childcare and therefore no costs for it.

We did a calculation beforehand of how much less income there would be to see if I could work less.
You can also check what the average hourly rate is for daycare and do a trial calculation of how much childcare allowance you’d get. That gives you a decent idea of the finances.

I recently gave birth to baby #2 and am now looking for a new job because my contract ended during my pregnancy. I’m looking for work for 24-32 hours per week. If it turns out to be 32 hours, my partner will also go back to 32 hours, so we’d both work 4 days and only need 3 days of childcare. The kids would probably be cared for by grandma for one full day and two afternoons. Mornings would be daycare/toddler playgroup.

The Nibud has a site where you can calculate how much your income will drop when you work less: the werkzorgberekenaar.
I’m going to work 8 hours less and half a day from home, and my partner is also going to work half a day from home, so we’ll need childcare for 2 days. I currently work 36 hours and my partner 40.
We assumed we’d be down 20%, but according to that site, it’s not as bad because there are tax benefits to offset it.