AIBU to be annoyed by this headline stating that a mother only earns £2 per shift after childcare when the article mentions the childrens' father who lives with them

81 replies

ASandwichNamedKevin · 10/12/2022 00:57

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63904607

I know childcare is expensive but surely it ought to be a shared expense when parents are living together?
Is there any way to challenge this perception that it's the sole responsibility of mothers?

I'm not intending this as a criticism of this individual family but of the reporting.

If you don't want to click the link, it says the mum earns £73 and pays out £71 so only 'makes' £2. AIBU to think she 'makes' £37.50 (please let my maths be right!)

OP posts:

LemonSwan · 10/12/2022 15:48

Getoff · 10/12/2022 08:30

Explain again how having fellow-citizens rather than parents pay for childcare makes the production of future citizens cheaper? I didn't quite get it the first time.

Also, there's nothing wrong with importing people, if you have a shortage, which we don't. In fact if we want to rationally optimise the "pyramid scheme", we should actively discourage people from having children, perhaps by charging the parents via tax for all the costs of education and healthcare, as it would be much cheaper to import people, and the quality would be better because we could choose only educated healthy adults.

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It’s a net plus the more people who work. Deskilling half the country (women) during the peak of their career years is not a good strategy. Many countries know this and so subsidise childcare.

And you pay for it anyway. Just through benefits instead. So it really does mainly affect the productivity aspect and future taxable earnings.

freyamay74 · 11/12/2022 07:25

Bottom line is, we never see an article about working parents where the headline is what the dad is left with after paying the childcare bill. Because the default assumption is always that dad will carry on working but if mum carries on working then she is going to be paying the childcare bill.

Pretty depressing in 2022.

VestaTilley · 11/12/2022 07:58

YANBU. I’ve tweeted at BBC News about it complaining about the headline.

poefaced · 11/12/2022 08:03

YANBU, OP. You can see the effects of this thinking every day on AIBU. countless threads written by women saying it’s not worth working because her wage just goes on childcare. Or even worse, women posting saying that their partners have said she needs to pay for the childcare cost because it’s her choice to work.

oviraptor21 · 11/12/2022 08:16

SingingSantaChristmas · 10/12/2022 03:11

Oh, and to boot they have better sex equality, less poverty in general, higher productivity (which raises everyone's living standards) and that in these circumstances - with proper parental leave policies etc for men also - parenting and household work is also generally far more equally shared.

In short it's a no brainer. Better for children and all family members and the country as a whole.

That is why sensible Governments fund it. They aren't basing their policies on decades old sexist and debunked nonsense, rather on actual, current, undeniable data on a huge scale which proves that this is beneficial for everyone.

This government does fund it, 85% of it up to a maximum of £600odd for one child, via universal credit.
If you're not eligible for universal credit then you don't need the childcare help in the same way and the tax burden won't be increased to help you.

Justthisonce12 · 11/12/2022 08:29

Cheeseandhoney · 10/12/2022 08:57

I don’t really understand the subsidising bit, I believe people should look at rhe cost of children before having children and then deciding, and already people get a lot of help from tax to free hours.

I also see plenty of folks who use those free hours the tax payer pays when they don’t actually work.

I do believe it should be reworked though, only those whose parents are both in full time employment, or the single parent is, and earn below x should get support to childcare to get them back in work .

i really dislike the fact that so many people want others to pay for their choices. Having a child is a choice. Not a right.

The children put in childcare when the parent doesn’t actually work is benefiting enormously and the advantage to you is that investing in their early years means they are more likely to get a job and less likely to mug you when they are older. Itll cost you more to imprison them in the long term.

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