Childcare - cost and competition for spaces

[BingBoings]

Childcare is hitting crisis point where I live in London.

We have three nurseries which offer full time places. Most only do morning or afternoons (not much good if you work).

The cost of all three is now around £2,000 per month.

Not only this - but getting a place at any of them is wildly competitive.

You need to register before they’re born to get a place by the time they’re 9 months old. At one of them you have to register when pregnant to get a place by age 3 (I can’t even work out the maths of how this is possible).

You can’t take them out during maternity leave or you will lose your place. I know of two families paying for nursery and a nanny (!) so the older child doesn’t lose their place, but because their parental leave has run out before a space became available at a nursery.

What are parents supposed to do? It seems enormously counter-productive for the country.

The cost, the difficulty in getting a place, the lack of flexibility… it’s just hopeless…!

I think the frenzy must add to pressure re baby room places but think there are going to be different issues for different ages. Eg ours is just full so spaces will appear once the pre-school kids start leaving for school but those spaces will be back-filled by the younger kids already in which would get a few of the little ones out of the under 2s and then release waiting list spots but that only works if you have the right mix of birthdays.

It is totally insane. My son goes 4 days a week and it costs more than my mortgage. Tax deductible childcare is the answer but there is no appetite to help the people that actually pay the taxes. It is unfathomable to me that a profeasional couple both earning high wages (for well paid professions) can be scrabbling around to pay the bills. Its a feminist issue really as the work exodus hits women hardest.