Parents of university age children never got ANY free childcare

[Cliff1975]

Whilst it is great that the government has finally realised that free childcare is needed those of us with university age children did not benefit from this and we are now supporting them through uni at great expense. Maybe once these kids who are getting free childcare get to uni that will be free too? Just can't help feeling that we are missing out from all angles?

Yes i got free university which I am grateful for. I don't begrudge this help with childcare to others at all. Just pondering really. Expectations in life have certainly changed, my parents generation had cheaper housing but they saved for things and didn't expect things straightaway. They were married a few years before they had a washing machine. Now we have a generation where phones, foreign holidays, meals out etc are all seen as necessities.

Your generation almost certainly had more affordable housing options too, not just your parents generation.

Your parents probably had things much tougher and did do things like not having a washing machine. Presumably you did though, or you wouldn't have mentioned your parents as an example and would have mentioned yourself.

You have a phone, holidays and meals out I assume? And your kids have been used to those things?

You also, as you say, had free university. Benefited from a less brutal housing market.

I can't imagine being bitter that the next generation will have some help I didn't have. Especially if they won't have the help I did have - in your case free uni tuition and more affordable housing.

The race to the bottom mentality in the UK is so depressing. We should be pleased whenever things improve for the next generation. Especially when they have so many negative things to deal with already.

😂 this is the silliest OP. Talk about lack of self awareness

Mine’s yr 12 we got 15 hours free and childcare vouchers via work - you could take £243 as a voucher and not pay tax or ni on that. I know my dc’s pt nursery fees were 2 vouchers and the free hours plus a small top up.
I went to uni no tuition Husband even got a grant! We know we will need to find difference between what dc can borrow and what it costs. But for postgraduate professional qualification it was a commercial bank loan now they can get a student loan for same course so that’s better.

@Abra1t you have taken the house price:earning figures. If you look at mortgage:earning figures, in the same source you reference, the picture is different. Which isn’t to say there is no issue, there clearly is as this situation is an interest rate time bomb plus the deposit required has gone up beyond the reach of many. I’m only pointing it out for the sake of balance. I don’t believe there was a halcyon time to live.

And yet you managed, perhaps because the cost of living back then was not so great that both parents needed to work to keep a roof over their heads!

No it hasn’t doubled actually, paid 48,000 for it, now it’s worth £340,000…but we have paid out over the years to extend, remodel, refurbish etc etc… the council didn’t come in and do it for free for us as they would have if we had stayed in the council flat we had beforehand. We have had to pay out from us both working, with no free childcare , so me on nights , my husband on days for over 40 years… we have worked hard for what we have, despite being skint for years when the kids were young. Didn’t get any help from the government and we didn’t expect it, we had kids, we pay for them …nowadays people expect the government to pay out for all and sundry and whine about how much harder it is for them… wait until you are at retirement age and see how it really is!!

I had two kids before I got a washing machine, it is the one bit of kit I won't do without. When mine gave up the ghost in January I got straight on the internet and bought one for delivery the following day. No way would I go back to hand washing or trekking to the launderette and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to either. I honestly think my painful arthritic hands might have some connection to hours spent in water doing the washing and then trying to squeeze everything as dry as I could, I did get a spin dryer before I could afford a washing machine and even that made such a difference to my life. So to me life without a washing machine wasn't good in any way.

I honestly think that the increasing affordability of automatic washing machines in the 70s had a huge impact on freeing women from household drudgery.

Can you tell I didn't like handwashing?

Rubbish, we had to cope back then because there was no help, nothing to do with the cost of living being not so great!

Let's do the sensible thing then and combine uni and nursery. Students can look after the kids when they're not at lectures. Oh and pop the elderly in there too. Ta da society is fixed.

Just a little FYI, that’s the cost to buy a house now so I couldn’t afford to extend, remodel, refurbish etc. I also wouldn’t be eligible for a council flat.
Im working just as hard, yet can afford less and will be doing so for way past the retirement age you’ve reached.

Absolutely nothing to do with everything being more affordable? That made no difference?

Rising food, fuel and energy costs now shouldn't pose a problem, then.

I missed out on free child care but I benefited from cheaper house prices and excellent Defined Benefit pensions. Swings and roundabouts.

I’m 26 and I’m sure my parents have told me free nursery for three year olds was a thing

ironically I’ve found people with this attitude often also resent people choosing not to have kids, because they’re ‘too selfish to sacrifice’. It’s an active desire to have others, including their own children, to struggle and be ground down like they were.

I genuinely think it’s not just resenting the fact that other people are being given opportunities they missed out on, but resenting not being able to sit back and enjoy watching other people struggling.

By this measure, I’ve been screwed over…I don’t have kids, so my taxes are paying for all of this childcare, schooling, etc. I didn’t get grants at Uni, and had to take out loans. BUT I’m not a dick, so I accept that my taxes go to pay for things which (largely) help society, families, older people, people with disabilities, etc.
Sometimes we just all need to take a step back, and think that it’s not always about what we get out of situations.

Parents of university aged kids paid less in childcare - it's currently completely out of control. I doubt you spent £20k a year for full time childcare for one kid under 3? I am also likely to just miss out, as it won't be introduced until after my child is 3. However instead of feeling frustrated, I'm elated at the prospect that other women won't have to hopefully go through what I did. I am frustrated that lots of kids (including university kids who would have access to some things under a Labour government ) have missed out. Put the blame where blame is due - at the feet of the Conservative government.

I think I was one of the last to get a grant for university - not much and loans but no tuition fees - they came in for younger sibling.

While renting and house prices have continued to get even more insane - I don't think DH and I did benefit from cheap housing - it was a huge struggle to get on ladder and then we got hot with bank crisis and recession which impacted our income looked like we could lose over a decade in savings.

Think we also missed out on the better pension schemes.

However I'm still not going to begrudged the next generation having childcare help.

Giving potential parents more options mean we can keep more skill women in the work place meaning number of workers to tax spreading costs more. Also means there may be less pressure on older women to provide free childcare even if that means leaving their workplaces earlier than planned - know few who felt they had to do this.

We all benefit if we manage to keep the skilled workforce we have and making childcare more affordable helps with this.

You poor dear!

Exactly

‘Didn’t get any help from the government’ yet lived in a council flat!!

There definitely were school nurseries in the 70s. Possibly not in all areas but they did exist.

Presumably you will benefit by being more likely to get grandchildren, and less likely to have to do full-time Monday-Friday childcare for them?

@TheABC Indeed. To be blunt, we need future taxpayers, i.e. babies. We therefore need to do everything in our power to help people of childbearing age to be able at actually afford to do this.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m in my sixties. My retirement age is 67, so I’m working full time, with multiple health issues. I simply cannot, therefore, assist with childcare. There are many thousands of other grandparents in my position, so we need to ensure young people have support via organised childcare. It’s a necessity.

My parents didn't either and I went to uni in the early 2000s what's your point? I think it's a good thing even though my youngest will be 3 before it'll be rolled out (if it actually is) so I won't personally benefit.

Far too many people stay at home to look after children and rely on tax credits to prop them up. At least if they are working they are paying into the system and doing something to benefit society the old "I can't afford to work" will be a thing of the past.