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?

If there is more support (although I think everything is just sliced another way rather than anyone ever being significantly more advantaged over their lifetime), then hopefully your children will benefit in the future when they have their own children.

I’m in my 30s and my mum sent me to nursery because she got a few free hours so she figured she might as well. So YABU.

There will always be people who didn’t have things years ago that people have now, and that will carry on and on. It’s a good thing.

Do you live in a warm house with running water?
Well lots of people didn’t have at one point but you do.

I went back to studying when my kids started school in the mid to late 70s. I was studying public administration and we did a module on childcare and I seem to remember that in the 70s there were fewer nurseries than in the 40s.

I think there had been a boom during WWII so that women could get back to work and they as time passed and it wasn't seen as a priority they started to close.

I was lucky in that at that time I was doing agency work to fit round study and the man who owned the agency also owned a day nursery so he did a deal with me that I would pay the hourly rate for nursery for the number of hours I worked, it wouldn't have been worth me working if I'd had to pay when I had no work hours. I don't think numbers were as strictly regulated then so presumably having an extra child wasn't as big an issue as it would be now.

I do agree with this!

You cannot judge a whole generation of parents because of your experience with one entitled person.

Before children, I’ll admit that me and my husband had quite a lavish lifestyle compared to most. But now that we have children we have sacrificed a most of this and happily so as being parents and providing for our children is the most important thing to us now. We have no help from any parents and would not expect them to do so…circumstances don’t allow but even if they did, I wouldn’t expect it - they have their own lives to lead.

We were in the lucky position that we had sacrifices to make and so can still (just) pay our mortgage, bills and childcare costs without going into debt. I’ll add to that that currently the childcare costs are my
entire wage but as we are a family unit the costs get absorbed by joint finances…not the case for everyone. The extended free hours aren’t about making sure people can afford to still have a takeaway or go on holiday, they are about making it worthwhile for parents, especially mums to go back to work. What is the point of doing so
if your childcare costs exceed your wage, which for many it does! Some of those workers will be in industries that cannot afford to lose more workers. I’m in an industry that is haemorrhaging staff but have considered many times over the past few months not to return after Mat leave because I find the idea of working 55+ hours a week to not see my children and not add any money to the household
finances difficult. I’m on a decent wage but if I was on the average salary it would cost my
husband money from his salary for me to go to work meaning that we would struggle to pay the mortgage/ bills etc and I think that’s what this is rightly aimed at.

If you got free uni education and are still 'pondering' this then honestly, STFU. Economy-wise Millennials have been absolutely shit on since coming of age, and this childcare stuff is a drop in the ocean.

Sorry op but I hate this attitude. Just because my grandparents didn’t have central heating and worked down a mine does that mean we have to freeze and work down a Pitt?? Things move on thank goodness.

yes I have older children and no I didn’t get free childcare when they were small but whooooo for those who can go to work and afford to feed their kids and pay their rent. Make the most of it, enjoy your lives and hopefully your children will grow to have a free university education that me and my children never got :)

I am going to got shot down for this but I think it’s a bad idea and typical of what is expected of a generation who think that having children shouldn’t mean a sacrifice for your current lifestyle. We only had the 15 hours free childcare that had to be taken either 9-12 or 12.30-3.30.

So you got 15 free hours, still sent your child to nursery for those free hours even though you didn’t work but parents having 30 ‘free’ house so they can work is a “bad idea”?

The absolute definition of ‘I’m alright jack.’

They were like unicorn shit. There certainly weren’t any where I lived or I wouldn’t have gone through the torture of not working for five years.

I’m 33, and I got half days free ‘school nursery’ as a child, would be called preschool now.

You would have benefitted from cheaper house prices and various other things too.

My son is university age now and I got some tax-free childcare.

Instead of all this tinkering, I'd give every couple tax relief on childcare for their first child (or multiple birth). I also think there needs to be a debate on whether the state wants to give tax incentives for larger families (I don't think it should, given the environmental costs, but that's a public policy issue).

But tax relief should be a given on childcare costs as it allows people to go to work and pay tax at all.

The only thing that concerns me about offering tax relief is that the providers would then probably hike prices because they know the end user is paying less.

(I also think there should be tax relief on public transport season tickets)

We sacrificed holidays, second car, take always, meals out and expensive day trips were for birthdays and special occasions

As do most.

This has come at a perfect time for us. I am not worried about whether I can go on holiday abroad as haven’t for the last 5 years. I am worried about the gas bill This will save us 25k over the next 2.5 years. This will make a huge difference. Perhaps we will be able to go on a holiday. I would like to be able to give my son that experience.

We will also hopefully be able to change the car from a 3 door so we can get him in and out without killing our backs. Which I don’t really want to do. I love my little car but it is getting silly now and does need changing.

This will also enable us to invest in our business more. As we are partly self employed and company finances linked to a degree.

This will also enable us to have our second and last child sooner. Rather than spending near a decade stuck in the sleep deprived years younger years cycle.

I do think this will help the economy majorly. The last point being the most important that no one ever considers. Raising babies and toddlers is so mentally draining it’s like your just floating through life trying to survive and not drown at that stage. By enabling people to afford to bunch those years closer together will mean you have women back to full strength in the workforce half a decade sooner.

I don't understand the negativity around it. Positive change for the future.

you don't understand? you're not trying very hard then. People scrimp and save, or give up jobs, or work fewer hours (reducing pensions, income etc etc) because they had to pay for childcare. And now people get 30 hours free and are still whinging about it?

They are allowed to moan about it.

Yes, positive change, but fucking hell if i were in the UK i'd be furiously whinging about it too.

your children face high university costs, it will be nice if they don’t have to pay extortionate childcare costs on top of repaying their loans

Well said. Middle class whinging is deeply annoying.

Maybe my great grandmother died of an infection. I hope to god the OP has never benefited from antibiotics. That would really piss me off 🙄

Same situation here. But comparably housing was much more affordable then so it’s swings and roundabouts. Our kids got some advantages like a bit of trust fund money that the next generation didn’t so someone always misses out on something somewhere.

im glad the next generation are being supported with this frankly because it was hard then and it’s even harder now.

My child is at university and definitely got free childcare in early years.

I genuinely don’t understand what you’re whinging about either.
Firstly it’s not 30 ‘free’ hours. Maybe if you were more knowledgeable about what you were whinging about you wouldn’t actually be whinging!

Should we never make any changes to anything for the better?

Did you moan because NMW went up and people before worked for less?
Did you moan when the tax thread hold went up and you paid less tax than people did the year before?

Jesus fucking christ. You sound so bitter and twisted.

I think it's brilliant that this is being offered. Can't believe you are harping on about things from 2 decades ago ffs as if everything should stay stagnant because you had it that way.

Your husband has an income, minimum of £50k+ and you can't be earning a crap wage.

Be grateful for what you have now and stop being so fucking jealous that times are changing for families with young kids, for the better (wrt this specific change - not just generally speaking)

And as for people not having washing machines for 3 years, what decade are you talking about because the 70's was half a century ago ffs and I'm sure people had washing machines then.

My kids aren't anywhere near university age yet, we paid for full childcare costs until they were three, but I still don't begrudge new parents this help. We bought our first house in 2009, when they were significantly, by at least 50%, cheaper where we live than they our now. No way could a couple starting out now, on similar salaries to what we had then, even taking into consideration inflation, afford to buy the house we bought then. I therefore feel immensely privileged, due to nothing other then my year of birth! Housing is the biggest cost for most people, and for very many young people it's completely unaffordable. If your children are university age, you must be older, so we're presumably in a position to buy even earlier then us. We also entered the employment market before 2008, and were secure in our jobs by then so we weren't too impacted by that recession, but it's been really tough for those who graduated after 2008, it's only just getting better now really. We also only had tuition fees of about £1k a year, whereas since 2012 it's been £9k, that cohort will be the ones starting families now. Young people have had a shit time on many fronts, I'm not even that much older, but I'm aware of the privilege that comes from being just a decade or so older. Maybe check your privilege before begrudging help to those who probably need it more than you.

I absolutely hate attitudes like this, it stratified and stagnated progression in society. I mean why would you want things to improve for younger generations. I didn't have it so why should they?

We all have our tales of woe. We couldn't afford to put our daughter in full tike childcare so I dropped to part time hours. Since then I have lost tens of thousands of pound in income, but that's less than the amount I would have paid in childcare. I'm now a single Mum to a 5 year old with a still suppressed income. That doesn't mean I resent those who will now benefit from free childcare. I'm absolutely delighted, because hopefully women will never have to face leaving the workplace or restricting their progression and income. Hopefully women won't have to fear leaving abusive relationships because they are financially worse off than their partner due to childcare sacrifices. Attitudes like this really make me seeth and worry for society.

My parents lived in communist country with empty shelves and police arresting innocent people. This doesn't mean me and my sister should live through the same. This is how it works. Your children will benefit from free childcare once they decide to become parents.

That's true, and we had 3 days paternity leave max. But we did have more or less free university degrees, cheaper housing too.
Young people have it much harder than we did. My dcs student loans are frightening.

Exactly this. It was so easy for my parents generations to buy a house on one wage. You’ve got no chance now, even in the North in a cheap area. Living expenses are a bigger percentage of peoples income. So something has to give big the government want mum’s to get back to work, they need to make it work financially.