To think new parents are complaining more these days about nursery costs

[NameChangedOct24]

….even though they get the funding much earlier?

previously it was 15 or 30 hours from 3 years old. Parents would be grateful of the discount, with sometimes confusion about why the hours were not ‘free’ in private nurseries, top up fees and term time only stretched etc. I remember my monthly fee dropping from £1900 to £1400 from the 30hr funding and being happy with the saving.

recently though, working parents get some funding much earlier, which is great but they think it’s shocking that they still have to pay for childcare, on here and in real life. Eg colleague complains about it being only 15 hours, can’t afford to put them in 3+ days a week so need to wfh with toddler at feet. Aibu my colleagues don’t appreciate the better deal they have compared to a few years ago!?

Yep. But with the amount of tax all of the women who go back to work or up their hours pay, it wouldn't be much extra per person. And if it's what's best for some children and it improves society and the economy as well as the workforce and services etc then a tiny amount of extra tax is surely worth it.

Costs are easy to research prior to conception. It always amazes me that parents act so dumbfounded by the commonplace reality.

It always amazes me that anyone is daft enough to think research pre conception would've told someone with a preschool aged child now about all the things that have had an impact on childcare availability and charges over the past few years.

How can you research into the future and see that the nursery fees in your area will jump over 40% in 3 years from £240 in 2021 to £350 in 2024, not in line with any other inflation based increases?

I dont know why researching something means I cant moan about it or wish things were different.

We knew in advance there were no paid for options or family help for childcare, we knew nursery costs & that limited ML was on offer so didn't embark on TTC until we had saved sufficient to cover for everything as it cost at the time, plus the likelihood of no job to return to (management changes). But we opted out of everything cost-wise that we could do without eg holidays, new clothes, meals out, new cars, home improvements etc. and worked hard (overtime, commission, bonus etc I know not available to everyone but would have taken 2nd/weekend job if not) over a 3 year period. Sent the company car back so as to not pay tax on it while on ML, and mostly walked everywhere (which tuned out to be great as quickly got figure back).
Others won't want to do that or are unable to, and I can appreciate that. Or perhaps won't be so lucky as to work in a job where extras can be earned or live in an area where there are 2nd jobs to be found. But you CAN work out the costs that are likely. And we did need 2 salaries.

@Ariela For one child’s nursery, to starting school (4 years), I will spend c. £100,000 in nursery fees.

How much of that should I have saved in advance?

My nursery aged child was conceived in October 2019. Things have changed a little since then.

What a goady thread

In fact, for those who aren't entitled to the free hours they are worse than that because they have just led to an even bigger increase in the base fees.

This is us. And DC2 was actually DC2 and DC3. And the lovely nursery they were at, across the road, which served a broadly poor cohort, shut down because the new "free" hours for 2yo put them underwater. So I'm now taking my children to a worse nursery, two miles away, and paying over £2k a month for them to attend part time.

@Honeycrisp

Damn it. Knew there was something I forgot.

Could you tell us how parents of currently preschool aged DC could've predicted the inflation spiral and the government introduction of more 'free hours' that in some settings drove up other costs? Also whether the providers that exist before deciding to TTC are going to be there for the next half decade. Please be specific.

This.

Raising the next generation of society is about one of the most important jobs there is. Providing proper future protection against financial poverty for SAHPs and/or paying early years practitioners the wage they deserve for such an important role should be seen as money well spent. But because it's unaffordable for most, it should be heavily subsidised by government.

Women will never have true equality across all sections of society unless this is addressed.

I got pregnant in 2021. Between then and DS starting nursery (that we signed up to when I was pregnant) it went from 54 a day to 80 a day, on top of that our mortgage deal ended so that went up by nearly 500 quid. Were lucky that we got a couple of modest promotions in that time but it's really really hard

But what about those who are already struggling each month? That ‘tiny amount’ could really be eat or don’t eat to some people

Inflation is always a fact of life, and should be anticipated & planned for.

The levels we've experienced in the past couple of years are something quite different to the normal, fact of life, need to plan for inflation.

Inflation hasn't been at predictable levels recently, that's part of the problem.

It was the highest rate for 40 years. Perfectly reasonable for people of average child rearing age to be planning for much lower rates based on thier life experience.

Exactly. Which is why it's so dim to pretend that the issues now are things that could've been known about before they happened. People bleat out 'research' like it's a protective charm.

^this.

It's also in the context of a cost of living crisis where peoples wages are not rising quickly enough to match the increases in all of their bills. Women are needing to leave employment because they cannot afford to live work and pay childcare costs.

Just because something is a little better in one aspect doesn't mean we shouldn't ask for more help and that those struggling shouldn't talk about it.

I pay £1500 for one child (fulltime) now. Lol the days you could get two kids into a good private nursery fulltime for £1.9k is long gone.

In our daughters first six months of nursery fees increased by 25%, 12 months later they increased by another 38%, when we left that nursery they were due to increase by another 25%. So lets image

£100 original fee lets say
£125 add our 25%
£172 add our 38%
£215 add our 25%

It took just over eighteen months for fees to more than double, our experience wouldn’t have been unusual.

We now live somewhere with subsidised nursery, we now around £89 a month for fulltimr childcare.

Well, when mine were at nursery 11 years ago a day cost about £35 - now the same nursery charges nearly £60 a day so yeah, I would be complaining too. Especially as I bet the staffs' wages haven't gone up by the same proportion

Please could everyone write to their MP about the ridiculous childcare so-called ‘funding’. I’m coming towards the end of nursery fees as my youngest will go to school in September but I’ve written to my MP to help the next lots of mothers trying to make work affordable and keep their careers.

particularly a lot of the university educated mothers coming through now who will also have massive student loan repayments to make as well as childcare - it’s not going to be worth working for them. I was lucky that I’m old enough to have experienced uni when it was much cheaper so I paid off my loan by the time I started paying for 2 at nursery.