Mayor Mamdani’s “Parent’s Night Out Scheme”

[orangejuiceinthekitchen]

AIBU to say we need something like this in the UK?

The premise is pretty simple - 500 families get 4 funded hours of evening childcare. Childcare centres will be paid by the city to look after kids aged 6-13 for four hours, the kids will be fed dinner and entertained.

The parents get four hours to do whatever they want - it’s obviously hoped they’ll go out to dinner and spend money in the local community.

If it’s a success, they’ll expand it to other age groups and more children.

AIBU to think this is exactly the type of thing that we need in this country?! It would do so much to stimulate the economy and also just be a boost to people.

Really curious as to why a site full of parents thinks this is a bad idea!

I think there are other priorities for tax payers' money tbh.

Where is the money coming from?

If it happens in "childcare centres" then you'll have to pick them up and take them home and put them to bed... after your "evening out". Aargh! No thanks, I'd literally rather have a glass of wine on the sofa after I've put them to bed at an ordinary time

I actually quite like the idea

A vast majority of posters won’t have young dc so not really the target audience

I mean I do love the idea of anything that helps parents out, because imo the uk is quite parent-unfriendly and our birth rate is consequently dropping rapidly.

But I just wouldn't use this

Parents in the UK can easily book an annual leave day and go out for lunch while their children are in school if they have no childcare.

Who is paying for it
Who gets the childcare ?

Most parents wouldn’t want to use annual leave for this when they have to cover school holidays.

What’s the objective of it?

I do think it’s difficult for parents to get ‘free time’, although I’d query the states role in funding that…

Mamdani’s statement on this initiative talks about exposing the kids to the programs available in their parks - so perhaps that’s the incentive, get kids who otherwise not get to try those activities into sessions?

I wouldn’t mind some free babysitting though - £15 an hour round here, definitely stops us going out!

I think evening childcare centres sound like a great idea.

I don’t think it’s a good use of taxpayers’ money to subsidise, though. I’m sure there are parents who would pay for this rather than try to find a babysitter.

I believe this is one of his strategies to make NY more parent friendly.

It’s interesting that London is the only major city in the UK getting older.

😂 Given the number of New Yorkers who voted for him, they clearly disagree with you.

I think the government pays for too much already.

You'd never get away with only offering it to 500 families, here, even if is just as a trial. I can just imagine it. If the 500 were on UC, it'd be the usual comments we've already seen about cheap days at theme parks. If it's anyone with a well-paid job, it'll be, 'why are we funding people who can afford childcare'. There'll be comments about what people do with the four hours, people will suddenly think they've a right to know that those hours won't be spent getting pissed in the boozer, etc.

Then you'll get all the people without kids moaning that they can't afford to go out even without childcare costs, and will they get money, etc.

We don't do well in this country with the concept of giving things to people out of public money.

If they don’t want to that’s their choice, there are plenty of holiday clubs children can be signed up to.

The UK has a lot more statutory leave than the US so comparing a scheme like this between the two countries is pointless.

This sounds lovely....but the taxpayer is paying for it and some of us would just prefer lower taxes and to keep our own money.

Yeah i live in London and so so many of my friends either want kids but haven't found a partner in time, or started having kids quite late in life and therefore stopped at one child (but ideally wanted more). I think it's a bit of a tragedy that needs addressing, but stuff like this is more gimmicky than genuinely helpful.

(For a start, evening babysitting ideally needs to include putting the kids to bed at home.)

Much much more helpful, in the uk, would be removing the cliff edge threshold for losing the childcare subsidy. They are actively deterring middle-high earners from having multiple children, in a time when we have a falling birth rate problem.

In London, it is not untypical to have a couple where one earns just over 100k and the other earns maybe 30k, pre tax. Full time nursery fees are almost 20k a year. It's almost unaffordable to have more than two if you're just over the cliff edge. A few evenings of free babysitting isn't going to help

You’re not wrong. The taxpayer funds too much already.
I wouldn’t be supportive of this at all.

I would love this actually, one of my children needs an epipen, I just don't trust teenage babysitters enough to handle that and properly trained babysitters are cost prohibitive.

I think my husband and I would just sleep tbh. Though tomorrow we have a rare child free day so we will go and see the Oddysey.

Couldn’t agree more…

It’s a great idea, I’m not a parent but would be happy for my tax to go to this.

it would surely only be suitable for a specific age band as young ones would want to be in bed and older ones can stay by themselves for a few hours.