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.

Enriching outdoor activities on the weekend aimed at slightly older children who live in large cities seems like a great use of funds imo.

I posted the website about the scheme above. There is not a lot of spending money going on. It is a trial to open up existing recreation centers, in existing parks, for one Sunday afternoon. For free, on a first come first serve basis. In New York.

The whole thing will likely cost less than a half hour flight time of a US F35 jet.

More worth while than providing more GPs? Reducing NHS waiting lists? More NHS dentists? More prison spaces?

Supporting parents that need to work at that time, sure. No problem. But kids where patents are around, they can also provide these enriching activities.

Your prejudices are showing.

It's a stupid gimmick. Just pay a babysitter or ask a friend d if you want to go out.

It's in New York City USA.

They do not have NHS dentists.

I'm not "against" it as such, but 500 families for the odd night in a city of 9 million people? It's a gimmick.

The question was whether we should have it in the UK. So my question stands.

The amount of tax paid on good and services purchased by the parents could easily be similar to the tax the parent would have paid working in a few hours and we accept that.

But the OP was saying we should have something like that here. So people are responding about why they either agree or disagree with that. I don’t think many people care what America is spending its money on.

Do brit parks have recreation centers and staff as parks in NY does?

I can think of a few that has facilities such as tennis courts. So a UK equivelent would be making that free for kids on a Sunday afternoon.

I can't see how mony spent on that could solve prison places or NHS dentistry.

I agree with this. It doesn't sound very cost effective compared to people sorting out their own babysitter or a family member to babysit.

Nah I wouldnt want to pay for someone else's social life. If you choose to have children you stay home and parent them yourselves

I wouldn’t want my kids to go to a childcare centre in the evening. Especially with people they don’t know. I’d want them in bed. They’ll just be tired and grumpy and ruin the evening out. Also if we go for dinner we’d want to have a drink (I know not everyone will) so we’d need to either not, or get cabs to pick them up.

how do they decide which 500 gets it?? I doubt it would be working parents who pay into the system!!

I think it’s just not thought through enough really. For the UK and my own family. Perhaps for others it’s ok.

NY has had to restructure the city’s pension fund to meet current spending, it will add to long term debt. This is a stupid idea, he’s basically just showering people with money they don’t need at the cost of long term financial stability. It’s populist and harmful. He’s an idiot.

And no we shouldn’t do this because we can’t afford it either.

Most British parks are free, you’re probably just paying for the car park and an ice cream. There’s several in my area that don’t charge for the tennis courts or outdoor paddling pool.

I agree with others that this wouldn’t really work in the UK. On weekends we take our own kids out, to parks, farms, whatever. Evenings with little ones you’d want them tucked up in bed early, especially as they start full time school here at age 4. School days, after school clubs and homework are exhausting, especially for a 6 year old. I don’t see how it’s practical.

I think 13 is too old! A 13 year old could be left for a couple of hours at home!

Also presume this would be in the week! Most people don’t get home from work till 6pm!

my kids wouldn’t use it cos they have sports 5 nights a week between them! As do a lot of kids this age range have clubs/sports etc.

it’s just another one of them things that someone puts out there as wow aren’t I doing something great when actually it wouldn’t be used

I imagine it’s a scheme aimed more at people into restaurants, than a scheme aimed at helping parents

As long as parents pay the babysitters I'm fine with this.

Not sure why the local government has to get involved though.

Nice idea but he’s able to do this for NYC which has a smaller population than London. This couldn’t be rolled out nationally.

Increased property taxes on vacant properties and properties worth over $5M and savings on city worker overtime and dodgy contracts. Supposed to bring in an extra $500M a year. He’s also set to wipe out NYC’s deficit in two years.

He won’t, he’s pushing the liabilities out further, it’s an accident waiting to happen. Smoke and mirrors. I’d be really pised off if I were a new yorker. His current plans means that they will have an additional 7 billion in interest costs. Absolute charlatan.

I am not sure how I feel about this guy. A lot of people seem to love him but he is proposing short term goals at the cost of long term cuts. I believe he is shifting debt further out but reporting on this is very scarce.

And there is the $37.85 trillion national debt the USA has. $3.25 trillion of that added by Trump in a year and a half. His first term added $7.8 trillion. So what's that, Trump owns about 30% of national debt ?

So yup, a single afternoon of organised play events for kids in the park are right off the table.

Alternatively, thay could try what the Mayor wants to do. Can't really be any worse than what Trump is doing.

I've been a single parent to a disabled child for 20 years. He's too old for this scheme but I literally cannot imagine what I'd do with an evening off. My last was in 2015.