to be so peeved that we spend approx £1400 a month on childcare

[couture1]

I know I have to pay for the service but it leaves me with little left over each month and we need to salaries to get by. I dont want to give up work as 1 cant afford to and 2 Im hoping that when 3dc are at school in 3 years time we will be better off each month - but how do we manage until then?

Rant rant rant

"people forget not having children is a perfectly viable option.

you don't HAVE to have children

it really seems that SOME people either didn't really wantchildren or where not really ready when they did have them..."

are you suggesting women who work or women who dislike the high cost of childcare didn't really want children or shouldn't have had them. Presumably the same applies to men then?

Does your husband/DP work? How very dare he.

ahem!maybe i likey poncy & organic nursery

It's a bit late to tell me I'm not ready for children!

What on earth will I do with them now?

OMG french lessons at nursery!
LOL

Fleabie your views really lack any logic.

Biddulph? Not Biddulph again?
Biddulphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

doesn't matter who looks after them, but if neither are williing to put the baby first for a while well....

french lessons!

Oh Fleabie, you crack me up!!! So once people have children, they should stop having lives, careers and ambitions and just be happy to be a mummy or they don't deserve/aren't ready for children?

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH HA HA HA HA!

So does your DP SAH too? Or is he undeserving of children or not ready? In that case are you both at home living on benefits?

Or does your entertaining logic apply only to women?

Are you so convinced that no-one else could possibly have anything positive to contribute to the raising of your child?

How arrogant.

On the question of where the money is going to come from to subsidise childcare costs, I'd be happy simply for all childcare costs to be tax deductible, rather than just the trifling and cumbersome £243 childcare voucher.

Structured as decent tax relief, it would make enough of a difference to get women back into work who could otherwise end up working at a loss. Nation benefits from the tax over and above the relief it would not get if that woman was priced out of the workplace by childcare costs.

i want Fleabie to assert her credible evidence base or else i will assume another discursive rant.

knee jerk bark at the moon rant.
so oft found on mn

Clara - can you not send them to work, to help pay for their own childcare? Have tried to get DS work as a chimney sweep, sadly everyone round here has central heating so little demand for his services.....

Fleabie the SAHM is a fairly modern post-war construct, for women of my social class at any rate. Mothers have always worked, in fields, in cottage industry, in factories, using whatever childcare was available (grandmothers, sibling care, group care). And the world has somehow kept turning.

biddulph ... hahahahaha. Why aren't I surprised.

personally i'm amazed at people that begrudge the money, they pay for childcare.
imo it is not expensive and yes i do think they should improve nurseries seriously.

must get sleep now
someone has to go and keep the streets safe for all you SAHMS and your children

Look it's late, I am tired.

Can we not just agree that I am right, Fleabie?

I have not read this whole thread as it's late and I should be in bed, but could not resist posting, because this is an issue I feel quite strongly about.

I think having affordable, good quality childcare is incredibly important. It should be possible for a woman to have two children and still be able to work. There are many ways this could be achieved - for example, having more nurseries which are not for profit. I know there are already council run nurseries, but they are usually not that great, and also have incredibly long waiting lists. Childcare costs could also be made tax deductable.

Oi blueshoes, haven't seen you for ages... we always meet on these threads

And the best thing is that I never actually worked full time in years

I sent my dc to nursery to do translations that paid 1/30 of the fees. I'm evil, selfish, a disgrace.

Incidentally, DH grew up in the old Kibbutz system in Israel. Once he was 3mo his mum went back to work, he moved into the baby house and lived there until he got his own 'flat' at 16. He and his brother spent 3 or 4 hours an afternoon at home and then went back to the dorms to sleep. The parents and teachers/carers had a roster for staying over and looking after the whole class of kids.

Not only is he one of the most well-adjusted, kind, thoughtful and wonderful people I've ever met, but he still loves his mother dearly (not his dad so much, but that's another story) and in addition, has 20-odd classmates who are like brothers and sisters to him.

No one system is right or wrong, and for the most part, we all come out OK in the end.

anyway goodluck to anyone mother or father that lets their baby spend most of it's waking hours, in one room in a nursery with people they don't know...

massive gamble imo, but we all have to make our own choices in life...

personally think the babies are better off being with someone, that loves them for the early years.
that's what they need imo.

I agree you're right, Clara!

But then, I should never have had children since I work full-time so I wouldn't listen to silly ole me.

Agree with Martha - didn't most working-class women work in t'olden days? And upper-class birds had nannies? So why are some people so down on working parents now?

biddulph that drum bashing quasi-scientific ole fart

much loved by the i read a book and it said they beat dem children dontcha know

YANBU

can't believe that this has turned into a 'you shouldn't go out to work' thread or a 'you shouldn't begrudge your childs carer their money' one

the same people would no doubt prefer a female nurse to do their smear (or other things) just as they might think there are opportunities for benefits reform. I'm sure some even think they should get a transferrable tax allowance for staying at home (to offset against investment income no doubt)

sorry I'm having a bad day

When I mentioned this thread this evening DH did, however, say that they girls are only going into full-time childcare until they're old enough to work in the mines.