Nursery costs soaring

[tonton]

Just read this article on the Beeb website about how much nursery costs are going up. My childcare costs are quite under control at the moment as dd is at a great (state) school and looked after by an au pair afterwards (very affordable). But with another on the way, I'll soon be having to pay the £900-1000ish a month I for our local (wonderful) day nursery.
soaring nursery costs

I'm afraid I'm with you FairyMum. The economy needs us!
I'd like to see more legislation on flexible working and maternity/paternity leave. The childcare vouchers are a great idea but need to be more widespread.
I appreciate that my childcare costs are going to be high becuase carers need to (and should) earn a decent wage. I have had high quality care for the fairly large amount of money I've paid.

Oh, Farymum and tonton, you are brave indeed! So, I might as well join the ranks and add that I too am in your camp. It's never popular when I say this on mumsnet but I firmly believe that staying home with your children is a priviledge and not a right.

Oh, I better run and get my shield now....

Not so sure I'd describe staying at home as a privilege, more of a lifestyle choice, since for many of us there are sacrifices to be made. We decided that I would stay at home with our children mainly because our careers demanded both of us being overseas 3-4 nights a week, with no requests by employees regarding choosing family friendly hours being met. Yes, we make sacrifices (budgetting has become a way of life for us and is actually quite good fun) but I don't see any other way for us.

This legislation that says 'workers have the right to ask their employer for flexible working hours' is a joke. We always have had the right to ask questions, it's called freedom of speech. My employer flatly denied my request for part-time work, and other requests for family friendly working hours, leading to my decision not to return to the workplace. To be honest, much as I enjoy being at home, I have found the years since dd1 was born to be some of the loneliest and am considering returning to the workplace some time in the future, if only for some adult company. However, given the cost of childcare I may well end up working for very little.

But, pacinofan, it is a priviledge because you are in a position to do that. Not everyone is. I didn't mean that it is easy, just that some don't actually have the choice.

uwila - everyone has the choice to stay at home if they want

You could also say that being able to go to work is a privilege. I earn about £7 per hour and have three children so not much choice there then! Remember not all of us are high earners and if childcare workers are to be paid a reasonable rate for the valuable work they do then not every parent is going to be able to afford to work.

'Pay peanuts, get monkeys'???????????????????????

It is comments like this that make us qualified, hard working, genuinely caring, dedicated, highly experienced yet extremely poorly payed nursery nurses feel really appreciated and valued by 'society'.

Thank you

I am now just about recovered from an illness that forced me to give up doing a job I loved, looking after other peoples children. The decision to leave my job broke my heart as I was no longer able to do the job I was born to do, providing care that was of a very high quality. I went in to that career as a 16 year old college student, knowing how poorly paid it was and I realised even then that is not a job you do for the money. I am fully aware there are some nurseries that employ staff of questionable suitability and this saddens me as it is these nurseries that are often taken as a bench mark for the general standard of nursery care.

Fortunately there are people who are prepared to accept low wages in order to do the job they love, it would be nice if 'society' appreciated this more.

Society needs more carers like you, lybbi As a parent of a child in nursery, I am eternally grateful for the hardwork and dedication of the staff who do it almost as a calling.