Help with choosing childcare in Canberra

I-filed, I think the problem is actually the opposite. I dont know of very many centres where staff would get to focus unrelenting attention on the toddlers. The ratio of staff to toddlers in the act is 1 staff member to 5 toddlers and in nsw one to eight toddlers. In the average family home you would have 1 on 1 or maybe 2. Staff as well as families, have other duties to attend to, like cleaning, programming, serving and sometimes cooking meals ect. As well as the care of all the other children. So I would have thought that children would get way more attention in their homes. Well, I would hope so anyway.

As others have said you do need to put your name down early and at lots of places. I’ve had centres admit to me they give places to people who ring them the most, not who had their name on the list first. I love the facy the pamphlet says people putting their names down at lots of places causes problems. No the lack of places causes problems, if you only put your name down at one place, you’d never get one! You don’t get to pick a centre in Canberra, you put your name down and take whatever comes you way

I’m not anti-childcare by any means, but there are some sad childcare centres attached to office blocks. One right near my workplace has not one single leaf or blade of grass – not even one token shrub. It’s a totally artificial environment. I also think there’s something skewed about a huge cohort of toddlers in the care of very young carers with constant unrelenting attention on them. In a more natural situation, the surrounding adults would largely get on with their business and the kids wouldn’t be the subject of unending attention. The carers appear to be dedicated and professional, and nice people – but the kids look pale and aimless, and not particularly happy. I never seem to hear any laughter or shouting from them.

I’m not positing a solution here – just observing that there may be a problem.

It should also be mandated that all new office blocks have space included for a child care centre.

That would get a few cars off the road, and make lives easier.

Wow! A pamphlet! This piece of paper will sure be a great help.
Perhaps establishing relationships between employers and child care centres would be a good start. The two should work hand in hand. They do not at the moment.

All the comments are right, you really need to have your name down before you are pregnant to be honest and ring them every month. To be honest I am skeptical of the whole waiting list arrangement. I actually think it comes down to ringing up on the right day. We had our name down at several centres from 12 weeks pregnant. We were never rang up and offered a spot.

Thankfully we got into our preffered centre. For most I think it comes down to where has space rather than where they really would prefer.

I have to agree with Johnboy’s comment “Childcare is one of those things that goes from “no interest at all” to “consuming passion” in the space of nine months.”

More needs to be done here.

And don’t forget to ring the place every month if you do put your name down, as they sometimes just drop you off….

Maybe the goverment should be spending more more on more places then shiny brochures.

what dtc said. and see if your work place has any affiliation with a centre, was how we got our lad into one just prior to his first b’day, having been on numerous waiting lists for about nine months…

good luck, threepaws.

Quite a timely post, I’ve just started looking into it. Does anybody have any suggestions for care when one parent is a shift worker? I’m looking in the Tuggeranong area, needing a few different days each week (starting in about a year- I hope I’ve given myself enough time!)

They forgot the by far most important requirement: put your name down at every single child care centre 6months before your baby is born and then grab what you can as soon as it is offered, which will be about 18 months later.

This is not unique to Canberra, of course.