More childcare centres in Canberra please!

Mother of one year old, it sounds a bit as though you may have been sold a pup.

Your baby is a baby & does not need social interaction others than with you and the close people around you – family & friends.

This baby is flat chat learning how its new physical world operates, how the people in its life work, what things are solid & what things are soft, that there are tops and bottoms and sides to things, how to balance, what are words and facial expressions, how to interpret them, how do I feel safe in this place, how do I get my needs met, how do I make my muscles do what I need them to, etc, etc, etc.

If you need some time off, that is absolutely legitimate.

You have taken on the most difficult and long term job you will ever do. There are few rules that come with the infant, no courses and no instruction manual. It is also the most important job you will ever take on.

But it is not about your little person needing to be “socialised”.

Developmentally, this little person is not at a point where the needs or wants of other children, is of any relevance. Maybe if you get hold of a book on human development (the first five years) you may find it useful. You could look at this from a western psychological (social, emotional, physical, cognitive) view, or see what Rudolph Steiner had to say, or some other person interested and knowledgable about human development. The pressure created by those around you to see children through their eyes is not always helpful and knowledge is still power.

Enjoy him/her. Give yourself some time off. Maybe you & your little one would enjoy a Playgroup.
Good wishes in your endeavours. Just be gentle with yourself.

IrishPete said :

gentoopenguin said :

I’ve been on lists since I was 5 months pregnant – we are looking to start our little one when he hits 14 months (January 2015). Some places at the time refused to put me on their wait list cause they were already full up. I now have a list of centres that I call monthly to say that I’m still interested so nobody bumps me off. We still won’t have any clue though if we get a spot until November. We have no Plan B because, well, there is no Plan B. I have to go back to work.

Rather than getting every parent to put their names on lists and then ring the centres regularly (a practice they encourage), couldn’t there be an easier way to do this? How about a centralised childcare wait list, where you say what area you’re looking for childcare and when? Centres could then just pick names off the list as positions become available.

This would also make lists more transparent and stop dodgy practices like taking “deposits” of $50-100 from desperate parents to go on wait lists they never have a chance of getting to the top of.

Surely Plan B is for you or the father/partner to stay off work and look after the child?

IP

Well yes, if you wish to pay our bills. A one-income family is a bit of a luxury in this day and age.

Thanks all for the advice on having more than one day. One of the centres I visited yesterday did mention the adjustment issues. I will have a chat with the centres again and ask if this will make a difference. I am looking for the care at a centre until Miss starts preschool and then I will just do preschool and the in home care after that.

I have looked close to home, on the major route and near my workplace. Hopefully persistence will eventually pay off. I quite honestly do not know how people who need to work with little bubbies say 2 or 3 months old find care. It would be heartbreaking to have to do that, but I know sometimes people need to.

I agree that is primarily staffing issues. They simply are not paid enough.

I have no issues with the costs. I mean it is so expensive and childcare easily eats up a very large percentage of my wage. I really work to put food on the table and childcare so I can do that. My husband’s wage goes to utility bills and the mortgage. And we are a second family and the first kids were moved away, so my husband pays a lot in C$ (child support), so that is a factor too. And to totally clarify, I knew that if I wanted to have children in my life, that I would need to work to support them. I knew from the very beginning that my husband already provides for a mother to stay at home with his children. I am just not that particular Mum. It is a bit besides the point, but just illustrates the various circumstances that people live with and it is not always possible to be a single income family.

I hated childcare days ….

Now to try and be helpful: look for new centres that are being built or due to open in a few months, much easier to get a place than existing centres. Also, I have no idea where you are looking, but you could try broadening your search area, try for places that are near home, near work, on the way to work etc.

Lastly – prior comments are correct, families looking for more than 1 day a week will get in before you – they will be paying more so financially it is better for the centre to accept their 3-5 day applications than turn them down in favour of your one day application. Good luck!!

Wow! I’m pleased that you got that off your chest gungsuperstar. If you are having these issues at work then you need to point out the unfairness of it all to your employer rather than have a rant on thread that it not really about your topic – you should have started a new one. Not at all constructive to the conversation.

There are many reasons that people utilise a child care centre. One of which is, what the OP is doing and what I did (albeit from an older age), to give the children a little bit of independence and to learn to take direction from people that are not in their circle of family and friends. A bit like a trial run for when they go to school. So whilst some of us are able to take a “few years off” to raise the children we still use these centres to help ‘prepare’ children for what they will experience once they go to school.

Seeing that it is appropriate for people to comment on “HERE’S WHY I DON’T USE ACTION BUSES BECAUSE IT SUCKS” every time there is a thread about the local bus service:

e.g.:

wildturkeycanoe said :

Canberroid said :

wildturkeycanoe, given your commentary in this thread I’m curious to know how often you actually catch the bus. I’m guessing not very.

You guessed right. Every time I’ve contemplated, or actually caught the bus, I’ve found the routes make my trip a 2 or 3 bus and/or a 2 or 3 hour tour of Canberra.

I just need to let everyone know, that I don’t use childcare centres. NO KIDS OF THAT AGE YOU SEE.

Oh, I passed by one, and it was noisy.

thebrownstreak69 said :

I caught a bus once, it was late, dirty and had people on it who stank.

Because every thread is about me letting you know about me OK?

bundah said :

Once again job well done Federal and State gummints!

IrishPete said :

joingler said :

The pay issue is real, but child care is so heavily subsidised and expensive already that increasing pay is going to have to be paid for by someone. Maybe we need to go back to the original idea, which was that a parent (dads, you too) looks after the child, and we subsidise the time off work until preschool age instead of the child care. Then at preschool age that parent can gradually return to work. Socialising can happen in playgroups.

Of course this idea doesn’t work so well if people who have never heard of overpopulation insist on having multiple children in a row, as they will end up out of the workforce for many years.

IP

bundah, I don’t know why you think is the failing of State and Federal Governments. Surely with the amount of money that the child care sector receives, as alluded to my IrishPete, and they assistance that parents receive, Governments are doing what they can for parents and then some.

I recognise the productivity benefits of getting parents back to work. I also recognise that child care is very expensive with ratios of, I think, about one carer to 4-5 children.

But the answer is not increased funding. Despite the money they already get, child care is a private enterprise, it is not a public service. Having children is a personal choice, deciding to work is a personal choice, using childcare instead of nannies/au pares (who I don’t believe are subsidised in the same way as child care) is a personal choice.

Despite recognising the benefits of returning to work, I have a hard time reconciling my hypocrisy in believing that child care is not a government responsibility. I’m constantly telling idiots that we don’t pay tax for things that benefit ourselves, we pay tax for things that benefit our country. But at some point it becomes too much, and when parents are already getting generous child care rebates but some parents want more funding for the sector… well, it’s starting to get too much.

I don’t have to make a choice about child care, because I made a choice not to have children. Because of this, I’m punished at work because my leave is not as flexible as parents, and because I spend winter doing their work because kids get sick in winter. I’m punished by government because I’m paying for, but am not eligible for middle-class welfare that people are eligible for because of personal choice. Damn, I even get punished every second time I fly somewhere and I have to move seats because mum wasn’t diligent enough to check in early enough to get a seat next to her kid.

Which is all fine – none of this is a big deal. It’s unfair, but I can live with it.

I do have a problem though that on top of the schools, public transport for school kids, and child care related welfare, there are suggestions that government has somehow failed in this area, or that funding to the sector should be further increased to allow yet more options, and more expensive options for those who made a personal choice to have children.

(Just to be clear, this isn’t a response to the OP, I know your whinge wasn’t about costs – my response is directed at a couple of the subsequent responders)
If you can’t take a few years off before they become school age; if you can’t afford to have children without generous welfare and child care subsidies – well I’d argue that you can’t afford children.

The child care centre located in my work building doesn’t cater for parents looking for only 1 day a week.

The minimum is 2 days.

That being said only 10 positions are available to the general public the rest are allocated for those who work in the building. I believe at the moment there is about 27 staff on the waiting list for the under 12 months room and about the same again for the 12-24 months room. There is only 8 spots in each room. It’s a running joke that as soon as you find out you’re expecting you will need to put your name down.

Perhaps the Government should look at putting centres in ALL Government agency buildings.

A few years back when I was looking for care for the children one of the local child care centres offered occassional care. This meant that you could call a week before the day you wanted and could book the child in for that day (or even for a minimum of 2 hours on that day) in the following week. I utilised this service on and off for about 12 months. Then when I needed ‘proper’ care, they knew me, they knew the children and we were quickly slotted in.

When we were ready to use the service ‘properly’ I also only wanted 1 day a week but I was flexible with which day. Can you be flexible?

Another thing to consider is this: The staff told me that 1 day a week is hard on the children. They even recommended that the minimum time they would suggest is 2 days a week. This allows the children to get into the routine better and relate to the other children better. As my daughter got closer and closer to school age she was struggling with a day a week for the reasons listed above. It had even got to the stage where the 5 day a week regulars had started to form their ‘cliques’ and she was excluded. We ended up withdrawing her from the October before she was due to start pre-school in the following February as we could share her care for that day around between me, my husband and my parents.

There’s a new centre opening up in Gungahlin that’s taking enrolments and another in Macgregor. Good luck!