Pre-school enrolment shenanigans

Ugh, preschool enrollment. I’m not looking forward to that!

I know many parents who have had issues with the 2 days one week and 3 the next system they have. It makes care on that third day tricky. If you want to put them in child care on the weeks they aren’t at preschool, you still have to pay for the place the weeks they aren’t at the centre.

The preschool enrollments need to be in months before you can sort out childcare places so lots of people get caught out

birder said :

Oops, just wanted to add that while poor child care can be very bad for a child, excellent child care can be great for them. My daughter started child care at 17 months, and she loved it. She’s always been a huge extravert, though. When she hit around 4, she was completely over day care – it was very boring to her and she started getting into a lot of trouble. That’s when we moved to Canberra and thankfully, we were able to enrol her in Montessori. Wow – what an amazing place! She’s not quite 5 and reading well, doing maths, cleans her own room up (Montessori teaches children how to be tidy), and most of all, she loves school and joyfully races into her classroom every morning. Montessori does have after-school care which is really just child care, but it’s generally pretty good.

We had to farewell a very well loved teacher from day-care just the other day, and having read some of the comments on here about strangers bringing up children and parents trying harder to stay at home, I thought that they couldn’t be further from the truth – well my truth anyway. My family including Master Cholet were genuinely sorry to see her go – someone who has brought so much to and done so much for our son. She cares about each and everyone of the children in the class and worked hard every day to ensure that each and every one of those children had a great day. The centre where my son goes is so good that none of them really want to come home – which is really annoying on a Friday afternoon when that’s all you want to do!

He’s made lots of friends there and has social skills and knowledge that I could only have dreamed of at his age! I think we will all find out in the future that children who experienced (a high standard of) child care are very well prepared to take on the world.

Oops, just wanted to add that while poor child care can be very bad for a child, excellent child care can be great for them. My daughter started child care at 17 months, and she loved it. She’s always been a huge extravert, though. When she hit around 4, she was completely over day care – it was very boring to her and she started getting into a lot of trouble. That’s when we moved to Canberra and thankfully, we were able to enrol her in Montessori. Wow – what an amazing place! She’s not quite 5 and reading well, doing maths, cleans her own room up (Montessori teaches children how to be tidy), and most of all, she loves school and joyfully races into her classroom every morning. Montessori does have after-school care which is really just child care, but it’s generally pretty good.

I agree, the situation is absurd. I don’t know how parents do it. And just a note: if you are calculating the cost of childcare versus staying home, remember to factor in the impact on total wages (and superannuation) for taking a 5-7 year break from work. It’s not just actual lost wages (and superannuation) – it’s also difficult to get back into paid work once you’ve taken such a big break, and you certainly won’t go back to the level that you were. I think staying at home is a great choice for some people, but financially speaking, it’s actually much harder on people than you might realize in the long term. This is especially true given that it’s almost always the woman who stays home — who then lives longer than her partner (and thus really did need that superannuation more) and/or is also the vulnerable party if the couple divorces. Single mom, two kids, last full-time work experience 7 years ago? Ugly.

wildturkeycanoe said :

. If the second job doesn’t take home more than $600/week, why even bother, it just doesn’t add up.

Lol good attempt.

Since when did school turn into strangers raising our kids??

And seriously – I work for next to nothing beyond the childcare, but I will be highly employable/promotable (and in fact employed) once the childcare expenses are gone. But ‘making’ 150 a week by sitting home signing up for a handout just does not appeal. You do know you’re not ‘making’ that money don’t you?

Typical. A parent asks for advice on preschool enrollment and after school care and here come the know-it-alls telling them they are doing it all wrong and should become stay at home parents. As if they would’ve never considered that without some total stranger on a forum telling them what to do.

Mind. Your own. Business.

Ah its a logistical nightmare which is a right of passage for all parents. This year we have #1 in year 1 and #2 at preschool at the same school. #1 is eligible for after school care but not the preschooler (their day also ends at 3pm not 3:15 like the rest of the school). This year our solution has been to hire a babysitter to walk both kids home. Its $90 for 2 days (#2 attends “preschool” at an ELC childcare for the 3rd day I work so gets extra hours then). The cost has been worth it for this one year – partly because our childcare costs are down from not having #2 do 3 days of paid childcare. Ok so we don’t get any money back but so be it. This way kids are not so exhausted at being at school for really long hours for 3 days (which they will be doing next year when #2 starts school) they get some chilling out time at home which is kind of invaluable.
It was easy enough to get a babysitter out of an ad I put in gumtree.

wildturkeycanoe said :

DoityBoid said :

XO_VSOP said :

Welome to a society where strangers will raise our kids!

If you’re able to be able to have a >$300K mortgage, kids, and a stay at home parent, please tell me how.
The days of the single working parent family are over, and these days, both parents usually have full time jobs.

3 kids, $350k+ mortgage, 1 income. It’s difficult but not impossible. Why the mortgage is only $50/week more than rent for similar house in our area. If you can afford to have a second parent at work, still pay $450/week for childcare, the second income must be pretty good to make it worthwhile. Otherwise you might as well stay at home and make $150/week in family payment. If the second job doesn’t take home more than $600/week, why even bother, it just doesn’t add up.

Pre school is a free service provided by the government, so far from being neglectful of our children, it’s actually a recognized educational standard. If we gave up one job we’d lose at least 2k net a fortnight, so your incentive of $150 a week doesn’t do that much for me. It’s about how much you earn and what your legitimate outgoings are and frankly, I would think that those on lower salaries would find it easier to maintain the equilibrium. And to boot, I don’t think that we would qualify for the $150. So we have to plump instead for the expense of child are and the government rebate. Horses for courses.

wildturkeycanoe said :

DoityBoid said :

XO_VSOP said :

Welome to a society where strangers will raise our kids!

If you’re able to be able to have a >$300K mortgage, kids, and a stay at home parent, please tell me how.
The days of the single working parent family are over, and these days, both parents usually have full time jobs.

3 kids, $350k+ mortgage, 1 income. It’s difficult but not impossible. Why the mortgage is only $50/week more than rent for similar house in our area. If you can afford to have a second parent at work, still pay $450/week for childcare, the second income must be pretty good to make it worthwhile. Otherwise you might as well stay at home and make $150/week in family payment. If the second job doesn’t take home more than $600/week, why even bother, it just doesn’t add up.

+ 1 for common sense.