Government doesn't want the mother to stay at home.

Spendless

kidtechnical wrote:

My 4 yr old currently attends nursery & his little brother starts next April, however, childminders continue to charge full price for the time the child is in nursery (if they care for them before & after as mines will) on the basis that they can't fill that 2.5 hr vacancy per day, so I don't really benefit from the free childcare, though kids definately benefit from the educational element of it.

Is it worth considering a private nursery instead so you would benefit from the free part? Would it work out any cheaper for you?

kidtechnical

Spendless wrote:

Is it worth considering a private nursery instead so you would benefit from the free part? Would it work out any cheaper for you?

The local private nurserys close (& college nursery) to early for my OH to get home & pick them up on the days I cant. I did speak to a local nursery & by the time I'd have paid for the time before & time after it worked out the same really. Thanks.

bylromarha

mummytofour wrote:

I dont think that mums are valued enough in this country.

Amen!

Any of you considered becoming full time childminders yourselves? look after your own, plus a couple of other peoples, and get a bit of extra money in the kitty. Takes up to 12 weeks to get registered. plus they give you grants toward set up costs.

Hang on, grants toward set up costs? Are the government encouraging more people to become childminders so that there are

a) more tax payers?
b) more people to look after the children of working parents?

Well, what d'ya know?!

I do worry what society will look like in 20 years time...I've chosen to stay at home as, like Prudent I taught young children, you see the obvious difference between kids with stay at home mums and those who don't...and it isn't just the sick kids at school that got me, but the ones who didn't have a parent read with them, play with them and all that stuff as the parent was too tired and the child only got collected from the childminder at 6.30pm and still needed their tea.

We're now in a weird situation as it looks like I'll be going back to work in September and hubby will look after sprog full time...I admire the fact that he's happy to do this as so many blokes see it as the womens role.

Destiny33

I really wish i could afford to stay at home full time and look after my son. Lets start a petition for mums (or dads) to get a wage please

I am a single parent and receive absolutely nothing from my ex (long story which i wont bore u with but i am very very lucky and grateful to have a wonderful mum who looks after ds when i work just part time to get a bit of money and not to have to leave him for too long.

Thank goodness for this site and the lovely people on it. I live for the postie and freebies so many thanks to all

D
xx

kidtechnical

bylromarha wrote:

Amen!

Any of you considered becoming full time childminders yourselves?

LOL I just finished complaining to the Care Commission who took 2 yrs to register me! I'm assured that it now take on average 3 months to get registered - not sure that I buy that! I got a staggering £250 toward the cost of starting up (when I initiated registering there was nothing available, despite there being zero minders in my area at the time), this barely covered my costs & I barely had anything to buy (£130 alone to get smoke alarms fitted to the mains). By the time I was registered I was at the point where I would have planned to wind things up to spend time one to one with my own kids before starting college, so never actually got to childmind, unfortunate as I really wanted the experience of running my own business (not to mention the income).

Your comments are spot on, more childminders so there are more people in the loop, mum goes to work, childminder gets paid, 2 people pay tax, the average mums left miserable with barely any cash to show at the end of it... looking to my friends it's a paperwork exercise, they need to have a salary to throw into the pot if they are to have any hope in hell of geting a mortgage to cover the cost of a decent house for them & kids.

Again, best of luck to the OP - please update us when you get a reply from your MP.

Sarahsaver

I think the govermnent hasnt thought through the implications of having 'everyone in employment' I have 3 kids, single parent, and the only way we have enough to live on is by me working 9 to 5 every day. My time and energy would be better spent with my kids, although my work is interesting and all that, and I make sure 99% of our meals are home cooked, I often feel I'm too knackered to be the mum I want to be.

postmanpat_3

another stay at home mom here who used to be a primary school teacher. I agree with everything said also so WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT ? IT ANY IDEAS?

kit

We need to set up a petition saying that stay at home mums should be supported rather than pushed in to leaving their children in order to be able to pay the bills. I think also that mums should be encourgaged (and given help with costs of child care) if they wish to retrain.

If we do this, we can then arrange to take the petition to 10 Downing Street and hand it in... it is then read and voted on etc etc. (I only know this because my partner cycled from Somerset to London last year to raise awareness and hand in a petition about more support for eating disorders).

Do you think we should do this? Not sure how to work it, I could always set up a web site that people could go to to sign the petition?

jellyhead

good point about the single parents only getting one tax allowance, i never thought of that. i'm a SAHM mum with a husband working full time and i've often thought it unfair that working couples get both tax allowances, we had a bit of a whinge about it recently but i can't remember the thread.

i don't know what the solution would be. i'd love for my husband to be able to claim my tax allowance. this wouldn't be of benefit to single parents though, maybe the best thing would be to take into account the tax allowances people have had, realise that couples who both work are better off, penalise them a bit and make us all better off with the extra money

not sure about the council tax, as it's not income based so the SAHM mums not getting a rebate doesn't seem unfair as such, whereas the tax credits system is totally unfair in ignoring the two tax allowances of working couples. AND adding the benefits in kind on again, we already pay tax on them, why add them on again and make those on the borderline slip over the threshold for the family element only? i get very cross about that lol!

renegade_si

One thing that REALLY bothers me regarding people (like my wife and others here) who have chosen to become registered childminders is that :

1) Own children are included in the limit of children you are allowed to childmind (completely understand that point, makes sense)
2) the salary sacrifice scheme set up by the government is such that you can only get the sacrifice from registered childminders who are not the parents of the child.

This means that although there is a limit set on the childminding, you yourself are therefore incentivised to get someone ELSE to childmind for your child.

Example - going rate for childminding £4/hr. With my wife looking after our child, she can have up to 3 other kids, in total, getting £12/hr.

If she got someone else to look after our child, she could get an extra £4/hr.
The cost of the other childminder is £4/hr (same rate) LESS the 40% tax I pay on the salary sacrifice - ie £4 - £1.60 = £2.40/hr. Over a standard 40 hour week my mife works, this is £1.60 x 40 = £60/week or £3072 year (assuming 48 week year).

Madness.