Childcare and pedantry

In the Guardian last weekend an ‘interfering’ sister had written in to complain that her sister was saving money by leaving her kids with their grandparents and therefore avoiding childcare costs. The sister was unsure what to do as she felt her parents were being taken advantage of. The winning response stated that childcare costs could be reclaimed through tax credits and that 80% of childcare costs can be reclaimed in this way. This is a common misconception and its NOT TRUE. At least not for most of us. The reality is that you can reclaim 80% of childcare costs if you earn less than £13,000. Most of us receive no help at all.

 

And childcare is expensive- its like a second mortgage. My nursery fees were about £600 per month. This was considered cheap- especially by my London friends. When I had my son I resolved never to moan about childcare costs and I’ve tried to stick to that but it annoys me that there is a perception that the government is helping with costs.

 

The expense of childcare makes it difficult for people in lower paid (but not poverty level) jobs to make sensible decisions regarding work and chidcare; with woman often having to compromise their careers or standards.

 

I would also like to point out that I arrange my life in such away that I can afford childcare and do not think the government should help me. However I do think that misconceptions about childcare help to hide the real situation for many families.

 

And whilst I’m in a pedantic mood the following website is a test of your vocabulary. For every question you get right they donate rice to starving people.

 

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

 

However they define pedantic* as ‘bookish’, which is incorrect. As a pedant I feel the need to point this out. Although even dictionaries sometimes fail to meet my pedantic standards; I once got very annoyed with the pocket OED as a word in the preface wasn’t then defined in the dictionary.

 

 

* Pedantic: person who is excessively concerned with minor detail or with displaying technical knowledge.