Sunday 21 September 2008

Free child care?

In his latest attempt to get himself out of the mire, Gordon Brown today has pledged in an interview with the Telegraph to give every child 2-years old and above free child care. Costing, obviously, in the range of £1 billion and promising to take so long to implement that poor Emily will be a granny by the time she can benefit from it.

Of course, nursery and child care are the top of my stress list as I continue to grapple with the nuances of forking over thousands of pounds so someone else can bring up my child.

Do we get someone in? Do we drop Em off at a nursery centre? If so is it one round here or one near work? What time do they close? How will we pick Em up if it closes before we can get back?

Do we pack up altogether and move somewhere else? Canada? Australia?

It'e enough to do your head in. Thankfully we're 6 months away from having to worry, but time goes by quite quickly these days.

Universal day care or nursery has been a political hot potato for years and not just in this country, as this backgrounder from the CBC will attest.

Whether we get it for Em and thus have £1200 extra a month to pump back into the economy in other ways is yet to be seen.
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