SuperScrimpers - Weds 8pm Ch4

[Joda]

Apparently they are showing how to save on childcare costs - could be interesting??

[sunflower]

Interesting! will try and remember to watch...thanks :)

[sarah707]

Yeah - great - farm your child out to relatives so they don't know whether they are coming and going and batter down your childminder's fees until their business is no longer sustainable :(

Getting fed up of all this cost cutting. We have a family to provide for too!

xx

[Mrs Scrubbit]

Thanks will def. watch it x

[watgem]

Thats fine if you've got family who can help, my dad is 70 and still has to work, so he couldn't help me, and all my inlaws and siblings work themselves so for many of us there is no help from family, and not being funny, grandparents have done their child rearing they may not want to!

[caz3007]

Thats fine if you've got family who can help, my dad is 70 and still has to work, so he couldn't help me, and all my inlaws and siblings work themselves so for many of us there is no help from family, and not being funny, grandparents have done their child rearing they may not want to!

At our toddler group there are several grandma's looking after children and some of them say that they are only doing it to help out their children. Some of these ladies are worn out from looking after a toddler

My mum lives 80 miles away, but my sister only lives up the road from her and has always said she has done her child rearing and whilst she would babysit occasionally there is no way she would commit to something regular.

Its very unfair for anyone to expect their parents or relatives to step in

[Stapleton83]

I don't know about everyone else but I am thoroughly fed up of the media making out that we are money grabbing people. At the end of the day we do an incredibly important and full on job by providing the support and development of the next generation of children. I was talking to my mum, who lives around the corner but has never shown any indication of helping me out, and she said at the end of the day the jobs we do come with a huge amount of responsibility looking after tiny children and I agree.

Perhaps the government should bear in mind you DO NOT get quality by increasing the quantity of children we can look after and if they want EYFS and the quality of childcare to continue to rise then they need to wake up and smell the coffee. Furthermore, they can't deny wanting to improve the quality as a result of the recommendations that have come through from the Nutbrown review regarding qualifications.

Here is the other thing I would say if the parents are unhappy about the costs perhaps they should put it into some kind of perspective and think about where they rate their children in terms of their priorities or look for a job that allows them to do their own childcare!!:angry:

Sorry rant over, but I did give up a highly paid job and we cut our cloth so that I could stay at home and look after my children, because as lots of others on the forum have said you can't have everything.

Sam x

[Pipsqueak]

It makes you wonder how our parents and grandparents generations managed before this soft generation, who need hand holding with anything and everything.

My mum worked from the age of 14 and her money contributed towards her mothers household (no father around after the war)

I remember my mum working hard and long hours, caring for us during the day, running the house and doing what a housewife does, and then going out to work in the evenings when my dad came home. She worked early mornings too. both my parents worked really really hard with no help and no complaining. My mum had four children.

I remember my mum working 2 jobs, and occasionally we'd go with her to her cleaning job of this gorgeous mansion!! Her employers were lovely.

My nanna worked from the age of 12 - hard. She managed to raise a family too and support her siblings when her own mother died.

think people need to prioritise, stop relying on fast credit and want it now attitudes, stop believing their own sense of entitlement, remember they chose to have children :(

[nikki thomson]

I've seen alot of grandparents in the past few weeks looking after there grandchildren, some quite elderly.
I think it's lovely for family to beable to help out every now and again and I have friends who look after there nephews/nieces maybe one day a week to help out but that is very different to these usually grandparents who have retired and the grandchildren are left in there care for long periods on a daily basis because the parents don't (and that's usually the case) not can't pay for childcare, it really annoys me.
I know times are hard for all but I can tell you something I would never expect my mum to look after my 3 on a regular basis, she's done her childcare time it's just not fair in my opinion. X

[Joda]

Both my parents and my mother in law are well into their 70's and have never really looked after my kids and tbh I wouldn't want them too - it's hard work!
There are a lot of grandparents at the school gate who collect their grandchildren - there's one lady who's legs are so swollen that she can barely walk, but she drops off and picks up from school everyday and I've also seen her in the school holidays taking the grandchildren to swimming lessons and various clubs etc. I obviously don't know the family's circumstances but this lady looks absolutely worn out - it just seems very unfair.

[KarenM]

I feel childminders are being made out to be bad people for charging a fair price for the service they provide. I charge less than most local nurseries but have less potential earning power. Surely nurseries that can have 8 children for every adult should be made to cut their fees? When you see the local nursery owner driving around in their new Merc, surely something is out of whack!?

Plus I always find the children that do go to family are usually the ones phoning me up 6 months later asking if I still have a place cause aunty/grandparents/ second cousin twice removed is fed up looking after the child.

[rickysmiths]

When we had our two we lived a 10 min walk from my inlaws. My MIL still worked FIL had retired.

They made it crystal clear from day one that they would not provide full time childcare. They were happy to help out on an occasional basis, if the cm was off sick or something but never on a regular one.

I think that was right. It was hard for us when I went back to work after dd but we didn't have a holiday for a few years, until one of MIL friends kindly offered us the use of her cottage in Cornwall for a reduced rate. We had one car for dh to get to work, I used the bus. We had to be careful.

I agree with Pip, people today no matter how high their income expect childcare to be handed to them on a plate with no loss at all to their other lifestyle choices. They need to come into the real world. They also need to realise that the expenses don't end with the end of the need for a cm or nursery. Wait till all the school expenses start to kick in!!!

[Pipsqueak]

my own family live 300 miles away
the OH's family were great when we lived in on the yard with them - well great when it suited them... then we moved 8 miles away and in 12 years have barely seen them!

My neighbour - P, who is just into her 70's is still working, she looks in on the elderly (98 yr old) lady over the road and takes her out and about, my kids call P - nanna P, she has recently taken my kids away on holiday for a week (as she has done for 8 years now), along with her youngest (now 15) grandson.
My kids just breeze in and out her house and when we moved here she was a godsend, my absolute rock when I had PND after Harry and was knackered out with a poorly baby after James. She has supported me and the kids and is more than just a neighbour. I have been extremely lucky to have her in my life, I know that. she has 'babysat' at short notice and had the kids overnight at times for us. She comes and plays with the mindees and its a delight to see her on the roundabout in the playground !!!!!!!!!!!:D


I know not everyone has a Nanna P and I don't know what I would have done without her - I wish everyone could have a nanna P. but this is what community used to be like and still should be like.