What age to send children to crèche

DUBLINIRL

From what age can you send a child to a crèche full time and from what age do you think it is appropriate?

Is the alternative to get a professional to come to the home under a certain age?

First time parents (to be soon) and mother wants to go back to work full time after a few months.

Madd002

Some go from 6mnths + after Mammy has finished her maternity leave which is currently 6mnths paid and you can take 16wks unpaid then there is 9wks paid parents leave and then parental leave unpaid till child is 12 not sure of time frame there.

She might change her mind about going back after a few months once baby comes along, don't know of anyone that went bk to work after 8-12wks and not sure if creche would take practically a newborn.

Creche spaces are few and far between as well even in rural areas now, so getting a space in very hard and most sign up as soon as they find out they are pregnant and plan to go back to work.

As for a professional there isn't really any unless you find someone who does this from their home and they usually have 2 -3 others.

Also creche monthly costs are nearly the price of a mortgage.

diarmuid05

Give up every recreational spend that you have…… stay at home and raise your baby…. what else is there in life????

Rmgblue

We found it impossible to get a crèche spot before 2yo. In hindsight, the year with the childminder was invaluable. I couldn’t imagine sending him while he was so young and Iv no regrets. To give you a guideline childminder was €1,200 pm no food. Crèche is €700 pm with 3 meals and snacks.

DUBLINIRL

We are seeing 1 year and 10 months as the entry age for some of the nearby creches so might need to look at childminders.

notAMember

Don't worry a bit about what people say is appropriate, there is no blanket rule, every family is different and children are wonderfully adaptive.

It is a good question, and very shrewd to think about it in advance. This can get very difficult, complicated, exhausting and get you in financial trouble fast. One thing I didn't realise until too late was that maternity leave starts when you stop work, and babies can take their sweet time arriving. For one of my pregnancies, the baby was already 14 days past term when they were born (I was induced at +10), and my mat leave had started at 38 weeks according to work. So 1 month was gone already of the maternity leave when the baby was actually born. Creches didn't take baby from 5 months old, when I had to return to work after the end of my 6 month mat leave. Very luckily I had my mum and dad and a neighbour to look after the baby when I started back until the creche had a spot and the baby was old enough. I started on 4 days a week, using all my holidays for the year to manage it.

Another watch out is thinking about a backup plan for sickness. Babies get absolutely every snotty nose and rash going for the first while when they start going to creche, it's a petri dish in there. the creche will send them home.

Later again, when our family had grown more, we switched to au pairs mixed with ECCE hours which worked well for the minor illnesses, but this isn't an option for everyone depending on space.

While there were plenty of ignorant judgmental people like above saying things like "Give up every recreational spend that you have…… stay at home and raise your baby…. what else is there in life????" , that isn't a luxury everyone has, or it doesn't make sense for them long term, or it just doesn't suit them. Please ignore this manipulative guilt trip stuff if you see it. My husbands' job was very uncertain at the time, the staff had been put on warning, lots of people were being made redundant, and it looked like the company was going to close. So I did choose to go back to work for our own security, and am very glad I did so, as my husband did lose his job later, and we would have been absolutely screwed if I wasn't still working.

I recommend you get the baby pre-registered with a good nearby creche or childcare list as soon as you can. Some will take a deposit that you might lose if you change your minds and don't want to use it, but the hassle and stress it saves later if you need it is huge.

Maybe some last personal input, my kids are teenagers now, and still doing well. We were able to grow our careers and open lots of opportunity for them like sports and classes where they had interests. They really loved creche when they went, made tonnes of other baby friends, who were brilliant when starting school (no fear etc). Other families with kids the same age in our area became great family friends too.

When we had our fantastic aupairs, who we still visit, they picked up spanish like sponges from them. My kids are confident, healthy, motivated teenagers, still with two working parents. More confident than I ever was at their age, and I had a lovely stay-at-home mammy who practically hand-fed me with homegrown homecooked food til I went to school. My kids are absolutely at ease with meeting anyone, and even enjoy public speaking and debating. I would have been ten shades of beetroot if someone asked me to get up on a stage solo that at that age.

We have family and friends who did childcare every imaginable different way, with childminders, creches, stay-at-home parents of both genders, whatever. It all works.

DUBLINIRL

How did you find your childminder?

Moonbeam

My first went at 9 months,2nd at 9 months and I stayed at home for a few years after that. The cost of childcare was crazy 1200pm full time 800 for a 3 day week. Paying for 3 and mortgage was out of the question. I became a childminder then for a few years.

childminding.ie is good for childminders(in their home), Nannies(in your home) are very expensive @ at least minimum wage plus tax etc

It depends on what you want and need to do, some people can not afford to work others can not afford to stay home.