There's not much comfort in knowing you're not alone as you stare at the big fat minus sign on your bank statement.
That minus sign comes in front of a figure that is getting steadily bigger because of the vast sums of money we pay for childcare. For the last four months we've had to cough up more than a thousand pounds for three days childcare for two kids. That's way more than our mortgage. It's more than many people's yearly wage. So it's hardly surprising that we, together with a quarter of working parents surveyed by the Daycare Trust and Save the Children (see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14806886) are having to cope with increasing levels of debt incurred just so we can work.
Let's break down the figures. Our eldest has just this month started getting 15 hours free childcare. We'll still pay out about £800 a month for him and our nine month-old. This year, before tax, my partner and I will between us have to earn about £15,000 in order that both of us can work. That's about a quarter of our joint income. And god help anyone trying to pay for childcare on their own. There is some financial help if you're on a lower income, but the Daycare Trust says that "a quarter of low-income parents said they had given up work and a third had turned down work because of childcare costs. More than half (58%) of these families said they were no better off working and paying for childcare."
We don't have the option of giving up work - we are better off after paying for childcare and we need that money. But I did the sums yesterday, and even with the subsidy, now we've had a second baby, we're going to be between £250-£350 a month short.
It's frightening to think that you can be on a very respectable joint income (which takes you just outside the bracket for any tax credits), and have structural debt built into your monthly budget. I monitor this minutely and regularly for slack, without finding anything approaching a saving that would amount to £3000-£4000 a year.
There'll be no additional state help, clearly, to make trying to earn a living less expensive. So we'll just have to find more work. No problem. There's loads of it around.
Wednesday 7 September 2011
Friday 2 September 2011
Twitter angst
Twitter is making me feel inadequate. There. Said it. Having signed up somewhat belatedly I've found that I love it, and at times am glued to it, but I do sometimes feel like I can't quite cut it with the rest of the Twitterati.
How do all these people find the time to scan, read and analyse the world's websites, academic journals, policy papers and acts of parliament, then tweet all day about the nuggets of fascinating info they've gleaned - and still hold down a job?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not scoffing. I'm admiring and grateful and I've learned a lot by clicking on all those links. But it's as much as I can do to get my two small monsters to the childminder of a morning, clear up the crap left over from breakfast, write whatever I've got to file soonest and grab a quick kip to make up for the broken nights I thought we might have been done with at nine months, Baby M....
I tweet the odd feature I've written, or, more often, comment on something in the news that has hacked me off or made me grin. Hell, I told the world about my first hot chocolate of autumn the other day. (A low point in my Twitter career to date.)
But I'll have to hold off tweeting my personal analysis of the education revolution hitting our country until I've interviewed two academics, transcribed what they've said, written up the article, washed the baby's bottles, pitched another couple of ideas to an editor who probably won't have the space to run them even if they're any good, tried them elsewhere to other editors who don't have any money to run them even if they've got the space, had a consoling cup of tea, constructed a conference programme, designed a training course, paid the childminder, picked up the kids....
Mmm, yeah. That analysis... it won't happen, will it? Guess I'll just have to keep clicking on other people's Twitter links and pop on a bit of lipstick to bolster my self-esteem.
How do all these people find the time to scan, read and analyse the world's websites, academic journals, policy papers and acts of parliament, then tweet all day about the nuggets of fascinating info they've gleaned - and still hold down a job?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not scoffing. I'm admiring and grateful and I've learned a lot by clicking on all those links. But it's as much as I can do to get my two small monsters to the childminder of a morning, clear up the crap left over from breakfast, write whatever I've got to file soonest and grab a quick kip to make up for the broken nights I thought we might have been done with at nine months, Baby M....
I tweet the odd feature I've written, or, more often, comment on something in the news that has hacked me off or made me grin. Hell, I told the world about my first hot chocolate of autumn the other day. (A low point in my Twitter career to date.)
But I'll have to hold off tweeting my personal analysis of the education revolution hitting our country until I've interviewed two academics, transcribed what they've said, written up the article, washed the baby's bottles, pitched another couple of ideas to an editor who probably won't have the space to run them even if they're any good, tried them elsewhere to other editors who don't have any money to run them even if they've got the space, had a consoling cup of tea, constructed a conference programme, designed a training course, paid the childminder, picked up the kids....
Mmm, yeah. That analysis... it won't happen, will it? Guess I'll just have to keep clicking on other people's Twitter links and pop on a bit of lipstick to bolster my self-esteem.
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