First Time Questions

Kintarō Hattori

Hi Folks,

The missus is expecting but when it comes to kids and what options are open to us I'm afraid we're both quite clueless. For example, I have a question about creches. How do these work exactly?

Are you supposed to leave your child in there 5 days a week? Or is it only a few days you can do this?

We're trying to figure out how we'd manage work and minding the baby. I work full time from Monday to Friday and am off the weekends. The good lady works part time, almost always at the weekend and a few days during the week.

Would she be able to leave the baby in a creche for say 6 hours while she goes/comes back from work? How much does a creche cost?

As I say, neither of us has a clue, especially as we don't have family to help us out.

Moonbeam

Normally you need to either do 5 days in the creche or 2 or 3 specified ones.. Childcare is extremely expensive esp in Dublin creches are 900-1100pm.
we paid 800 for a 3 day a week place.
creches are closed ar weekends.
Childminders can often be more flexible with hours but it can be hard to find one sometimes..

Hello Lady!

Hi Kintaro!

congrats on the news. I know you post over on DCN forum, so one good piece of news is that creches tend to be a bit cheaper out our way than in Dublin city (not that much, but every little helps).

I know some of them allow part-time 2-3 days as moonbeam mentions, but if you have them there for 6 hours it would still be classed as a full day price wise.

We're in DCN too so would be interested in any info you find out. Maybe post over there too and see if there are any personal recommendations? With everything that has come to light recently I think it is definitely worth getting a personal recommendation of anywhere you are considering.

Another option some people are now thinking of (especially since the prime time investigation) is to have an aupair in house or hire a nanny. Often this works out about the same cost as a creche as you usually pay less cash wages as you are providing bed and board. Not everyone wants to share their home with another person, so it's not for everyone but worth considering.

Another option, is for your wife to get to know other mums and mums to be in her area and between them they might be able to help each other out with child care - from what you say you only need a dig out for 2-3 days a week and for about 6 hours - another mum might be willing to share childcare with your wife, you know, look after each other's kids on the days the other is working? My mate does this and it works for her, but it will of course depend on how flexible your wife's work and hours are.

Hello Lady!

oh, there is also Balbriggan Community Childcare Group - not sure if that is still on the go, the website hasn't been updated since 2010, but worth looking into as it is much much cheaper (€198 full time)
http://bccg.ie/

Moonbeam

I am involved with that creche....it is of course brilliant and there will be a new website soon:)

Hello Lady!

good to know! I might be signing up for your services in about 13 mths time! lol Keep me a space - oh no wait - keep me two (forgot I was having twins there for a minute! lol)

lazygal

Creches may offer part time places, but usually they come with strings attached, like having to make sure another child makes up the other days or higher fees than pro rata fulltime would be. We looked into creches - its a mixed bag and I have a background in the area so ruled out a lot immediately - but ended up going for a local childminder. We never factored in family help, it was offered but we'd prefer to have a solid arrangement in place rather than relying on goodwill.

You will really have to contact individual creches to see what they offer time wise. A childminder would usually offer more flexibility in this regard, but there may be times when they take holidays etc that you'll have to take holidays at the same time.

Moonbeam

contact childminding ireland @ childminding.ie aswell.
There are some really good highly qualified childminders out there that love what they do as well:)

Bagheera

I live in North County Dublin also and the crèche my little one attends is 190 a week full time. They do a daily rate of 50 euro (an 11 hour day) and will do half days at 25 euro. However priority goes to full time so it can be hard to get part time places.

I know of another crèche in my area that is very flexible when it comes to hours. PM me if you want details.

Kintarō Hattori

Apologies for the late reply and many thanks for the answers. Best thing I guess is to start ringing around.