Motherhood around the world: Childcare
Welcome to part three in a four-part series on motherhood in different parts of the world. For this series, I spoke with six newsletter subscribers who grew up in the US, but now live abroad. Previous articles have discussed pregnancy and childbirth and parental leave. Today’s article focuses on childcare.
Early childhood care
Kate, hospital administration, Canada: First thing I would say in terms of the daycare option, Canada has within the last two years moved to a subsidized daycare model where—it depends on province—but basically each province pretty significantly subsidizes daycare costs. That has a bit of an unforeseen consequence, which is it adds some logistical and overhead complexity to a daycare center. So I think there's a belief that there's some reduction in capacity because some daycares can't handle it. But I don't think it's been material and, in general, it has helped with affordability of daycare.
My youngest is about to start a half day daycare program. My oldest went through that daycare and my youngest is going to pay about $300 CAD [~$225 USD] a month for a half day every day. And so the oldest, I think it was $650 CAD [$480 USD] for the month for full day daycare when he was enrolled.
It's exceptionally rare for any infant to be in daycare under about 12 months here because of the maternity leave. So actually if you want to or need to find daycare under that, it can be quite challenging to find a place that supports that because the ratios and the care is quite different under 12 months.
Isabella, market researcher, Singapore: This is one part where I think it's very difficult to understand if you haven't been enmeshed in Singaporean culture for a long time. Most people have full-time help at home. They are called “helpers” and they are typically Filipino or Indonesian women who come to Singapore to work as domestic workers. Their employment is regulated by the Ministry of Manpower and they are required, by law, to live with you in your house. The employers are responsible for their wages, housing, meals, health insurance, etc. I don't know anyone in my neighborhood or in my circle that has a child that doesn't have a live-in helper right now.
So, most people are lucky to have a helper who assists with cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Then of course, a lot of people, myself included, still want their kids to go to daycare or preschool. I feel like he just needs that extra engagement and socialization. So, that’s fairly comparable to the US in terms of the cost, at least the one that I picked.
In this area, Singaporeans also have a few more benefits, vs. foreigners. First, their levy on the helper’s wages is subsidized (if they have children or elderly relatives). Second, they’re eligible and tend to live in public housing, and a lot of these public housing establishments have attached childcare centers. The tuition can also be subsidized, if they meet the eligibility criteria. So, in my perspective, the government tries to make it convenient for citizens to have access to childcare, though I am sure there are still challenges.
Natalie, graphic design, Sweden: The Swedish government is legally required to provide enough childcare to cover the parents' working hours. You can choose your own center, but if there’s a queue, they have to find room for you at the municipal school. And this applies even while you're unemployed, though you're eligible for fewer hours.
We're very happy with our municipal school. It's incredible quality. It's very play-based, so they don't push the academics as hard. If we were to move back to America, my daughter would be a little behind. But the quality is insanely high. They're outside all the time. It's based on the Reggio Emilia system, and there’s a national curriculum. It costs us less than $200 a month. Yeah, it's insane.
I have nothing to complain about compared to America, but the problem is that [the system is] inflexible. If I were to get a part-time job and still be in school at the same time, I would only be able to get coverage for one of those things. If you fit into more than one category, stuff starts to get messy.
Evelyn, geologist, Denmark: It is very unusual for children to go into full-time childcare before they're 12 months old, and that's because everybody can take the year off. However, I think it's something like more than 90% of children are in some form of childcare after age 12 months.
In Denmark, they have three different approaches to childcare. They have what we would call a daycare center, a little school for early childcare. And then they have home groups, which would be a licensed caregiver who's in charge of, I think, it’s 4-6 children. And then the third option is, if you chose to be a stay at home parent yourself, then the government subsidy that would normally go to the home care or to the daycare would go to you because you're the one taking care of the kids. So there was a small salary if you chose to be a stay at home parent essentially.
We chose a daycare center. That meant that our daughter was in a school for children ages 12 months to three years. There were four classrooms, 11 children per classroom, three teachers per classroom. So it was a three to 11 ratio. All of the teachers have accreditation and training in early childhood education, but in my daughter’s classroom, two of them also had master's degrees in early childhood education. That was the case at every place we looked at.
There was an onsite cook to prepare snacks and lunch. 90% of what they were fed was organic. The children all would sit together and learn about the food and talk about the food. They taught my daughter to use a knife and fork. They taught her to clear her place herself. They taught her to get herself dressed and undressed. Those were the priorities of early childhood education. She did not know her numbers. She did not know her ABCs. I think she did know colors. Independence and consideration for the group were priorities that they taught in the school, and they also cared a lot about nature. And so rain or shine every single day, our kids were outside. We were required to have an entire wardrobe of outdoor clothes that lived at her school. So she had a full snow suit and rain gear that just were at school that were separate from her snow suit and rain gear at home so that they could go out in any form of weather. I think we spent about $300 a month on our childcare for our daughter at Denmark.
Summer and vacation care
Denise, self-employed editor and author, the Netherlands: There's no camping culture like there is in the States. I've never heard of any sleepaway camps here. You can send your kid to day camps, but the day camps are quite expensive (400-500 euro, per week per kid). Across the board, I feel like a lot of things here really cater to a certain class of parent. So if you have a lot of money, the culture really works for you. If you live in a mid to lower income neighborhood, your kids are basically just playing in the street or at the park or finding some possibly free thing to do. Unlike New York, where I’m from, there aren’t a lot of real outlets for kids. Kids are not going to want to always go to a museum—and once you’ve already seen them five times, they’re less interesting. So it's tough here.
Natalie, Sweden, graphic design: Sweden basically shuts down in July. So school is closed for the month of July and into early August, but then a lot of Swedish companies just drain out in the summer, too. Most people get at least four weeks of vacation, so people either travel with their kids or hang out at home.
And it’s important to note that there's another pool of leave for when your kid is sick—there's a special box that you check. It's called vabbing. It's for care of sick child in Swedish. So that's an expected thing, so none of your colleagues make a big deal about it. Until kids are 12, parents can take up to 120 days per year to take care of their sick kids or accompany them to doctor’s visits. It’s paid out at 80% of your salary, but still, it’s a huge benefit.
Daphne, senior marketing and design manager, England: So this past year was really hard for us because my daughter was on the school calendar and she had half term breaks, but she couldn't go to any camps because she wasn't five. So I took a lot of time off. My parents came at one point to visit and looked after the kids. But yeah, the math does not add up. I get 25 days of vacation time, but the school year is three, 12 week terms with a one week break in between. So it's six weeks, a week off, six weeks, a two week break for Christmas, six weeks a week off around President's Day, six weeks, two week break for Easter, six weeks a week off at the end of May six weeks and then the summer holiday for six weeks. But you make it work.
