Growing up, I always felt like I existed within a system that made sense. I worked hard and good things happened: at school in New Zealand, at university, graduate school, and in my early professional life. There was a straight line between effort and achievement.
Then I had a baby. And all my friends had babies. And the ‘system’ that I’d grown to expect – an immensely privileged one – started to show cracks. Not just for me, but for my friends, too. Childcare was the problem. There didn’t seem to be a system that actually functioned. It was so expensive, so patchy, and exhausting to organise.
Then I noticed something else: this only really seemed to be affecting my female friends. In almost every heterosexual couple I knew, it was the woman taking a step back in order to cope with an inadequate childcare system. I’d known these women since university. They’d been so ambitious – and most of them had worked harder and done better at university than their male partners. Now they were the ones jacking it in.
Meanwhile, I was experiencing for myself how difficult it was to make it work, with my family half a world away in New Zealand and my husband’s in Lancashire.
‘It’ll be easier when the kids are at school’, my female friends would say. “It’ll be my time then.”
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But it didn’t get easier. If anything, it got harder. Schools finish at 3:30pm. My husband and I both finish at 6pm. Children have 13 weeks of holidays a year. I have 5 weeks. My husband has 5 weeks. The maths doesn’t add up.
So what’s changed with the pandemic? If you’re not a parent, you could be forgiven for thinking that childcare challenges stopped when the kids stopped ‘home-schooling’ and went back to school. Sadly, though, with even fewer after school clubs than there used to be, after school care has gotten even worse. Koru Kids research tells us that after school care now doesn’t fully meet the needs of a whopping 70% of women.
At this stage of the pandemic, parents are burnt out. They've worked long hours with their kids in the same room ‘home-schooling’, they’ve helped their kids with anxiety, they've tried so hard to give their kids a great childhood when everything is shut. Now parents are desperate for reliable, consistent childcare to give their children consistency and bring some calmness to their family lives. They're not getting this with an after school system that is full of holes.
As ever, the brunt of this challenge will be borne by the mums, as they take a hit on their careers. Over two thirds of women told us that the lack of before and after school care in their area will affect their ability to work. Half said they will lose more than £2400 a year in earnings.
My overwhelming thought has always been, how can there be no system? We should consider childcare in the same way that we do our other infrastructure: roads, gas and water pipes. It is fundamental infrastructure for our lives. The government should fund childcare in the same way it funds other essential services.
Four years ago, I felt so strongly about this that I quit my job to build the system I wish existed. Today, Koru Kids is helping meet the huge demand for after school childcare with our vetted, trained part- time nannies. Hopefully the next generation of mums will have better choices than mine did.
To find out more about Koru Kids, go to www.korukids.co.uk or visit @korukidsofficial
READ MORE: Colossal Childcare Costs Mean Parents Are Giving Up Their Careers