A recent article in
Melbourne’s Age newspaper highlighted the inability for many long-day child care centres to provide Kinder for children placed in their care. The concern is that many children are missing out on a ‘flying start’ to their education because of this situation. The report highlighted that there is a large number of children (over 14,000) on waiting lists to get into child care centres. The percentage of children attending kinder at age four, it was reported, is dropping.
The article also mentioned the need for parents to be available to take their children to these sessions and if they were in an all-day job, or long hours in one day, it made it almost impossible for them to do so.
This is a perfect case for parents who choose to work at home. Many who are able to either secure work with an employer that allows them to telecommute or manage a business of their own from home find that they can work their hours around family needs and commitments in most cases, ensuring that the children get the care, education and support they deserve with either mummy or daddy being available to get them to those places.
My own decision in 1993 to leave a corporate job and work at home was the best decision I could have made. Whilst my children were past kinder I still had four in primary school, with the youngest in grade 2 and the eldest was in her second year at high school. There were many occasions when the girls needed me to pick them up and take them places during school hours or after school hours and I was able to put these items into my diary and work around them. As they grew older their needs did not decrease and extra curricular activities such as ballet, gymnastics, drama and singing classes added to the places I needed to take them, particularly when it became competition, exam or Christmas concert time.
