This week Alice and I visited our first nursery, Asquith in Kew. There are a number of nurseries around and we will work our way through them, but this one was the first to respond to the registration. Worryingly no other nursery has responded. As in many large cities, you hear horror stories about parents not finding any place at nurseries local to where they live. Let's hope we don't end up with such a situation.
At Asquith, we were warmly welcomed by the staff that looks after the babies and the toddlers. These two groups have their own rooms, which were very nicely decorated, looked clean and tidy and an environment where I can imagine little children will have a good time. The black and white corner immediately caught Alice's attention!
I'm already finding the thought of giving her away to the care of anyone else quite hard. I didn't think I would feel like that, but I certainly do. Of course I can also see the benefit of her interacting and playing with other children and learning important social skills.
The cost of leaving her at a nursery is mindblowing. With only one child, we are lucky in that our earnings still make it worth while to work. With two children it would start to become questionable. Any more than that, my salary wouldn't cover the cost of childcare. Politically, I'm amazed how a country like the UK openly excludes a large proportion of its skilled workforce by making it more expensive for families to pay for childcare than going back to work.
I can see that the talent pool is big, especially in London, and immigration makes up for the declining birth rates. But surely, it's a false economy to exclude skilled people from paying tax and contribute to society through work?
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