Tanya Sweeney: Our childminder has become a surrogate mum of sorts — how will we cope without her?
'Ireland’s childcare crisis continues to lurch on, in a system that benefits neither parent nor childcare provider.' Photo posed
Who wouldn’t want to offload a proverbial ‘second mortgage’? As of this August, big school is looming, and we will be saying a sad goodbye to our childminder. It’ll be the end of an era. On the upside, if I’m doing my sums correctly, it means that our household will be up several hundred euro a month. I tell a friend about how I can’t wait to have some extra cash. We might take a holiday, I say to her. I might even buy some clothes for myself, for a change.
For the 423rd time, my friend gives me one of her patented ‘the poor innocent, she’ll never learn’ looks. “You never actually see any of the money you think you’ll be saving on childminding,” she says. “It just goes towards other things. Trust me, you’re not going to notice any big change in your fortunes.” And between outlays like afterschool and various big-school activities and accoutrements, I suspect she may be right.
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