BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE

MARCH 8, 2024

During the pandemic, work-from-home became the norm, and since then, many employers have relaxed their expectations regarding office hours.  

This new-found faith in employees’ productivity at home, and commitment to flexible working, has been great for a lot of people – and particularly for us mums.  

Working from home, even for a couple of days a week, has allowed us to focus on important tasks (while wearing smart casual), but mostly, it’s opened up a whole new dynamic around childcare.  

Obviously, this hasn’t been the case for everyone, but for many working mums, a move away from the strict nine-to-five, and mandated office time, has meant that we can enrol our kids in fewer or shorter days of childcare. 

Long day care days haven’t had to be quite so long. 

The school-length hours of sessional kindies and preschools haven’t been a problem. 

And we’ve been able to provide outside school hours care for our bigger kids, as we work around them at home.  

However, we’re now seeing a push back against flexible working. 

Despite the success of Zoom meetings and kitchen table desks, many employers now want to see their people in the office for more, or all, of the time; and whether you’re going back to part-time or full-time work, wrapping childcare around your office hours does present some challenges.  

The morning rush will probably return, and you’ll have to carefully consider the childcare commute, but the main challenges come down to availability and affordability.  

It’s not always easy to pick up extra childcare days when your employer says they need you in the office more. 

There’s high demand for quality long day care around the nation, and without flexible work conditions, the only way you can use a sessional kindy or preschool is if they offer after care, or you have someone who can cover your child’s early pick-ups.   

Availability is also a huge challenge if you’re suddenly looking for before and after school care – not to mention vacation care, for all those weeks when school’s out, but inflexible work is in.  

KindiCare’s Founder and CEO, Benjamin Balk says, “Without flexibility, working mums of school-aged children are having to pick up outside school hours care that was, in many cases, not required, or not needed as much, and that’s if they can even get it.  

“Outside school hours care places are limited, and there has been no growth in these places to address the demand.” 

Then there’s the affordability challenge, because more childcare costs more money.  

Short days at sessional kindies and preschools can be pretty affordable, especially with the generous kindy funding in places like Queensland and Victoria. 

However, Mr Balk explains that, “A move away from flexible working means you no longer have this option, and may need to pay for a lot more hours of long day care than before to cover your extra commuting time and greater office hours.”   

And again, there’s a substantial penalty for families with school-aged children.  

There’s no funded kindy for older kiddies, and Mr Balk says, “An average family will be shelling out around $140 to $160 to return to the office three days a week.  

“Add to that vacation care, and a working mum needs to earn an additional $13,000 per year in salary to cover the cost.”  

If you can’t get the outside school hours care you need, or your work hours are especially long or unpredictable, you may also need to factor in the cost of a babysitter, or even a nanny, to fit in with your child’s school hours, ferry them to extracurriculars, or provide childcare after your centre has closed for the night.  

Babysitter costs vary, but if you’re paying $22 per hour cash, with no Child Care Subsidy applicable, even a couple of hours per week very soon adds up.  

You also need to factor in other costs, like petrol and public transport for the longer childcare commute from home to care to work and back again. 

And let’s not forget our cost of living pressures. 

We’re still grappling with inflated prices for many unavoidable outgoings, such as rent, interest rates, food and utilities.  

Both parents bear these costs, but there’s no doubt that mums pay the highest price when it comes to inflexible working conditions.  

In most cases, it’s us mums who are the primary care-givers, and we’re the ones taking time out from our career – whether for days per week, or years on end – to care for our children. 

We do this with love and joy, but at the same time, we miss out on the face-to-face office intel, pay rises and promotions that our male colleagues enjoy while we’re away.  

It’s also worth remembering that men are predominantly the ones making the decision to bring employees back into the office, because they’re often the CEOs; and although we’re not suggesting there’s gender malice in this, there does need to be a greater awareness of what working mums are going through. 

In these last years, especially, we’ve proven that flexible hours and remote work can be highly productive. 

And although many working mums are currently trying to find a new way to balance child-raising with paid employment, it’s not easy – and it’s not good for families or our society to lose the happier balance we had.  

It makes sense to keep work as flexible as women need, and although plenty of mums are content with their current office jobs, and have found great childcare to support this, employers do need to be aware that a work-in-the-office mandate and inflexible conditions exacerbate the financial pressures working mums are under and limit their opportunity to find a happy medium between paid work and mum life.  

Today - International Women’s Day – is the perfect opportunity for employers to think about how they can make decisions that really work for mums with under-12s, and at KindiCare, we support every parent to find the right childcare for their needs.