Do The Math

Holy Smoke! It has just really hit me how much we will have to spend on childcare.
I just got a letter from our new nursery and the good news is that they have a place available for both Aimee and Dylan in September, thus allowing Cat to go back to work after her maternity leave expires. But, and here’s the shockingly awful part - the new nursery costs £1416 a month to cover both kids.
It doesn’t sound too bad until you look at it over a year, a sum total just shy of £17,000 a year!! And that's not even for a full time placement, as they will only attend 4 days a week.
I wonder if instead of nursery, I can hire an au pair or nanny for the same amount or less? Mind you, I am permanently traumatised by the horror flick The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, so that alone rules out personal childcare.
Still, it's not all bad news. The government offer a voucher scheme that means we don't pay income tax on £243 a month, effectively saving about £1900 annually if both parents use the scheme. And we get a few bob in child maintenance and child tax credit, but ultimately it is just shaving snowflakes off a £17,000 iceberg into so-called Early Years Education.
Now I know why a lot of Mums, and increasingly dads too, give up their job to look after their kids full time. It simply is not economically viable to put two or more through nursery. It’s not long term fortunately. When Aimee turns 5, she’ll go to proper school, but even here, there are uniforms and breakfast/after school club fees to pay for.
A newspaper article about the lifetime cost of raising a child makes depressing reading.
Still, at least we have their happy little faces to cheer us up…well until they reach that moody age.

Cleanliness next to Godliness

Last post I mentioned that I wished all aspects of bringing up kids were as easy as Aimee's noodle eating antics. Whilst most skills that I have to nag my kids about are met with stern resistance, eg reliable potty usage, there are a few rare other habits that Aimee gets wonderfully adept at straight away. Brushing her teeth is one of them. She loves brushing her teeth and staring in my shaving mirror as she beams her pearly whites. Of course the technique is sloppy and she probably swallows more foam than she spits out, but by and large, it's been quite easy to show her. Better still, she lets me finish the job when I say to let Daddy do a final polish (thanks to Dai for that tip). And as for rinsing her mouth and spitting out the remnants, she spews out the water with great enthusiasm. Sometimes too much enthusiasm and I get an early shower.

Today, I can report that Aimee passed another hygiene milestone by letting me, nay willingly and obligingly, letting me wash her hair. For months and months, this singular act has become increasingly fraught with tears and screaming tantrums. Most times I give up trying and just let her run around with greasy smelly hair. But recently she has begun to relax bit by bit until today, she positively begged to have jugs of water poured over her scalp. I can't begin to describe how small incidents like this make one completely forget the endless trauma and battles of the past on this issue. As for Dylan, well he only has three teeth and no hair, so we've yet to cross that bridge.

Noodle Girl

I love noodles. And judging by the gusto with which little Aimee-san here gobbles up her ramen, she's a chip off the old block. I always thought chopsticks would be hard to teach, but I never taught Aimee. She just grabbed them off the table and started shovelling away. Bless her. If only all apsects of kiddie rearing were as straight forward and easy.

Today, I took Aimee to the cinema for the first time in her life. We saw Kung Fu Panda. I certainly enjoyed and I think Aimee did, but I suspect most of the jokes, plot and concepts were too much for her. Still, she liked the Tiger character and screamed in joy everytime she saw her, followed by me frantically shooshing her to keep quiet.

Flower Girls

Aimee actually let someone paint her face today. Wow!

Battlestar Galactica

Well, the kids and Mum are spending the week at Grandma&pa Macs and daddy here is enjoying a rare time-off away from the kids. So what am I doing? Mucking around with this blog layout for starters. Oh and the small matter of the mountain...no,make that a whole Mariana Trench full of dirty laundry. Ho Boy, we're talking months of unwashed clothes. Hundreds of baby socks and toddler trousers, adult t-shirts, bras, pants, shorts, vests, gazillions of baby grows. The list goes on!
In between the wash loads, I'm cramming as much Battlestar Galactica episodes I can take.
But time alone makes me realise what a huge carbon footprint it is having kids. Yes, I know, it's a no-brainer - kids=expense and energy usage. But until you are on your own, as I have been, you realise not by what is being used, but by what I don;t use. For example, I am only using lights for the room I am currently in. Previously, lights were on willy nilly and pretty much all day.
Another example is food. I buy exactly what I need to eat, no more no less. But when the family are all present, a weeks groceries could easily amount to £130 plus, more recently with all the price hikes. Gas, electricity, water, petrol, yes, running a household full of little people is a hugely energy intensive business. And we're paying the price.