would you like to see a local drop-in creche for children?

saasha · June 2013

<div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I am a local mum, and I am investigating opening a drop-in creche in Crouch End. I think it would be nice to have a safe and fun place to leave my lovely little boy for a few hours - for a massage, to run errands, go to a hospital appointment, etc. What I don't know is if there are enough other mums/dads like me to make this a worthwhile venture. If a creche is something you (or any other local parent you know) would be interested in,<span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"> I would be very grateful if you could please complete a short survey (and/or forward) - </span><a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/crouchendcreche" target="_blank" style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">https://www.<wbr>surveymonkey.com/s/<wbr>crouchendcreche</a><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"> - this will help me </span><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">decide whether or not to go ahead! THANKS!</span></div>

Donna · June 2013

Great idea.<div style="line-height: normal;">To spread the word (if you haven't already done this):</div><div style="line-height: normal;">Tweet @finsbury_pk and @Crouch_ENd<;/div><div style="line-height: normal;">Post on haringeyonline and Opinion8</div><div>Email <span style="line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; white-space: nowrap;">stroudgreennct@gmail.com and northlondonmums@yahoo.com and </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span class="go" style="vertical-align: top; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">info@londonmothersclub.com</span></div><div><span class="go" style="vertical-align: top; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span class="go" style="vertical-align: top; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Good luck</span></div>

Donna · June 2013

ps nanny agency grannynannyandi.co.uk might be able to help with carers?

Mirandola · June 2013

interesting

miss annie · June 2013

I won't be a customer las I have no offspring, but I've looked at your survey and I'm sure you'll do well in Crouch End. Out of pure nosiness... how much do these sort of things cost?

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saasha · June 2013

hi every one thanks so much for your comment / suggestions / support!<div><br></div><div>@miss annie - do you mean how much per hour will it cost? i'm not sure yet, but on average probably the same as a babysitter, a little bit more b/c of the price of property, etc.</div><div><br></div><div>thanks everyone, and spread the word - we could really use a few more survey responses!</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

kreuzkav · June 2013

@ Misscara. I thought I was the negative bunny, but you trump me here. I do agree with you. These mummies do mow you down with their expensive buggies and then have the audacity to drink while we work.

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Siolae · June 2013

I think this is a great idea in principle and lots of people would be interested. The issue won't be lack of demand, it will be the amount of regulation and red tape you will have to deal with, not to mention Ofsted. This is one of the reasons why childcare is so expensive.

ChangN4N6 · June 2013

Not just expense. Poor kids, shipped off to a baking hot back room with untrained lovely but poorly paid immigrants nannies while the charlottes Emma's and Sophie mummies get plastered reading 50 Shades of Dunns under the sunbed after a pint of pino Grigio before Jason Tim and Trudie get back from wandering round Selfridges and texting the world in their lunch hour. Whatever happened to responsibilities of motherhood? !!! People! Ofsted should really look at this. Kruezchav is right again. Chang

kreuzkav · June 2013

@ Chang, after your last post maybe you are Miss cara? <div><br></div><div>Anyhow, don't forget people who look after children deserve a decent wage. Don't start whinging if you get a poor service if you pay under £10 an hour. It amazes me how professionals expect professional childcare at a cheap price. The same goes for people who hand over their elderly parents to car.e homes. They believe a carer should deal with drible and shit for £7 an hour on shift hours including night duty.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

ChangN4N6 · June 2013

Agreed. I know ppl who spend MUCH more on their cat care than their kids. A vet can charge more for a minor 5 min cat vak-ok than a nursery assistant gets for 2 days for looking after the little Toby's and Saffrons. And There are too many cats round here anyway. Chang

David Barry · June 2013

As my youngest child is now (just about to be, in a month or so) 18 I am not a prospective customer, but I would have a couple constructive comments, (and an observation).<div><br></div><div>1. Your survey under "income" should have a 'rather not say" option.</div><div><br></div><div>2. By no means all your customers, in Crouch End these days, would be women, be aware of the dads...</div><div><br></div><div>Obviously the location will be rather important... so I suppose you will be working on that next, in which case I can put you in touch with someone who may have suitable premises and would charge a lower rent for a not for profit if that relevant - its the Cape building at the top of Crouch Hill, by the Parkland Walk. But you might not thinl the location central enough.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>I would also sau </div>

David Barry · June 2013

The end of that got slightly scrambled, I wanted to finish by point out the term "drop in" not clear. It often means facilities at which at least one parent has to remain present, and they are much less tightly regulated than the facility I think you are describing which seems to be a creche people can use for small children on a "one off" if need be...

saasha · June 2013

<div>Hi all thanks for the many responses! some indeed were LOL. hopefully this kind of service can meet the needs of all kinds of mums, whether they are using the childfree time to go to a job interview or drink pinot by the pint, i'm not really bothered!</div><div><br></div><div>what i'm envisioning is a place where you can either book in advance on ad hoc basis, or 'drop in' spontaneously, if there is space available. we will need to be ofsted regulated, but it is a minefield and there certainly is a lot of red tape. </div><div><br></div><div>@david, thanks for the tip on the property, though we are thinking we will need to be closer to 'downtown' crouch end to get the footfall needed to make the business model work. </div><div><br></div><div>keep the constructive comments coming, and please forward the survey along to parents, we don't have nearly enough responses so far to make me think there is sufficient demand!</div><div><br></div><div>:-)</div><div><br></div>

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ChangN4N6 · August 2013

Kids should not be dropped anywhere. Ie eating marmite sarnies with a childminder while poor mum has a 60 quid pedicure at Virgin Active with Karisha. Why do modern mothers have kids if they don't want to have a motherhood ie at home bringing up baby till mid school? And if they can't 'afford ' it then , the world is already overcrowded so don't bother , just my opinion. And kids are spoilt so actually the money could Go further - see Zjamie Oliver today in the Standard paper. For those who can't or wont do family planning and end up pregnant the state does provide basic help. At the moment. Maggie Thatchers kids are in a bad way years later eg (gollywog comments, military coups etc) cos she left em to Nanny McFee and went out to become a super woman. Jordan - same issues. Kate Midfketon leads the way in this respect as a very good role model. Louise Rednap is another one. Even Gazza's aweful wife put the hours in. Chang

Papa · August 2013

<div>@chang because many children will get better love and attention from mothers who have managed to have a short break from what is an exhausting task and lots of them nowadays don't live near family who can help. And many feel forced to go back to work to keep a roof over their heads, as families have had the choice of one parent not working removed by sky-high house prices and rents.</div><div><br></div>@kreuzkav the cost of full-time nursery place round here is £16,000 a year. <span style="font-size: 10pt;">That's £7,000 a year more expensive than the average private school. There's a number of very good reasons for taking a long hard look at the cost of nursery in this country - that little comparison is just one and I can guarantee you the staff at my daughter's nursery won't be getting paid private school teacher wages.</span><div><br></div><div>Saasha, that is a good idea that would appeal to plenty of parents round here and especially in Crouch End. Good luck and I hope you can make it affordable.</div>

Mirandola · August 2013

Don't feed the troll! Drop-in creche ace idea, v. useful for fathers and mothers.

miss annie · August 2013

Gosh! So If you are in a minimum wage job it is not financially worth going back to work. Is that state funded or private nursery?

Mirandola · August 2013

Council run ones (at least as good and probably better than private) are more like £1200/1000. Tricky getting in though.

andy · August 2013

As family and work life changes, more and different models of childcare will be needed. There are creches especially for freelancers opening up.

Papa · August 2013

I'm going to decline to name names but that is a local nationwide chain at £16k per year. Prices will be similar across the board. As I understand childminders etc are a bit cheaper but not much.<br><br>Chances of getting your child into a local authority nursery are between slim and zero.<br><br>This is why childcare vouchers, which allow you to pay nursery pre-tax, and the Chancellor's new sop to working parents are a drop in the ocean. Personally, I'd dramatically hike the tax vouchers limit so you could pay at least £7k pre-tax. After all, the point of encouraging parents back to work is not altruistic, it is done for economic reasons - ie workers produce more than they get paid.<br>

Siolae · August 2013

Agree with Papa L: almost impossible to get a child into a council funded nursery. My daughter was on the waiting list for an Islington nursery from a month old. I went back to work when she was 10 months old and a place did not come up in that time. Also I was told if a place did come up before I was due to go back to work and I didn't take it, I would be bumped down the list. This was over 10 years ago and the situation is even worse now with the increase in birth rate. The only reason I was able to go back to work was because at that time child tax credits funded some of the private child care, otherwise I would have had to go on benefits as the childcare cost most of my wages: I wouldn't have been able to pay the rent. It is a crazy situation and it does indeed force a lot of tax paying parents, who want to work, out of the workplace.

nancyccampbell · August 2013

Hmm some of this banter is a bit sexist no? All these negative comments about what mothers are doing when they dare to step away from their domestic duties for an hour or two. Who cares if they want to slope down the pub for a pint with some friends (we don't exclusively drink white wine by the way) - fathers have been doing exactly that for centuries while the mothers have been stuck at home. This seems like a great idea - good luck with it. Chang - I hope you're kidding when you tell us that our best role model is mother-of-five-minutes Kate Middleton. I'd be willing to bet a serious amount of money that she has an awful lot of paid help - there's no way you could get hair that bouncy while looking after a newborn on your own...

miss annie · August 2013

Hmmm, while I think it's great for parents to get taxpayer funded help to go back to work (my mum was a single parent and juggled two jobs with three daughters in the days before child benefit, tax credits and childcare vouchers), all the mums I've worked with in recent years spend hours of their working days making appointments, phoning home/childminder, buying baby stuff on ebay, going home at short notice for school plays, illness etc. I'm not sure that all working parents produce more than they are paid to do. No, I don't have my own kids but I was a stepmother to a young boy for six years, his dad won custody so the little chap lived with us, so I do know how difficult things can be. Princess Kate has been at her parent's since the birth where she has her mum, dad and her husband to help her. They have made a firm point of not hiring nannies.

Siolae · August 2013

<p>@Miss Annie, whilst I do not wish to make any assumptions about your age, universal child benefit started in 1945 - only then it was called family allowance - so I believe your mum would have been entitled to it.</p>

Papa · August 2013

@MissAnnie All the mums do that?<br><br>You must have been unfortunate with the ones you ended up working with, most of the mums I know who've gone back to work, including my wife, seem to work pretty bloody hard. <br><br>It's true priorities change for those with kids compared to those without but a savvy employer that is flexible will be rewarded with hard work and loyalty.<br><br>My overall point is that a fine thing when even going to work becomes too expensive for large swathes of the population.<br>

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would you like to see a local drop-in creche for children?

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