To Be or Not To Be - Working or Stay Home Mum?

I have a pregnant friend living in New York who in February is attending a course on, well, on not what one would expect.  She isn't attending a course on how to give birth, or how to breast feed or how to administer first aid, she's attending a course on how to hire a nanny.

In America, labour is relatively cheap compared with Australia, read a great story here, so hiring a nanny in Manhattan is pretty much the norm.  Walking Central Park last year the number (literally hundreds) of late teen, early twenty female nannies pushing bugaboos was astounding "These are all the Nannies.  Everyone has a Nanny here".

For the average Aussie working mother, childcare/hiring nanny versus being a stay at home mum is quite the conundrum.

Whilst childcare workers are paid relatively poorly in Australia (putting it into perspective of what they are doing ie looking after our precious babies), the cost to parents isn't necessarily inexpensive.  Yes we do have a Child Care Rebate (not means tested) and Child Care Benefit ( means tested) but for a mother of two or three children, the cost of a childcare centre can out way the cost benefit of returning to work even if you qualify for one or both of the above. 

Child Care Benefit

 - to qualify for the Child Care Benefit, you must satisfy the following:

• you use approved or registered child care, and
• your child is immunised (or on an immunisation catch up schedule), or is exempt from the immunisation requirements, and
• you are responsible for paying the child care fees for your child.
• passed the work, training, study test

You must meet an income test effective from 1 January 2011:-

Maximum rate is payable for actual annual family income under $38,763 or families on income support.

Zero rate is payable over the following thresholds:

• 1child  $134,443
• 2 children $139,333  
• 3 or more children $157,329 plus $29,721 for each child after the 3rd

Child Care Rebate

 - to qualify for the Child Care Rebate, you must satisfy the following:-

•  used approved child care during the year;
• been eligible for Child Care Benefit (entitled at a rate of zero or more);
• passed the Child Care Benefit work, training, study test

 The Child Care Rebate is a refund of 50 per cent of your out-of-pocket expenses for approved care up to the annual cap. From July 2010, the Child Care Rebate annual cap will be $7,500 per child per year

So what about nannies?  Three months after my daughter was born I needed to be able to see clients without my daughter in tow.  We embarked on the nanny journey and it was pretty interesting.  We ended up with a wonderful girl by sheer luck but if you choose to use a nanny then be prepared to pay.

We negotiated $23/hour for our nanny 2 days a week without paid holidays (initially she wanted 4 paid annual leave days per annum).  To put it in perspective, a full day at childcare (7am-6pm) is roughly $66 before the Child Care Rebate/Child Care Benefit.  For a nanny for the same length of time, it's $253.

A trained nanny with experience will cost at least $20 per hour in Australia and be warned, nannies do not do any chores apart from those relating to the child - if you are looking for a cooked dinner and clean house when you get home, you'll be bitterly disappointed.  As our nanny pointed out, she was there to give all her attention to our daughter - did we really want her focusing on cleaning and cooking rather than our child?  Good point, although given my daughter had 2 sleeps during the day of 2 hours each I was curious as to how she would be spending that time.  Still, I was willing to pay (and fortunate to afford it) as I personally couldn't bare the thought of my 3 month old going to childcare.  But at six months, we did succumb to the childcare system and whilst we did have a number of absent weeks due to a series of hideous infections, our daughter has enjoyed it very much and as parents we have been extremely pleased with the centre we use.

If you are thinking of hiring a nanny, to qualify for the rebate make sure your nanny is a registered carer with the Australian Government.

So back to my Mum To Be and her :"How To Hire A Nanny" course - an altogether excellent idea - have you seen that Trial and Retribution episode about the nanny - chilling. 

Oh, and if you are thinking of bringing a nanny back from another country, you will need to organise appropriate visas and obviously you won't qualify for the government rebate...just be careful the nanny doesn't do a runner, I know of at least 2 girls who disappeared, visa in hand, after just a few days...