Daycare centres are too expensive. Playgroups have long waiting list. Subsidy should be paid to childcare directly. There is just so much unhappiness.

too much government control and taxing! the DN mentioned low income group can claim up to 1300 euros/month, but for medium income group (which majority of people are), we are the one who suffer. 4 days/week in the creche, cost us almost 1000euros/ month!!!! and that is after tax reduction! if one parent to give up job to look after the child, who will contribute to the pension for that parent when he/she is longer in work force? The poorest and the richest always benefited more than the middle class.

I have fantastic day-care for my children, the staff are wonderful, the price is right and the children are happy.

However, they have out-sourced their financial administration to a third party (Debicare) who don't seem to know their behind from their elbow - and so I am now considering removing my children from this EXCELLENT centre because I am sick of being threatened with lawyers for bills I paid months ago.

Thirteen hundred Euros a month? Hell, I don't even make that much of a sallery. So you are talking that only the wealthy can afford daycare for thier children?

I agree with ufo that subsidys should be paid to childcare directly that way it gets to where it should be going and keeping daycares in the black and not having to depend on dead-beat partents

I don't understand this government politics. In one hand they said they want to increase the presence of the women in companies, but in the other hand they want to cut the subsidies for daycare.
How do they expect that a mother who works fulltime can afford the daycare, if all her salary will go directly to the creche?
So, she works to maintain the creche! Crazy!
It's better just to stay at home and care for her children.
It is a difficult choice for a woman: you either work until you are 40 and can afford daycare and then try to have a child, or just work forever and never have children or be a desperate housewife.

Daycare is very expensive in Netherlands. Without subsidy, it is almost not affordable to normal family. Daycare is also very important to people's life and children's development. Espcially to the young family. Government should not cut daycare subsidy or they should offer cheaper daycare options.

we use organised daycare. I regard the costs of daycare as a direct cost of going to work, and so should be considered non-taxable. It's discriminatory that companies can write off their business costs before tax, yet I can't.

It's not almost unaffordable - it is COMPLETELY unaffordable - especially if you have more than one child. There was no way on earth we could afford it.

To be honest, I was anticipating this with joy. Fortunately I live alone (my own choice), but I have married friends who actually need the money to both work, but because of the outrageous daycare costs their second earner would either earn less than daycare would cost(!!!), or would earn so little that it's just not worth it.

It's good they feel the negative effects of their efforts to rip people off.

My 2 children go to excellent daycare. BUT they get picked up before 5pm everyday but we still must pay until it closes at 6.30pm. 2 children, 3 days pw x 1.5 hours @ €6.50 per hour = €58.50pw for hours that we don't use. Daycare centers wonder why people are finding alternatives?? I would like to try to get paid for hours that I'm not at work!!

Working_mom

Yup, It's better just to stay at home and care for her children. Shame that it is no longer an affordable option these days. Better for the kids, and better for the mom's. Also a shame that we have other people raising our kids. Perhaps, we urgently need affordable housing then two salary's are not so important?

Highlander

Who are you to say that it is better for everybody if children do not go to daycare and mothers quit their jobs stay with them? Where are your scientific data about it?
There is none. Easy.|
It should be an individual choice, a personal choice of the family how to raise the children and the government should provide the means to do it.

@Highlander: the idea that women should stay home to raise children is outdated, abhorrent and sexist. As if mothers were inherently "unfit" for work - which was a prejudicial view that hold many women with children from progressing in their careers as employers think fathers will work harder and be more responsible as they age, whereas women would just be "distracted" and "lose interest" from work after they give birth.

In other European countries family/grandparents/aunts help out. Not here?

I am a house-husband. The only job I could find here had a zero hour contract so it was difficult to arrange and pay for childcare when I had no idea if or when I would be working. My wife goes to work (and is paid an extremely low salary) while I look after the home and children. There are many advantages to this arrangement. However, I find the social attitude to men like me to be outdated. I often get comments like "so you sit around at home all day doing nothing."

@Joanna

As I said, one just cannot have it all, we need a new approach. It is impossible to combine a stressful career and motherhood?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-484348/Were-tired-time-say-60-cent-working-mothers.html

I am wondering why we don't have low cost day cares In Netherland, Any pointers for that I am thinking of starting low cost & flexible daycares.

We can't make use of daycare for our child, as it's too expensive. Affordable daycare should be part of a healthy society's rights through tax-payer money. That's such a sensitive period for parents in life already, bringing up a child in early years. When will the system support the people, and not the people support the system..? Steady families and a happy society would be the result!

@Highlander

It is possible to combine things with the proper support both from family and government. And I am saying this knowing that I will for sure slow down, and at least get a part-time contract when my children will be here.
But it must be a choice, and it should also be up to the women's intelligence to seek for help and do not pretend to have everything perfect like society wants us to be.

@Joanna

The government is not obligated to look after your children. It is your own choice to have a family, we have to face our responsibility's and live within our means. This dependency on social services is coming to an end, government cannot sustain the financial burden any longer. This is taking place in every country in Europe, family's have to be more supportive as they should be and also to their elderly. Unfortunately, family units are more fragmented in these times and we only look to ourselves, the mindset needs to change. Society will have to adjust accordingly, there is no other way to resolve these complex issues, and, the adjustment will be painful for many it seems.

@Highlander

I wasn't going to comment on this article until I saw this:

@Joanna
The government is not obligated to look after your children. It is your own choice to have a family...

This is a really shortsighted comment. The government needs children to keep the country running. Families need to work to support the children. Aunts/Grandmothers and the other older women you suggest to help out are not always available, especially to an expat. Daycares are required. A solution needs to be found and it is not to dump an unworkable situation back as blame onto the mother. Having kids is an essential part of life.

1300 Euro for 4 days! this is what we pay and get a little back from Gov. Anyhow, I think, A System that shows the REAL COST is a good system. Let's face it: this is what it cost: 85 Euros a day = 10 Euros/hour in the creche. Ours is a Stichting, no real profit. ALL other solutions are 100% subsidised and cost money to taxpayer is not visible (see Italy or Germany).

@Emma
(This is a really shortsighted comment. The government needs children to keep the country running) Not so short sighted Emma, the government is NOT going to support family's, that is why they have not promoted affordable housing, which in turn promotes (indigenous) population growth. This is why we require immigration, and we all know how that story is going to end. Simply, the chicken and the egg metaphor. Unfortunately, our governments have been short sighted to say the least and allowed housing costs to get out of control. The answer lies in our high cost of living, there is sense in this argument. Family's are being squeezed to the limit. I don't hear any angry voices from the Sheeple?

So it looks like I am on the other side of this....As a person in a relationship who have decided not to have children.

I am amazed so much money is given to to parents to pay for childcare...

I know my view will not be popular and I do not intend to create an argument. I just did not realise how much money parents recieved.

Cheers
Dave.

@ Emma, why do you need to work are you a single mother or do you need to work because your mortgage is not affordable with one salary, I agree with Highlander, woman should be able to raise their children at home and not have to considder a daycare center, the first three years of the baby's development is most crucial, they should bond with the parents and not with strangers who are not caring for the well being of the child. If housing was more affordable than a second income would not be neccesary.

Oh yecch Hester and Highlander. Unless you can prove kids with stay-at-home moms become more well-adjusted adults, quit the finger-wagging. I can think of a couple of good reasons that it should be a matter of CHOICE:

1. Cheaper housing isn't the only issue...higher post-secondary costs,etc. plus the increasing instability of job contracts requires that either or both parents should have the option to work to save for costs that could rise ridiculously between birth and adolescence.

2. People divorce. Spouses die. Technology and in-demand skills change according to market demand. A surviving parent who has a gap in his or her CV is less employable. Retraining (especially in this country after a certain age) isn't cheap. The choice is either taxpayer subsidized daycare or taxpayer subsidized welfare. Because...

3. Not everyone has family who can care for their kids...expats more than anybody should realize this!! And with the retirement age rising and pensions unstable, grandparents may need to work and work longer.

(I HATE this 120-word limit!)

3. Things CHANGE. If you have the ability to predict your life from the moment your child is born, then donate your brain to science, please. Should everybody stop having kids because potentially childcare could be necessary? Those who say "don't have kids if you can't afford to stay home" must have really predictable boring lives if they honestly believe they can control every single life event including illness, job loss, etc.

4. Some women love to work. And working women can be a good role model for their kids, especially for girls. You CAN love both your kids and career. A resentful stay-at-home mom can't possibly be good for kids.

I didn't have a choice and don't appreciate being told that my son was short-changed. Can you really tell the difference between people who went to daycare as kids and those who didn't??