Grrrrrrr I have just had a rant at my local council ...................I'm so ANGRY!!

[christmosschops30]

ds was due to start school in april but didnt get a place.
He is now down for a place in September. However I have no way of getting him to our local nursery school, the logistics just dont work. School is from 9am til 12, he could go to private nursery from 8am but my shifts start at 7.30 and dh starts work at 7am.
My childminder who I have been with for 3 years will have ds for the three days I will work but obviously needs to take him to her local school with her children. I can apply for aplace here but he may lose points on proximity to home.
So my other plan was that if he didnt get in to childminders nursery school I would send him to childminder 3 days then 2 days of full-time nursery which would be funded by the council. However they say that if they offer me a place within 2 miles of home they wont pay for this, regardless of whether I can get him there or not.

Why is it that working parents get such a bum deal, Ive never claimed benefits and neither has dh, we get no help with childcare, no working families stuff nothing. It seems to me that all the perks are there for people who dont work and can take there own kids to school. Why do I feel like we're continually punished. What society doesnt help people who are trying to make a living and do everything themselves. I'm not requesting a top school or private education I just want a nursery class close to the only childcare I have

GOOD GOD i am sooo MAD!!!!!

[flack]

How old will your DS be in April? If he's under 5 he should still qualify for up to 5 funded sessions/week, at any Ofsted inspected nursery in England+Wales.
Um... I'm a SAHM and I don't get help with childcare or working families stuff either. Not sure what extra government-provided perks there are for me just because I don't work and can take DC to school myself.

[camillathechicken]

okkkkay

so all the perks are there for people who don;t work.

i'll tell that to my friend surviving on benefits as her DH left her and lost his job and so did she

[juuule]

I'm another SAHM who doesn't have access to any help with childcare or working families stuff or anything else for that matter, that I can think of.

[nametaken]

Your cross about 2 different things I'm guessing.

First the nursery school - must admit I have never heard of someone not being eligible for a place because they live more than 2 miles away - I absolutely don't think this is correct - mine lived more than 2 miles away - and would challenge the person who told you this. Maybe it was a trainee or a person not very good at their job who said this, either way I would double check and then challenge.

The other thing your cross about is probably a separate subject but what I will say is that whilst I certainly don't object to any single parent receiving benefits to live on, I also feel that married/partnered women should get the same benefits in order for them to be able to be SAHM IF THEY WISH - IMO not fair for a single parent to be paid to stay at home with dc's whilst a partnered one has to go out to work in order to pay high cost of housing

[mumofhelen]

I'm the other side of the coin. I'm a SAHM who is being pressurised into going back to work even though neither my husband nor I claim any sort of benefit, not even child tax credit as dh annual income is £60,000.

I've often remarked to the council that perhaps my child's place could go to someone like yourself, who wants the place. However, I have it on very good authority that people like myself, classed by the government as economically inactive, have priority over a in-paid-employment-working-mother like you when in comes to allocation to childcare. Hence why I'm being persued. Council have targets, and one of them is getting economically inactive mums back to work. There does not seem to be any targets along the lines of keeping mums in work. The more people complain the better. I'm fed up being told that I'm "alone" in this situation and opinion.

You are right to be mad.