Booking Childcare Early

[Bellarose]

This may sound like a stupid question.... but can you put your child on a waiting list for childcare before you're pregnant ??? It sounds like childcare is so hard to get into.
I'm not pregnant yet, but I know that I will need to go back to work after 6 months.
Any advice ????

[rynosmum]

Yep, when I registered my son, I was four months pregnant. There were heaps of people ahead of me who had not conceived a child yet.

To me, this is ridiculous and causes more harm than good for the whole childcare system however this is what you will be faced with so I'd recommend to put your name down where-ever they will let you :fingerscrossed:

The sooner you get your name down, the better.:D

[xkwzit]

Yes, ditto everything RynosMum said:thumbsup:

[InSaneOne]

yes absolutely do it as soon as you get those 2 little lines on your test.

[littlepickle]

It also depends on where you live - if you are in a heavily populated area, there sem to be longer waiting lists than for smaller lass populated areas. I have been lookng around and there are vacancies i a lot of places in the "burb's" but waiting lists in the cities. I have registered with a large childcare place in Brisbane CBD and they said that they have quite short waiting lists as they are a large establishement.. best to ring around and check what you are up against

[madvoice]

I had my daughter down at half a dozen childcare centres two weeks after I found out I was pregnant (about 6 weeks along). I didn't waste time. A place came up for her when she was 5 months old.

[shed]

I rang up about it when I was about 12 weeks pregnant or something (can't remember), and the whole process was such a pain in the neck that we have decided not to bother with it, I am going to stay home for longer than first planned and then we will use Family Daycare.

Anyway, not much help, just wanted to say good luck and yes, get in as soon as you want to. If there is a place when you need it there is a place, and if there's not, there's not.