When to organise Childcare?

[MegACT]

Hi,
I live in the ACT and have just found out I am 5 weeks pregant with my first :) I know its early days but I have no idea what the waiting lists are like with Childcare. I plan to stay home hopefully until Bubs is 6 months old and then go back to work part-time for financial reasons.
When should i be looking at Childcare options so that I dont miss out? And how much a day should i expect to pay if Bubs is in there from 8.30am to 5pm?
I also have no idea if we will be eligible for a Childcare rebate.
Thanks!

Meg

[rynosmum]

Start organising childcare on Monday - no joke. Then call them every month and ensure that you are travelling up the list.

I listed with 14 centres when I was 4 months pregnant with my DS. I was offered a couple of days when he was 6 months old - spots at some of the others never came up.

I'm just lucky that we found a brand new centre with spots still available (so look out for any new centres opening up as well).

Best of luck!

[~rambox~]

I agree with Ryno as it is hard to get a spot in good childcare centers atm

[draught]

I had my first child in the ACT and put my name down at centres whilst pregnant. Three of them rang me the week that she turned 6 months....which was also the week that we left Canberra to move to Queensland. So - the short answer is - put your name down now and do it at a number of centres and you might get lucky for the 6 month mark.

There is a booklet that the ACT government produces that lists all the centres in the ACT - it is a very useful guide to those in your area. Not sure where to find it online but any of the child health centres will be able to give you a copy.

[francis]

We were lucky. We decided to put her into childcare at 18 months old. The third place we called had a spot for her right away. With our second it took 4 weeks from when we let them know. The first two places said 6 months wait, and I never heard back from either of them.

[MegACT]

Wow im shock! I didnt realise it would be that hard. Im glad i asked the question.
Thankyou so much for your response! I'll start having a look into it this week :)

[whatwasithinking]

Centres on the Northside seem pretty good. Also have you thought about Family Day Care? (at least for the short term so you can then get the centre you want at a time that is available IYNWIM) I'll try and do some digging to get you some contacts. Might take me a week or so. But in the meantime look in the yellow pages and just ring ring ring and chat chat chat (that's what I did - just rang them up from the ypages)

You would be better getting a spot at the beginning of the yr though as that is when the kids all move rooms (your's would be in the babies room), so spots are more available. But just noticing your due date that won't really be easy to do as you only want 6mths off.

I am due to have number 3 in Aug and wanted to have 12mths off but my daycare said I would need to go back in Jan if I wanted to secure a spot for the baby as well as my second child again.

Anyways feel free to PM me espcially if you want to chat about the northside centres (I had my names on several and they all rang me and offered spots within 6mths).