mekyria | child care

It's my second week on the job and the second week that Eliza is going to daycare. I figured that it might be interesting to write a bit about the Dutch system, which is designed to keep women/mothers in the workforce. The Dutch have the highest percentage of women participating in the workforce of the EU, as well as the highest percentage of people (men and women) working part-time. The general consensus is that while the children are young, one or both parents work part-time plus the child(ren) go to daycare part-time. Once the children are older, it is easier for both parents to get back to working full-time, they don't have a gap in their CV and they have maintained their knowledge and position in their field.

For us, it works out like this: E. takes one day of unpaid parental leave for a year. I take one day of unpaid parental leave for one year. This leaves us with three days where we need to cover childcare. Eliza goes to daycare for two days a week, for which we pay 680 euro per month (yes, that is a lot). The government gives us 350 euro per month to subsidize childcare, because as long as we work we pay taxes which on the long term really adds up. The rule is that the government only supports childcare if both parents work, and only for the hours that the part-time working person is at work. For the families with one working parent, daycare is ridiculously expensive.

We're lucky that my mom volunteered to babysit one day a week. She's 63 and could swing it with her job and she's loving it. In exchanges I try to get her to do all the fun activities. Last Sunday we went to baby massage which my mom and Eliza both loved. I always thought my mother knew everything about child rearing but times have changed and this is her granddaughter instead of her child, so she is still searching for her role without imposing views on us. She stayed at home with us until we were all in high school, I am back at work after three months. My father worked full-time, while E works part-time and has an active role in running the house and caring for Eliza and Noushka. Not to mention the technological advances: diapers might not be good for the environment, but they do a wonderful job at keeping her dry and happy through the night. Many things are different, like rules for feeding, methods on sleeping and other child rearing practices. We have no clue what we're doing here but everyone seems happy most of the time so we'll just keep on going.

Eliza is doing well, she is a happy and relaxed baby and is already charming all the boys. The other kids in daycare (the group is max 12 kids of ages 0-4) love her because a little baby in the group makes them feel big. I hope that this feeling transfers to her as well, making it easier for her and us if she becomes a big sister. That's not going to happen soon, I can tell you. At this age she's not very active yet: she is recently starting to gurgle a bit with vowels, she loves fidgeting with fabric (she takes after me ;-) ) and she is very frustrated that she can't roll over yet. She likes playing in her playpen, looking at her mobile and talking to her plushies. When she's bored of that, she likes to be cuddles, we read Miffy baby books with pictures, taking a walk in the baby carriage and being carried around on the arm and keeping an eye on things. Once she can crawl I bet she'll be up to no good and we have to keep a close eye on her!