Complex mix of childcare tests logistics

Freeman makes a dash for it after school at Grey Lynn, followed by Neil Porten, with Oria, and Suzanne Werder. Picture / Greg Bowker

Every working day, Neil Porten leaves his Avondale home at 8am, drops off six-year-old Freeman at Grey Lynn School, parks the car and catches a bus to get to his job in the city by 9am.

Except for every second Monday, a rostered day off he gets for working every second Sunday - on those days he heads home to Avondale to look after 1-year-old Orla. At 3pm they pick up Freeman after school. On alternate Mondays, wife Suzanne Werder stays home with Orla and collects Freeman.

On Monday nights, Neil, 36, drives to Massey and brings his mother, Ann, back to spend the night in the spare room. That's so Nana, who doesn't drive, can spend Tuesday with Orla while Neil and Suzanne go to work. A taxi takes Freeman home.

Wednesdays, Suzanne, 37, drives Orla to preschool near her job at the sexual health clinic at Auckland Hospital and Freeman goes to after-school care at the Ponsonby Community Centre.

On Thursdays, Neil, an archivist at the Herald, finishes early, catches the bus to Grey Lynn and takes Freeman for swimming lessons. He gets home in time to start preparing dinner before Suzanne arrives home with Orla, who has been in preschool.

Fridays, Orla again goes to preschool. Suzanne finishes early, collects Orla and picks up Freeman.

Each night, they try to have the children asleep by 7.30 so they can get some free time - perhaps watching the sun set over the Waitakeres from the deck of their 1920s stucco home in Avondale. It is their sanity break.

Their childcare arrangements seem complicated but are similar to those in hundreds of thousands of single or dual-parent homes.It's the kind of arrangement the Government wants more families to make so more people - women in particular - can push up GDP.

In Parliament this week, Prime Minister Helen Clark signalled policy changes affecting parental leave, pre-school and out-of-school care, flexible working hours and work-life balance in order to boost "both participation in the workforce and good outcomes for children".

She cited British plans for dawn-to-dusk out-of-school care as the kind of policy that will encourage people to live here.

The policy follows last year's decision that from July 2007, 20 hours a week free childcare will be available at non-profit centres. By 2012 all centres will have to meet national standards and employ qualified staff.

Clark says Treasury estimates that GDP per capita will rise 5.1 per cent if we lift participation rates to the average of the top five OECD nations. Her speech, apart from offending stay-at-home mums, raised the spectre of the latch-key generation: the idea that toddlers who spend most of the time at home with mum, dad and siblings make better citizens than those who spend 8 am to 6 pm in care. For any parent, the childcare question is touchy and there are no firm answers. Women may go back to work not only to improve living standards but because they love their job. And sending children to preschool is not just about preparing them for the disciplines of primary school - there are benefits, and losses. Most parents think hard about leaving children with others for any length of time and it's always a juggling act.

For parents who wish to work, or need to, any improvement in work-life balance seems laudable. But how, exactly?

Neil and Suzanne could just about afford fulltime childcare for Orla and just about manage on a single income. But both enjoy their work, and they want to spend as much time as possible with their children. "Fulltime care would be a lot less hassle but we're not in favour of all-day preschool," Suzanne says. "We would rather the children have some one-on-one with us and time with Nana."

Last July, when they devised their arrangement so Suzanne could work, they were gobsmacked by the logistics. Orla was then 8 months, Suzanne had been on leave without pay and the couple eased mortgage repayments. Luckily, it coincided with Freeman starting school. But it couldn't continue. "It's the sorting out that's really hard," Suzanne says. "Once you have it sorted you know it's going to be all right."

The regime means they spend $168 a week on childcare and taxi fares, saving $80. They're among the lucky ones. The district health board was willing to negotiate a nine-day fortnight for Suzanne and an early finish on Friday. And the hospital has a childcare centre. Neil's fortnightly roster is flexible and he can make up time taken off during the week. If one of the children is sick, they have plenty of sick leave up their sleeves.

Still, there are tradeoffs. Any change to either's roster could jeopardise the arrangement.

"It's hard work," says Suzanne. "You get up every morning, get to work and say, 'Thank God I can have a cup of tea."

Next month, when the sexual health clinic is moved to Green Lane hospital, Orla will switch to a home-based centre in Grey Lynn, near Freeman's school. "It will involve Nana doing something slightly different and I'll have to pick Orla up after work on a Wednesday," says Neil. "It will work out somehow."

If their lives are regimented, there are no regrets. On a 10-point scale, both rate their arrangement an 8 or 9. They are wary of the Government's plans - particularly if funding is directed only towards the non-profit childcare sector.

"For people like us, both earning reasonable incomes, I'm not sure what more the Government can do to help us," Suzanne says. "For me, it's more the relationship with my employer and the quality of childcare.

"If they're going to do anything to improve our situation it would be to put more money into early childhood care so we have quality of care throughout."

They would also welcome changes making it easier to negotiate the work-life balance. "It's not like you are trying to pull a swifty over your employer. It has to be equitable or it won't work."

The couple are thankful they have only one pre-schooler - doubling the childcare bill makes work prohibitive for many. Fulltime care in a typical pre-school costs about $240 a week. Non-profit centres are generally cheaper but may have fewer qualified staff.

Suzanne knows of parents who dash around every lunchtime shifting their offspring from pre-school to kindergarten for the afternoon, or the reverse, to reduce costs.

But few centres cater for workers who start at 7.30am or earlier, or finish after 5pm. School holidays present another challenge.

Suzanne and Neil's school term arrangement is only slightly more complicated than when Freeman was a toddler and Suzanne went back to work.

"Neil's Mum would look after him one or two days a week. I would drive out to Massey to drop him off, drive to work at Auckland Hospital, and then do the reverse in the evening."

Neil: "That was why we came up with the idea of having Nana sleeping over this time around. She's really good. We basically belt out the door at 8 in the morning and she takes over."

Suzanne: "It's as much for us as the kids, spending time with them - it's hard but we enjoy it."