Mother's biggest helper is the boss

Kimarie Ramdhari says she would love to spend every day at home with her daughter Isabel, but she has to work. Photo / Richard Robinson

Auckland mother Kimarie Ramdhari would love to spend every day at home with her 8-month-old daughter Isabel - but like many parents she had to return to work to pay the bills.

And she says a difficult process was made much easier by her employers at Microsoft NZ, who were very understanding and happy to be flexible with hours if needed.

"When I came back I just went straight back into my old role" said Mrs Ramdhari, who works in IT.

"It was harder emotionally than it was practically."

The 26-year-old believes part of the reason her transition back to work went so easily was to do with the fact she works for a large multinational company which supports parents.

"Even in terms of the hours I work and the flexibility around that ... if she's sick I just call in and say I'm going to work from home today or I'm not going to work and it's fine."

Mrs Ramdhari returned part-time in April but has been fulltime again since last month.

Her daughter is in fulltime care at Bear Park in Albany at a cost of just over $200 a week.

Offering better support to help parents get back into the workforce is one of several recommendations in a review of early childhood education.

Suggestions include employers helping with adopting "family friendly changes to the workplace and working arrangements" such as offering flexible hours and using technology that enables parents to work from home.

Another is "salary sacrifices", under which early childhood education would be provided in return for the employee accepting a lower salary - meaning they would avoid having to cover early childhood expenses out of their after-tax earnings.

Mrs Ramdhari said although this was a good idea in theory, she questioned how it would work as fees varied greatly among centres, making it difficult if the child changed centres and a lower salary rate had already been negotiated.

Other parts of the report looked at changing the funding system so better off families paid more - something that Ms Ramdhari was against.

Returning to work was a financial decision for her and her husband.

"It came down to having two incomes and the cost of daycare was offset by my salary so it was worth it."

But if fees increased, it might not be worth her working anymore.

"If it became cost neutral, I'd definitely be staying at home."