Parents sharing childcare

[MaraJade]

Hi everyone,

I have heard that Oz is very family orientated and that many parents share the childcare duties by one parent working say 3 days a week and the other 2 days a week. Is this true? If so could you maybe elaborate a bit on how employers feel about it, i.e are they happy to make such arrangements, as well as how do they manage it in terms of pay structure etc. Also is it a common thing in oz for one parent to stay at home with the children?

Any info in this regard would be very helpful

 

[AFreshStart]

@MaraJade,

 

I can only speak from our own experience. I was the primary caregiver to to our kids for years, first being at home where we arrived and then moved to part-time, 15-20hrs a week, 8 of which were in the office, the rest I could do from home. 

 

Later I went on to being employed full-time at another company going to 76-hours a fortnight and my wife changed her hours to part-time and we share responsibilities.

 

It a lot more acceptable here, as is being a Stay-at-Home Dad.

 

if you have more than one child under the age of 6 (school going age) you are better off staying home or hiring an ah pair as childcare costs here in Sydney can reach over $150 a day PER child...

 

It's going to depends on your industry as to how your employer works with part-time employment, but it's again, more common place here.

 

Cheers

 

Matt

 

[RYLC]

Yes it is the norm for one parent to stay home with young children.  Once they start school, then it's common to get part time work during schools hours.

 

It's less likely that parents work different days of the week.  Usually one parent (usually dad but sometimes mum) works a traditional 8:30 to 5 job fulltime.  The other parent cares for kids, gets them to school, fetches them and maybe works part time for a local business so that they are closer to school.

 

I know other families where one is a police officer (wife) and one is in the health industry eg nursing assistant (dad).  They both work shifts and make sure that one of them is always available when the kids are at home.  So one shift may be from 6 am to 2 pm while the other parent does 2 pm to 6 pm. So there is always somebody for school pick up.

 

So part time work is often every day for a limited number of hours.  There is also job share which is 2 days for one person and 3 days for the other but these situations are less common.