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Parent’s Resource Guide: If you’re seeking options for early learning childcare, Bedfordale and its surrounding areas may offer several possibilities. However, managing the challenges of getting children into and through early learning programs can, at times, be daunting for parents.

Parent’s Resource Guide: Early learning childcare, Bedfordale and elsewhere

In what follows, let’s assume you’ve found, selected and checked out a provider of early learning centre childcare. As a friendly reminder in passing, when doing so, remember to keep in mind that ‘childcare’ and ‘early learning childcare’ are in some cases two very different things!

At that stage, you may be facing several potential concerns:

• logistical – i.e. how to get your child to and from the venue of the early learning childcare centre;
• emotional – it’s not easy for parents to be consistently parted from their children for possibly the first time in their lives. Difficulties here are more commonplace than you might expect;
• financial – most of us today need to be budget-conscious. That’s perfectly normal but nevertheless, it can still be a worry;
• social networks and family – although declining in number, there are still some sections of the community that may believe that young children are best off in the home being cared for by a parent. The social pressures there can be subtle (or sometimes much less so!) but still sensed.

Fortunately, you may have some options for assistance and reassurance.

Logistical

These can often be overcome with a little asking around.

Family or friends offering lifts might be a possibility. That can be checked out via the usual networks but remember to make sure the person offering the rides has appropriate insurance – and if you’re paying them for it, that insurance may need to be looked at again as using a vehicle for ‘hire or reward’ might invalidate ordinary personal use insurance cover for cars.

It’s also worth asking the early learning childcare provider. They may know of a parents’ network of car sharing that you may be able to link into.

Emotional

We have mentioned this before in our blogs but it is a fact that some parents may find it emotionally difficult, at least initially, to leave their child in the care of other people. It can be a big wrench in the first days or weeks, particularly if you and your child have never been separated before.

Of course, your child might also find it strange and worrying but in our experience, children very quickly adapt. You will too in time but that will be easier if you’ve selected a childcare centre that you fully trust and feel comfortable with.

Financial

There are national and WA state funds available to ensure that early learning childcare (called normally “pre-school” in official language use) is available to potentially all.

Of course, these are inevitably subject to qualifying conditions surrounding eligibility. This is too detailed to go into detail in this article but you can find out more through the official government website here.

Social attitudes

This is a declining issue, as attitudes change and old assumptions about parental roles and ‘home responsibilities’ move towards increasingly reflecting the realities of modern society.

Even so, it may be visible in some quarters particularly if there are outstanding legacy assumptions about the privilege of having children in early learning centre environments.

There is no easy solution to this other than to say parents will typically be inclined to do what they believe is in the best interests of their children. In the end, the approval of others may be of very secondary importance.