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What are the child care options for families who work shifts?
Recently the subject of shift working has been in the news a fair bit with focus on those essential services that keep the country safe and ticking along.
People simply don't work 9 to 5 anymore. The world has gone 24/7 and service industries have to keep up with this new global "open all hours". How do shift-working families cope with managing school and child care?
It isn't just medical professions and emergency services that are now permanently on call. It's pretty much everyone. For example banking has now gone online and 24/7 and so its customer service teams need to be on the end of the phone to support this service.
Shift work has its upsides. It's generally well paid for unsociable hours and has good penalty rates, incentives and other financial benefits. But it has a huge toll on social life, relationships, sleep and general health.
Working in an upside down world is hard enough when you're single and don't have kids, but when you throw in a partner and a couple of children who operate in "normal" time, then things can get very complicated! So how do families cope?
In a recent interview on the ABC, Annabel Matheson, a lecturer in nursing at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst in central west NSW, talked about her research into how shift work affects the lives of female nurses.
She told the ABC that she interviewed ten women about their lifestyles and collated thousands of pages of data.
A qualified nurse, Ms Matheson recalled how she used to work under an alternating shift cycle early in her career, and said she remembers how it affected her life:
"I didn't know what all the fuss was about [about not being able to sleep]. When I stopped, I suddenly got it; I felt like I'd stopped hitting my head against a brick wall, because I realised how much better I felt by sleeping through the night and not through the day".
As part of her research, Ms Matheson said she wanted to know how women (in particular nurses) managed their shift work around their home and family lives.
The results had a common theme from woman to woman; with many saying the financial benefits they received by working shifts and getting penalty rates were positive incentives.
"The family was able to save money on child care and still make a fair bit of money, but that cost came to the woman and her relationships, not necessarily to the rest of the family", said Matheson.
The cost came in lack of sleep, meaning they found it harder to cope with their kids, had less patience and were "crankier" with their families.
They also suffered from guilt - feeling they weren't doing a good job at home or at work. And in order to try to give time to their kids and families, they simply slept less. And so the vicious circle continued.
Managing family life and work is a juggling act in normal hours, so throw in unsociable working hours and it gets even harder. Especially when most child care is bound to 8-6pm.
This can be managed if one of a partnership works normal hours, for single parents or families where neither mum or dad work child care friendly hours, finding suitable child care is nigh on impossible.
What are the options?
Most families where a parent or both parents work unusual hours rely heavily on family and sometimes friends. But there are a few child care options that could work if family and friends are not available:
Family Day Care – many family day care providers are more flexible than long day care centres. However most Family Day Care providers have their own families to juggle, so they can only be so flexible before it impacts their own family life.
Nannies and Au Pairs - a great option for those with odd working hours, especially when they live in. But most families don't have space for an au pair, or resources for a nanny, especially not while nannies are not eligible for the child care rebate.
Occasional Care - this is a flexible service which provides high quality child care on an occasional or ad hoc basis from as little as one hour to a full day. Parents only pay for the time their children are in care. Occasional care centres are family grouped and are licensed for children from birth to five years old.
In Home Care - this is another nanny-style option, is a flexible form of child care which enables families with unusual work, location or care requirements to access approved child care in their own home. It is subsidised and therefore requires families to meet certain eligibility requirements. Families where the parent/s work non-standard hours or do shift work are currently eligible (as long as other criteria are met) so it's definitely worth asking Centrelink/Dept of Human Services if you qualify for in home care if you work shifts.
There have been talks about widening the eligibility for in home care, but currently In-home care is only available to families that are unable to access standard child care services and/or families in unusual circumstances:
- Families with a parent or parents with a chronic illness or disability
- Families with a child or children with a chronic illness or disability
- Families in rural and remote parts of Australia
- Families where the parent/s work non-standard hours or do shift work
- Families which have three or more children under school age
- Families which have three or more children born at the same time
For more information check out our Parent Guides or search for different forms of child care near you on CareforKids.com.au and for eligibility for in home care call The Department of Human Services Families Department on 136 150 or visit your local branch. |
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