By Avia Ustanny, Freelance Writer
Before going off to work, Sonia Miller must take her sons Trevaughn and Dervaughn to the nursery. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer
WHAT DO they do with their children when they want to party? Or when they must work late?
Single parents of children aged just a few months to 10 years do have many options for child care. But, they come at a price.
If your pocket is deep enough, you can find someone to take your kids off your hands and entertain them better than you would.
But, not many single, working parents can afford the joys of the centre where Junior can be taught karate, Spanish and art and craft, kept until 8 o'clock at night, fed, bathed and pampered.
At the Dorian Centre in Portmore, south east St. Catherine, children are treated to all of the above and more. Also, the centre offers 24-hour care, if needed. Janet Simmondswho has been using the facility for two years told Flair, "The children are taken to Serenity Park, to the zoo and to do swimming lessons and computers too." The cost is $2,000 each week for nursery and $2,000 for after care.
At Future Leaders Centre in Kingston, after care (catering for children who leave school early and need to be cared for until parents leave work) costs $1,400 each week. The tots in day care are given karate lessons, music, introduced to computers, taken on field trips and also to watch movies. Day care, costing $2,000 weekly, also includes three meals each day. In after care, one meal is provided and homework is supervised.
The packages are most attractive, but how many women can pay for them? Those who patronise the higher-priced care facilities say that though it is hard to find the fees, one must pay for what one wants.
Judith Mair, 36-year-old mother of a three-year-old boy who goes to pre-school and after care at Dorian, is ecstatic about the nursery and after-care centre in Portmore where she shells out upwards of $23,000 each term for daily care. The overtime bills, coinciding with her late working hours are also often quite high. The overtime rate is $100 per hour, and begins after 11 hours of nursery care.
But she says, "They help him with his homework, now that he has started pre-school, and give him his dinner and play with him. Sometimes when I go too early to pick him up, he cries. He knows that when he goes home, Mommy has no time for that. Sometimes on the weekend he is crying for his 'Grandmama' (his name for his care-giver at the nursery). If I want to stay out late at nights I can leave him there too", she says.
GETTING A NANNY
Some mothers think that the 'substitute Mom'-effect of a live-in Nanny is a better option than a nursery where their child would have to battle for attention with 20 other children. Nannies may work out cheaper too. Pre-school, combined with after-care, may cost as much as $4,000 each week.
Those who do choose to get a nanny or helper do it not for the mere economic advantage. Sheraine Mills, 35-year-old mother from Portmore, told Flair; "It is important for my daughter to see familiar faces and have a family routine. I chose a helper over day care because I had heard horror stories about nurseries. I went through six helpers before I found someone who I can rely on. Now, the one I have is not perfect, but the only way she will leave now is if she wants to."
Those with new-born babies may also have to get helpers to look after them until they are six months old. The nurseries which will take them before this stage are not exactly abundant. Live-in helpers cost $2,000 and upwards weekly.
By far, the extended family is still the most popular option for child care. For many moms who still reside in the same community with relatives, the family network of grandma, aunts and even next door neighbours provides the best care-net that they need to ensure their children are safe and cared for when they are not around.
Some women use a mix of friends, family and the nursery to ensure that their children are being cared for at all times.
Danisha Fairclough, a 30-year-old library assistant, is the mother of a four-year-old daughter and another who is only three months old. The three-month-old was just placed in a nursery.
While her older daughter stays with her great-grandmother after school, that kind relative was unable to care for any more children. Fairclough's children's father does not live with her, and even when he comes by, he is often called away to work. The nursery was the only option.
"It was a scary choice to make," Fairclough says. The memory of a cousin who was 'dropped' on his head as a child at a nursery and who was crippled as a result kept coming back to her. But, she chose this nursery on the recommendation of her grandmother. She has not been disappointed yet.
The creche operator passed Danisha's own "personality and practise test".
"She appeared quite polite and she has done some training in child care. Also, she is an old-enough lady - well in her 50s. She is also very clean. She puts the bottles where other children cannot reach them and sterilises them daily."
The amount of money she pays "is reasonable", Danisha says. For her older daughter, she gives her grandmother a "gift" of $1,000 each month and also buys her vegetables when she goes to the market.
Flair's survey of single moms, showed that not all appeared to be party animals, constantly in need of late night assistance when they want to go out.
Melanie Wright, 32 years old, told Flair, "I do not go out." When she is at work, her mom cares for her nine-year-old daughter. Going out often includes the children and weekends are family time when kids may be despatched to Grandma or other relatives.
"Anyone who wants to take me out, I tell them they have to take my daughter too," says 42-year-old Maxine Stoddardwhose daughter is nine years old.
She also takes her daughter abroad with her when she travels, as the last time she left the child with friends, "they roughed her up".
Those who have no relatives nearby and available, and who cannot afford to shell out $2,000 weekly will settle for the basics of getting their children fed, possibly bathed and kept out of harms way in a neighbourhood creche until they return home from work. These may charge from $120 to $200 a day.
Others have no qualms about leaving children aged eight and over, home alone. The telephone is used as a means of monitoring the young ones while they are out of sight.
Althea Hill, 33-year-old mother of two sons and a daughter, admits that this is what she did when her daughter, the oldest child, was at home. But, now that she is away at boarding school, she has resorted to leaving the boys with a neighbour or by her mother.
"I cannot leave the boys alone at home, they are too rude," she says.
Where children are well behaved, the older they get, the more likely they are to be left to fend for themselves with the telephone as a means of contact.
Names changed on request.
