Childcare costs: Your stories

Many parents in Britain are paying in excess of �8,000 a year for a full-time nursery place, a survey suggests.

The Daycare Trust also found that nursery fees have risen more than the rate of inflation.

Parents told the BBC news website how they manage childcare.

SHANNON, EVERSLEY, HAMPSHIRE

Shannon with her twins Fraser and Charlotte

I have young twins, they're 15 months old. I had a problem finding suitable childcare but I managed to find a really good nursery which they went to when they were five months old. It cost me �2,000 a month. After a while it just got too expensive so I moved them. I was really pleased to get them places at a council-run nursery. It now costs �1,400 a month.

I do use childcare vouchers but the scheme is very complicated and I've had to really keep across everything to make sure people are getting paid. Childcare is frightening in cost. If my employment situation changes, I would have to pull the twins out of nursery. Then I'd lose the nursery places. There are waiting lists everywhere.

Our income has been severely impacted.

MARK ROGERS, LONDON

Childcare is expensive. I have a three year old son and I pay about �12,000 for a nanny share. A full-time nursery is not much cheaper - about �9,000.

I find the childcare system too bureaucratic and limited. It's aimed at people who are on PAYE and who work so-called normal hours. It just isn't flexible enough for today's parents.

Mark with his son Dallas

The government solutions seem long on rhetoric and paperwork, short on practicality. I run a small business and I tried doing the government voucher scheme but found it unbelievably complex and bureaucratic both for me and for the nanny. She has had to go on two courses, run by different agencies, and register with three different bodies.

As for 'Early Years Grants' what are they? No wonder few take advantage of the help available. The money is spent on announcements and initiatives but there is no follow through.

JOSS MUNRO, UPPER BEEDING, WEST SUSSEX

Joss with her children

My children are now nearly two and five. I did go back to work after the first but for a number of reasons I left work. I had a great career in multimedia and used part-time childcare for a while when I went back to work. After a few months I decided that I should quit; childcare was was too expensive and I felt I was missing out on my children's development. I wanted to do the really important job of making their precious early years the best I could.

I now feel relieved not to have left my children with young and badly paid staff. Childcare workers should be high calibre because they are dealing with the young and vulnerable. At present though most are paid just above minimum wage. What do we expect for this? Obviously to pay them well would make childcare inaccessible to most due to the cost. It seems to me the only option is a state funded system that is open to all not just the poor.

Lizzie (five) and Lucy (two)

We are now struggling as we live on one salary between four of us but get very little in the way of help so we are now worse off than my single parent friends who can look after their children more comfortably.

A bit of support for families with a stay at home parent would be most welcome. There should be proper pay, training and support for the people who provide childcare.

We must realise that childcare should not be about profit but about the future of our society in its rawest most precious form. Even those without children need a strong next generation to support them through our economy in the future.

Some may say I should hand my kids over and get a job but I feel that parenting the young needs to be recognised as a useful role in society; it seems to be slightly lost in all of this.

EMMA, AYLESBURY

My one-year-old son is in nursery full-time and it costs me �9,000 a year. I would prefer to work part-time but it is actually cheaper to send him full-time because the nursery charges more for part-time places.

When I get home I feel sad that I have missed out on my son's day and that he may have missed out on spending time with me. I worry that the relationship could be damaged because of this.

Emma, Aylesbury

I do feel I would get a better work and life balance if I went part-time but it's not an option for me. When I'm at work I have to get on with it but when I get home I feel sad that I have missed out on my son's day and that he may have missed out on spending time with me. I worry that the relationship may have been damaged because of it.

When I was on maternity leave, he had the support of a loving parent. Now I worry about the long-term psychological damage being in full-time nursery may be causing him. I worry that he might feel insecure and develop social problems later in life.

If I didn't go back to work though, I would have to change the way we live. I'm always weighing up the benefit of going back to work with staying at home.

It doesn't make sense to me that a woman's employer must allow her to take one year of maternity leave, but that free childcare is only available when the child is three. If the government expects us to return to work after one year then some subsidy must be available for childcare from the age of one.

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