‘It’s a real juggle’: Farmers struggling to access childcare

Families are juggling farming jobs while parenting young kids due to limited childcare options in the regions, adding to their financial stress.

Farmers are being forced to bring their children to work due to a lack of childcare options in the regions, a new report has found.

The report, published today by The Parenthood, showed more than 80 per cent of the 855 families surveyed said they felt “financial stress” as they struggled to access early childhood education for their children.

The Parenthood campaign director Maddy Butler said the conversation about equitable early childhood education access was “not going away”, with little improvement in recent years in the number of families stranded in childcare deserts.

“The early learning shortage in rural and remote Australia is not an isolated issue, and has flow-on effects impacting the whole nation,” Ms Butler said.

“Things are generally more expensive in the regions anyway, and parents are struggling to participate in paid employment due to lack of care, and that’s causing financial stress. Some families have told us they work night shifts, look after the kids during the day, barely getting any sleep … it’s a real juggle.”

Early childhood education remains a struggle for many families in regional, rural, and remote Australia, with more families feeling the cost of living pressure and seeking additional employment.

Anna Crowe is a mother of two young children – two-year-old Charlie and three-month-old Jack – on a mixed livestock operation at Codrington in Victoria.

While Charlie is enrolled at an early childhood education centre several days a week, Ms Crowe spends about two hours driving him to and from the centre, which is based in Port Fairy.

She said she would be “tearing her hair out” if she didn’t have access to childcare, especially when trying to work around the farm in a safe manner.

“There are just some things I can’t do. I can’t do any spraying with either of them. The cattle work I can do with the baby but not the toddler. Some of the mobs of cattle I can only get with a motorbike, and I can’t do that with dogs and kids,” Ms Crowe said.

“It’s mainly a safety thing. The daycare gives a lot of things to my kids that I can’t do with them.”

Farmsafe Australia data shows children under the age of 15 account for 15 per cent of on-farm fatalities.

Ms Butler said flexible child care solutions were needed, particularly for farming families struggling to access care and juggle farming hours and shift work.