Suggestions for long day care in North Sydney...

Would anyone have any suggestions? It looks like we'll be relocating after March 31st next year to Sydney. Although we're looking to live in the north western suburbs of Sydney, my workplace will allow me to do a transfer to their North Sydney office.

Does anyone have any suggestions for good daycare centres in that area, and generally how much the daily charges are? For Maddy (who is in the toddler room) we pay about $53/day up here and provide our own nappies & lunch.

Any help, information or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :)

Hey Beckibee, I used to work in North Sydney and I looked into the childcare centres in North Sydney area late last year. All I could find were about 4 or 5 ABC centres and all but one of them were corporate centres for MLC, Optus, CBA and a couple of other big companies and when I rang them they told me I could only enrol if I worked for one of those companies.
The other centre which was open to everyone (also an ABC) had a waiting list and were charging between $80 and $95 per day (depending on age group). I cant remeber if it included nappies and food, but for that much I would hope it would!! I was a bit shocked at how much it was so I told them no thanks!
There is also Family Day Care in North Sydney council area.
I actually havent looked into it lately though as my office has moved into the city, so I'm not sure if any new ones have opened up. I suppose depending on where you are travelling from there are other nearish to North Sydney, in Crows Nest, St Leonard etc. I called one in Crows Nest and they had vacancies and were charging between $71 and 83 per day.
Such a rip off :(
Where will your hubby be working? Maybe it will be less expensive/shorter witing lists there. From what I can gather from what other people have said, it seems to be more expensive the closer to the city you are.

Sorry if I wasnt helpful, but just thought I'd tell you the info I was told when I mde phone calls about it!
Where will your hubby be working?

Thanks so much! :) Hubby will be working in Sydney city so probably even more difficult to find affordable & available places. Perhaps it would be more advisable to find one closer to the areas we're looking to live...ftr is around Pennant Hills.

I really hope it doesn't get to the point where it's financially better for me to stay at home with Maddy as opposed to working!

Yeah Since my work got bought out and everyone had to move to the new company in the city, I had a look into the places in the city and they were around 90 - 100 per day. That was before the rebates are applied. I'm not sure how much the rebates are.
Ikwym about the issue of whether its financially viable to even work.. I am starting to think there might not be a point in going back to work becuse of the cost of cc , then I have to factor in travelling to work and all the extras I might need to buy so she can go to cc. I dont have qualifications in my field (insurance) so I dont earn much. It really makes it hard doesnt it!

Hope you caan find something good. I've been on waiting lists since November last year! Not sure if waiting lists are that long for toddler age groups though.

Oh just thought i'd also add.. I found a website called datadiction. If you google it you should get it.. It has a dot com dot au. Just click on LINCS and you can search for all sorts of stuff, including day care centres in various areas. Like a directory of stuff. Thats where I find some of the places I put my name down at.

You're in insurance too? *SNAP* *LOL* Thanks for all of the advice....once I work out how much they'd pay me in Sydney (the job positions within the same company used to be $5-$10k/year higher in Sydney as opposed to Brisbane due to the cost of living difference.

I guess another option would be finding a part-time job and then organising with one of BB Belly Buddy friends to do baby-share care.

haha yeah, yay for insurance! I work in underwriting. Not sure if I'll go back when maternity leave is up though.

I hope you can find somewhere good. Would your current employer let you work part time?

I work in underwriting too, except mostly processing since I came back from having Maddy. Didn't really need the stress of a broker panel to manage - sales & underwriting. The Brisbane office of our company isn't really big enough to facilitate p/time but our Sydney office is our head office. It's huge. *L* I'm sure there is the ability to job-share there, I just have to find a vacant position first.

If you decide to go back but not to the same company as before let me know - I can give you the heads up for any vacancies at the company I work for. BTW - it's broker/agent contact only - so unless you're in claims you don't need to worry about Tier 1 or 2 qualifications or whatnot.

Hey, We could job share, LOL, because thats what I've been doing - mainly processing and stuff and only broker/agent contact too. I did Tier 2 about 2 weeks before I went on maternity leave, pmsl. Not sure why I bothered though so late, but they kept telling me to do it so I did.
I got offered a job at QBE recently, and although they have said I can come back part time, I know they really dont want to have me there only part time.. They were like 'yeah you can work part time but only for a couple of months then you have to go back to full time'. I definately dont want to go back full time just yet, not to mention the fact that I doubt I'd be able to get full time child child care anyway. I told them its difficult to get childcare, but they mustn't be parents as they didnt seem to understand. I thought a big company like that would be ok with part time, but obviously not.
anyhow good luck. Hope you can get a part time job at the north sydney office.

*winks* Will keep you in the know Karina. You never know, we might be able to job-share. :) You wouldn't need tier 2 to work for who I work for, unless you were one of the high-up managers.

thanks so much Becka, that would be great!