When did u enrol your child in daycare??

I does depend on where you live I think. As here in Waiouru I rang up and they have places for both my boys (fulltime) starting whenever I want to and it is only $140 a week each.

However in Palmy there are waiting lists that vary from 6 weeks to a number of months. And prices vary as well. Some do sessional and some do number of hours in care per weeks and then work out the weekly figure.

I live in a little country town and we've only got one daycare here. When my 3 and a half year old started there at 18months old there was no waiting list - I went in one week for a visit and then she started a week later.
Since then the 20 free hours has been introduced so there are waiting lists of a few months to get a place so when I'll have to think a few months ahead when I go to add Zoey to daycare

Pricing use to be (before she turned 3) $4 an hour but I think it went up to $4.50 recently but because she's only in 16.5 hours a week its all covered by the 20 free hours thing.

i put sarahs name down when she was 6mths she started when she was 1.5 just a few afternoons so she could "socialise" with other kids, you could always ring around and ask them all how long the lists are & cost etc, you could also look at a private caregiver thru porse or Quality kids, they have really flexible hours and competitive rates and you only pay for the hours you go
its worth looking into.

Here the waiting list for under 2's is upwards of one year-18months. The only option other than waiting on the list is for home care,...obviuosly it completely depends on the area! Isla only got in to one cos my sil works there!

I'm looking at putting my 2 in at the same time Mel and I put their names down a few months ago and even then it was hard to find somewhere.

That sounds about right pricewise and if your studying full time you may be entitled to a full (50 hrs) subsidy which works out to be about $170 a week.

Chloe had her name put down at centres when she was about a month old, she has just managed to get into one for just one day a week starting THIS week, which was SO lucky as I start back at uni next week.

Some of the places that I asked wouldn't even put me on the waiting list, they said they were fully booked up until halfway through next year or 2010. But I really wanted her to get into the one that she got into... I kept ringing and ringing to see if they had a place... and then I just accepted one morning (even though she needs fulltime care) and that turned into a whole day, with promises that they will let me know as soon as more space opens up. Also they are going to call me if children are sick, so she might get some more random times in the mean time.

Ours is $36 a day, or I think it's about $165 a week.