CHILDCARE is prohibitively expensive, but can young mothers afford to be out of the workforce for long?
How many young mums on farms and in towns don't go back to work because the income they can earn doesn't cover the cost of childcare?
Or perhaps childcare in its many forms - long day care, occasional day care, in-home care and others, which fits in with working hours - isn't available in the first place to enable them to do this.
Today, more parents cite work as the main reason for using childcare.
(An Australian Bureau of Statistics social trends report in 2010 showed 69.8 per cent of parents cited work as the main reason for using formal childcare compared with 61.1 per cent in 1999. Less cited the child's benefit as the main reason.)
The amount they pay for childcare varies enormously from place to place and could be anywhere from $70 to $120 a day.
Costs at most centres are expected to rise this year as they work towards meeting new staffing regulation.
Childcare is also subsidised - a Child Care Rebate is available for parents who are working, studying or training and it's said to cover about half the annual cost of childcare.
There is also the Child Care Benefit.
Anecdotal evidence collected around the area that I live in, in central Victoria, suggests some women are dipping out of work for long stretches.
And that decision could cost them income in the long term, Canberra mother-of-three Kate Sykes says.
Kate runs a website called Career Mums (careermums.com.au) and has written a book with the same title.
It's an online jobs board for mothers wanting to return to work.
Kate gets paid as much as $295 an hour by big companies to coach employees who are parents to return to work after having babies.
Imagine that!
You'll get the drift that her audience is made up of largely professional types who've had big careers, have dropped out of work to have children and are struggling to get back in.
Yet, big careers or not, many women don't go back to work because childcare costs more than they can earn.
I suspect many women in country areas are in this boat.
This makes Kate cringe.
Not because it's not valid, but because choosing non-work for this reason alone neglects the effect it has on a woman's career in the longer term, she explains.
Women should also consider the effect of staying out of the workforce longer on their long-term earning capacity, she says.
"Childcare should be viewed as a family expense and it shouldn't be viewed as 'her wage is not going to cover it so it's not worth it'. That's putting a stop on the woman's career and being productive and her future earning capacity."
Many women around my area don't necessarily want to go back to work while their children are young.
Some choose part-time work at significantly lower rates than they earned before having children, because it allows them to spend time with their children and keep their working selves alive. Some just want to earn a bit to feel like they're contributing to the family budget and some like the break from home.
Yet, getting work again and negotiating flexible working arrangements with employers to accommodate parenting commitments can be a struggle.
Kate advises women of all skill levels to use this time after becoming parents to explore career changes that will give them work they can do from home or from near where they live.
Establishing a business is another option.
