Michelle Mangan kept working after her first son was born. But by the second child she realised “it just wasn’t working”. Her first son was starting school and there was no afterschool care in Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford, where they live. Full creche fees for her children meant “it didn’t make sense for me to work”.
Mangan also did not have much time to spend with her children. “They were first in the creche every morning at 8am and last to be picked up at 6pm,” she said.
“The money I was earning I was paying it back in creche fees and I had that guilt factor that I think every mother goes through.”
Creches should open longer, from before 8am until after 6pm, to allow parents more flexibility with work, she said.
Mangan added that there was a need for afterschool care to avoid the “juggling” families had to do.