While some schools around Australia have shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, childcare centres are still operational, allowing parents to decide whether or not to continue acquiring their services.
Lizst Serrano: Still in daycare due to speech therapy
As they don't want to halt their son's progress, Lizst and Rodolfo Serrano choose to continue taking their son to daycare. Source: Lizst Serrano
Lizst Serrano and her husband Rodolfo decided to keep their son Kyrie in daycare weekly from Wednesdays to Fridays. He attends preschool on Mondays and Tuesdays.
"It's hard for me to just pull him out of care because he has built momentum. It's beneficial for him. He's improved so much because of the therapies he gets. The good thing is there are a lot less kids in daycare now - so that somehow works to our favour. Unless the centres close down, we will keep him there."
While Rodolfo continues working as a nurse in aged care, Lizst is afforded the benefit of working from home. She admits though that she would have a harder time working if she kept her son at home.
"I can't work and attend to him at the same time. It's not easy if he needs my attention and I need to do a conference call."
Lizst shares that while she does worry about her husband and son's potential exposure to the virus, her concern is alleviated by the centre's extra-vigilance in keeping the premises sanitised. Their family also has safety protocols in place.
"Our movements are limited to my son's daycare and my husband's work. We don't go anywhere else, except the grocery store which my husband goes to by himself. We're also eating a lot healthier to boost our immune system."
Abigail Ocampo: 'It's a scary time.'
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Abigail Ocampo and her husband decided to pull out their daughter from childcare. Source: Abigail Ocampo
Abigail, who works as an administrator, was fortunate enough to be allowed to work from home and attend to her daughter during the pandemic. Her husband Jovenar will be following suit in the next few days.
"My husband and I both work full-time so we got scared of our daughter's potential exposure."
"From what I've read, you can still bring your kids to school if you have no choice. Experts don't want to close schools because they also don't want to cause panic in the children. But, it's scary," she admits.
She shares that while she was scared for Kaleila's safety, coming to the decision of pulling her out of daycare was difficult.
"I feel like she's missing out. I want her to keep learning and enjoying time with her friends," Abigail says, adding, "my daughter understands why she isn't going to daycare and why we can't go out, but she was sad about it".
With an understanding of what is going on, Abigail says that Kaleila's independence makes it easier for her to be able to work from home.
"What keeps her busy are the 10 or 15 books they were given by the school to bring home. She reads, does puzzles and does the activities I printed out," Abigail says.
"We get to spend time together as well."
Ranier Pereyra: Social distancing and socialisation
Rainier Pereyra, wife Nancy and daughter Megan. Source: Rainier Pereyra
Rainier Pereyra works as an infrastructure and level crossings engineer, while his wife Nancy works as an aged care nurse. While Nancy continues work on the front lines, Rainier is currently working from home.
"I needed to focus on work so I thought of continuing to bring my daughter to daycare. I talked with the centre director regarding what to do while I kept Megan at home last week. Megan was so bored at home, so I decided to bring her to childcare on Monday."
Rainier noticed that the majority of the children were absent and that sessions were no longer focused on formal learning.
"The kids no longer sat together. There were only around 6 of them. They just did outdoor play. There was an educator on guard just in case the kids would go near each other or try to hold hands," he shares.
"They taught the kids proper handwashing, but you can't expect a 3-year-old or 4-year-old to really follow that."
While Rainier is concerned about the threat of exposure, he is hesitant about cancelling his child's care for now.
"Megan's regular schedule is four days a week. Now she goes twice a week for shorter hours. I didn't cancel because the director said that kids are only allowed an absence of four weeks. Beyond that, you lose the subsidy. Luckily, the new rule is 12 weeks. It keeps changing. We will decide this week if we apply for the 12 weeks."
Florence Dato: The risk of losing placement
The Dato family Source: Florence Dato
"Even if I pulled out my son from daycare, the two weeks of notice still applies and I still need to pay in full even if he doesn't attend. My 100 hours subsidy per fortnight became 36 hours so the government isn't going to shoulder what I need to pay."
Despite the cost of pulling her youngest son from daycare, Florence Dato and her husband Alvin decided to do so and keep their two boys at home.
Florence, who is self-employed and volunteers as a Multicultural Safety Ambassador, also shares that because they have decided to withdraw from daycare, her son could potentially lose his slot at the centre.
"He loses his slot after his last day of care this April 1. That's the risk we need to face because once I cancel, I need to re-enrol him again," she shares, adding, "a lot of kids were enrolled in that centre before the pandemic so we had a hard time getting a slot even then."
But despite the risks, the couple decided to withdraw their son from daycare.
"My husband was adamant he wanted the kids to stay home for safety reasons. I was on the fence because I am passionate about learning and it's hard when kids lose that opportunity to socialise; but as a parent, I needed to do what I felt was best. I advocate for workplace safety, so I also have to advocate for the safety of my family."
She also shares that her 3 1/2-year-old son doesn't understand social distancing yet and will run to his playmates without thinking about it.
"Not being paranoid or anything, I trust the experts when they say that children aren't as badly affected; but what if my child gets it and I can't even visit him in the hospital?"
Although Florence admits that her workload has "quadrupled" working from home and taking care of her sons at the same time, she has peace of mind that her boys are at home.
"We luckily have a play area in the backyard and I did a learning space for them. So they have physical and mental activities to keep them busy."
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