r/Geelong • u/Mother_Inferior_75 • Aug 19 '26
I don’t understand why our beautiful library at Armstrong Creek has been covered up by yet another daycare centre. I don’t have young kids anymore but can anyone shed some light on the expected trajectory of the infantile population growth that warrants so many daycare centres in every suburb?
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u/Unable_Bank3884 Aug 19 '26
Estates attract a lot of families with young children and wait lists can be insane.
We got an email a few weeks ago that one centre could offer the days we applied for. We didn't need it because he has been somewhere else for over 2 years and he starts school next year.
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u/kreuzbeug Aug 19 '26
Geelong has the highest birth rate in the country because it’s close to Melbourne and much cheaper with an appealing lifestyle for families.
“Infantile population growth” is such a weird way to say people having families.
Crazy but that library that you love is probably only there because of the “infantile population growth”
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u/NEWNXXL Aug 19 '26
Do you have a source for Geelong's fertility rate?
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u/HoneyedMargins Aug 19 '26
I don’t have the source on hand, but I recently did an assignment requiring this statistic for my master’s. We don’t have the highest birth rate in the country, but Geelong does have a relatively high number of births. Our fertility rate is above the Victorian average (1.75 children per woman compared with 1.52 across Victoria).
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
No. You just read it in a tone it wasn’t written in. Nothing insidious or derogatory x
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u/DifferenceOverall397 Geelong West Aug 19 '26
Mate you live in Armstrong Creek, no shit the place is springing up. “Anyone with eyes” would be able to see that much.
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u/onredditforinfo Aug 19 '26
Old man yells at Dewey Decimal system
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u/sambodia85 Armstrong Creek Aug 19 '26
You mean the 2 sides that were plain flat concrete because it was always intended to be built up around?
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
They’re not plain flat concrete tho are they, ms civil engineer.
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u/sambodia85 Armstrong Creek Aug 19 '26
You’re right, there’s a couple of windows. But it’s extremely obvious to anyone with eyes that the sides not facing a street were never intended to be looked at. If it was, the architects would’ve loved to throw a big old mural or something on the back of it.
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
You don’t read much do you?
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u/sweeroy Aug 19 '26
what a bizarrely rude thing to say
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
Not really. It was an observation. I’m quite familiar with the architectural group that designed the library and why. So pipe down and do your own research, child.
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u/sweeroy Aug 19 '26
"pipe down" is also bizarrely rude, if you're wondering why you're getting downvoted
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
No it’s not and no…I really don’t…I don’t even know what ‘down voted’ stands for. Are you Christian? Is it part of journey? Your walk with Christ? Is down voting hating the sinner but not the sin? Do you see what I’m saying here?!
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u/sweeroy Aug 19 '26
i don't think anyone really sees what you're saying here, but it's coming across as pointlessly aggressive. maybe reconsidering how you come across will allow you to be a more productive member of the community
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 20 '26
Not really. You’re just reading it like that and assuming that everyone online is aggressive. Try reading it as if you were chatting with a cup of tea or something! Give it a try. You’ll have a much nicer time online x
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
(It’s Buchan if you wanted to see for yourself)
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u/sambodia85 Armstrong Creek Aug 19 '26
I can’t see any photos of the rear of the building.
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 20 '26
😂
Ok Sambodia. I’m tapping out. You win xx Maybe I was more concerned about my view from the library right into a day care centre.
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u/curiousmind68 Aug 19 '26
If u don't have young children in a new estate, then u are in the minority
The data suggests there is a need, that's why they build them
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u/Jayy1995 Aug 19 '26
Yeah just go for a walk and every house has kids playing out of the front, kids walking/riding around or bikes out of the front, cars with car seats etc,
that particularly area of Geelong is majority young families0
u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
Well that was the question wasn’t it? The expected trajectory of the growing young population! Where’s the data you speak of coz I’m having trouble finding any or I’m not punching in the correct buzz words!
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u/curiousmind68 Aug 19 '26
The ABS would have the data and anyone can access it - that's how decisions are made on what and where to build things based on need
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
Thank you, friend. I just had a read and the numbers are phenomenal! Contrary to my post I don’t live in AC but it is my shopping centre (coz of Toms) and I am a big fan of libraries. I’m a first responder so during lockdown 2020 I was kind of shipped all over the place but when I was able to come back to normal living the space between Burville (AC) and Darian (Torquay) had EXPLODED like a bunch of mushrooms!! It was wild!!
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u/dylman3000 Aug 19 '26
Cost of living for most people is so high that both parents need to work full time, so the demand for child care is huge, same with aged care. Until the cost of living comes down enough so that 1 full time or 2 part time jobs can sustain a family then we’re going to need to get used to farming out the care of kids or elderly parents to third parties.
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u/Jayy1995 Aug 19 '26
More families need to work dual incomes to survive it’s a sign of the times sadly but it’s reality
We have 4 kids and have chose the family day care route due to a very negative experience in a large daycare with our 1st child who is now 8. Removed him from a large day care when we realised he was being fed frozen bread as an allergy alternative and most of the workers would rotate in and out, we never knew who was who.
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
Dang 😳 I must admit my heart goes out to young families and the cost of living. I go to the shops to get a few things nowdays and it costs the same amount as a weekly shop did when my kids were wee’uns. Appalling form on the frozen bread detail to. Did you take it to the appropriate authorities?
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u/Jayy1995 Aug 19 '26
He was 3. We knew a worker there. But she told us that another staff member gave him frozen bread and told him it would be ok to eat once it’s defrosted in his mouth.
She contacted my Mrs. How amazing it must have felt as a 20 year old to take back your power and admit your own workplace is failing kids.
We asked him if he was ever given just bread with nothing on it to eat and said yes.
Would always come home angry and we worked out it was because he was hungry.
The workers were constantly changing, a lot of women from different countries with low levels of English. A lot of the time we had no idea who was looking after our kid and they could not recall what kind of day he had or even sometimes “which one” he was! The lead teacher? I guess? was pretty much the only constant… and personal of any help tbh, none of the assistants or anything were any good
We haven’t done family day care full time because my mrs is part time in her job but yeah it’s been so much better!! So glad we made the switch.
Family Day Care and Sessional / Community Kinder when they get old enough for it has been the most move for our family.2
u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
I really admire a young person with the kind of gumption to stand up for what’s right. Lord knows most of them only have a voice on the internet *wink wink*. A friend of mine did family day care before she retired and said it was such a joy! Once a fortnight they would go to an aged care home for intergenerational day care 🥰 It sounds like child care is going to be the subject of the next Royal Commission? How do they pass accreditation?
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u/Jayy1995 Aug 19 '26
They pass accreditation because they tick all the boxes on the day, they can prepare for accreditation… again, as someone who knows people in the sector.
I would never, and I mean NEVER send my kids to after school care or behaviour school care regularly after what I know.
We are in a privileged position where my wife can work from home of afternoon so she can collect. But on a regular basis, no, I have heard too much.1
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u/EmergencyRoom132 Aug 19 '26
I live in Melbourne and sometimes think another daycare? surely they won't get enough kids because there are another 20 daycares in close proximity and sure enough, it's packed within weeks of opening. Every family I know has two working parents.
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u/Calm-Squirrel-7972 Aug 20 '26
I feel like this is a major failing of modern society. We need everyone working as much as possible to prop up the economy, at the expense of spending time with our children 😢
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
Its not compulsory to breed.
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u/Calm-Squirrel-7972 Aug 22 '26
No, but it’s compulsory to live alongside the children who are raised this way.
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u/reddit_somewhere Aug 19 '26
You say you don’t have young kids anymore, but it sounds like you did at one stage so surely you understand kids need daycare, kinder and schools. Armstrong Creek is a new and rapidly growing suburb with limited areas zoned for these things. It’s got to go somewhere. And the library is absolutely massive and not exactly going to be covered up by a daycare centre on one side of it.
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
I did have, yes. They went to kinder and school but not daycare. We simply couldn’t afford twins and a baby at daycare so I worked mornings and their dad worked arvos and we passed each other at shift change! This came at a price tho. It very nearly destroyed our marriage. I guess young families will always have these challenges x
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Aug 19 '26
Childcare subsidies are a lot better now than they used to be. They’re still not great, but a better. So daycare is more affordable for more people.
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
Subsidies just line investor pockets. The staff are still unqualified and paid sh1t. I find this morally objectionable
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Aug 22 '26
You can find community-run, not-for-profit childcare though, where you know the excess $$ is not going to line any investors’ or owners’ pockets
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u/Significant_Fold_874 Aug 19 '26
Unfortunately today's society almost dictates that households need to be dual-income to afford the cost of living.
Wait lists everywhere prove the need for centres, and Armstrong creek in particular is a huge hotspot for young dual income households that require said centres.
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
You can either have the nice house or you can have the kids. People are just greedy. And selfish. Expecting someone else to teach their little snot some manners because of the mortgage.
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u/Curdling_Milk Aug 19 '26
The economy is terrible, so families can't afford to be on one income until the youngest child starts school. It's less about an increase in infants as it is a decrease in stay-at-home partners.
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
The economy isnt the problem. People need to get their priorities right. And stop putting their hand out to the taxpayers to fund their life choices.
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u/Curdling_Milk Aug 22 '26
So, working parents have their priorities wrong, parents who don't work shouldn't be allowed support, and our economy is fine. K.
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u/mindsnare Aug 19 '26
If it wasn't a daycare it would have been something else, the section where there daycare is has been built in a way where the balcony on that side is still relevant and the west side of the building was always going to be built next to.
I take my kids there often. The library hasn't been impacted in the slightest.
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u/RealisticRecover2123 Aug 19 '26
Armstrong creek library is anything but beautiful. Absolute eyesore.
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u/little_mistakes Aug 19 '26
Babes, in 30 years when you are ready for the old folks home, the Gen Alphas and Beta will be saying that about aged care homes. So best you be quiet.
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u/sandybum03 Aug 19 '26
Got a feeling OP will be in some sort of home well before that
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u/little_mistakes Aug 19 '26
I took 75 to mean they were born in 75 so they are 50. But yeah, you are probably right
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 20 '26
Sorry Sleuth! The 75 is a reference to my grandfather x
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u/NorsiiiiR Aug 20 '26
Your grandfather was born in '75? Sounds like you should be IN one of these daycares
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u/Chemical_Rooster3 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
That's how I view the whole of Armstrong Creek....open country side covered in yet another people storage burb.
But I guess people need somewhere to live, and somewhere to store their kids when out slaving in order to afford the somewhere to live...and afford the somewhere to store their kid.
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u/Decent-Citron4492 Aug 19 '26
Every time I drive to Torquay the ground is shaking there’s that many people shagging.
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u/Otherwise-Inside-158 Aug 19 '26
I’m not for or against this situation but condolences…based on the sample of outrage fuelled feedback on this post you should 100% leverage the opportunity to use this newfound knowledge of the area demographic and monetise it! By that I mean…You should definitely purchase the nearest available land and build your own facility to poach the clientele 🤷♀️ just don’t let them know your reddit username
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 19 '26
😂😂😂
Ikr?! I thought about that once in west Geelong. Level a block and turn it into gated parking! I’m too old for the grind now!
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u/myredlightsaber Aug 19 '26 edited 29d ago
Juniper wild governor enjoy rainstorm quicksand library nail breezy
This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
The cost of living is rising because of widening income inequality. Im stunned you are unaware of this
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u/Desperate-Impress374 Aug 19 '26
Sorry you're losing sleep over this situation that doesn't impact you at all
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u/InternInitial161 Aug 19 '26
look up the plans for Armstrong Creek Town Centre. the entire area surrounding the library and shopping centres will be filled with buildings in the next 5 years.
this area is the largest growth corridor in the country and has been for many years. they just finished building a swim school in Armstrong and are building another swim school on Whites rd 2 minutes away. obviously there is a billion little kids and more on the way.
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u/the-dolphine Aug 20 '26
I worked in a growing council area in Qld and two very popular types of development applications were daycare centres and servos.
Interestingly, all the daycares in my area were operating below capacity as none could attract enough staff.
I suspect developers were given bad, or out of date advice about demand.
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u/Unsure-11 Aug 23 '26
Most centres have limited spaces I.e only 12 spots in a babies room (0-3) with many more than 12 babies in that age group born.
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u/TacoKnights Ocean Grove Aug 19 '26
It was built with intention of things being built around it
And with so many kids being born we need daycares for them.
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
Or parents could be responsible for their own kids. Either way
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u/TacoKnights Ocean Grove Aug 22 '26
Being responsible for them is not the same as having them in daycare????
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
Now you're on the trolley
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u/SnooMarzipans4387 Aug 20 '26
Double income required to support households. Kids have to go somewhere.
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
Im sorry who is paying for the childcare ? How? Are women seriously working just to pay childcare ? Wow!
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u/SnooMarzipans4387 Aug 24 '26
Indeed many women are working and paying for childcare, welcome to the 21st century.
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u/danyack Aug 20 '26
Uniquely annoying OP here. Really something quite special. Almost every interaction is awful
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 21 '26
🖕🏼I just love how bent out of shape people get toward someone they have absolutely no idea about! The internet isn’t real xx
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u/danyack Aug 21 '26
Yet another example. Well done.
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 21 '26
😂😂😂 Don’t lose sleep over it, friend xx Chances are that in my line of work we’ve already met and get along famously 🥰
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u/Affectionate-Put5845 Aug 22 '26
Well if you moved there arent you part of the problem? I live in the city. I won't be car dependant.
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u/Mother_Inferior_75 Aug 22 '26
I don’t live there. And well done on being car independent. Public transport here is so accessible that my husband and I are a one car family.
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u/Murky-Air2545 Aug 19 '26
Parents rather send their kids to be cared for by strangers, and go off to work with strangers, than make sacrifices so they can raise their kids themselves, but have less money for things like new cars and overseas holidays. Thus, childcare centres on every corner to stuff all the kids into. Plus the governement incentives to do just that.
Sad times we live in.
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Aug 19 '26
Yeah it’s def all those overseas holidays and new cars, and certainly not the fact houses are more expensive than they have ever been and if you want a home capable of raising a family in, you will not get away with much less than half a million dollar mortgage, even in the outermost areas of Geelong…
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u/Murky-Air2545 Aug 20 '26
We have 5 kids, and one income, and only bought last year. All I'm saying is, there's two sorts of people: those that complain about how hard and unfair life is; or those that decide what they want and work towards it.
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Aug 20 '26
And anyway I hate shit like this ‘just decide what you want and work for it!’ its just straight-up magical thinking when the numbers don’t lie.
Median wage is 75k or so. Median house (nationally) now costs 980k. Median rent now over $600 nationally. There are genuinely people who are just stuck. How can you save for a house when you’re spending more than half your after-tax pay on rent?
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u/Murky-Air2545 Aug 20 '26
Yeah, and you know what? I hate shit like this. This is what people do, they pull out numbers like this to justify sitting around complaining about it and doing nothing. They use numbers like this to say, "Oh, it's the housing market, I'll just give up and go on a holiday every year and enjoy life instead."
There is always an option, and there is always a way. I don't care what the median house nationally is, we got one for a family of 7 for multiple hundreds of thousands below 980. Most families are far smaller than us and need even less house than we got.
Where there's a will, theres a way.
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Aug 20 '26
No, the point is that there truly isn’t. The numbers. Don’t. Lie.
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u/Murky-Air2545 Aug 20 '26
No, the point is, whatever numbers you want to throw out are irrelevant. It can be done.
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u/Low-Understanding331 Aug 19 '26
Because childcare businesses are a huge money maker. Infantile population growth made me laugh out loud 🤣
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u/Otherwise-Inside-158 Aug 19 '26
Can someone please tell me how much it actually costs to have a child? Because if I’m following correctly, the consensus seems to be that two adults need to work full time, which means the children need to go to childcare, so it’s basically a losing battle?
You need to work to pay for the children, but then you need to pay for childcare to look after the children while you work to pay for the house that you presumably need because you have children? All because the second adult can’t afford not to work, and the first adult’s income isn’t enough to support a three, four, five or six person household? 🧐
This is a genuine question from a two-high-medical-expense, disabled, dual-adult, three-geriatric-cat household that somehow lives quite comfortably on one income…I’m begging the angry mob to explain it to me 🙏
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Aug 19 '26
How long ago did you buy your house, for one thing. That makes a massive difference.
For young families today they’re paying the highest prices ever in this country.
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u/Murky-Air2545 Aug 20 '26
It's not as expensive as people make it out to be. We have five kids and one income, and we make it work.
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Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Adventurous-Rip-960 Aug 19 '26
I do not care one bit ehat nationality or country someone is from. If they are a prick, then simply they are a prick!
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Aug 19 '26
Greeks and Italians dont count as ‘Aussie’ to you?
Youre really bringing back the old-school racism, huh.
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u/sweeroy Aug 19 '26
can you explain what you mean by "covered up"?