THIS week has gone a little differently to the past several months for Swan Hill’s Matt Scott.
A father and husband, he has spent the past nine months as a stay-at-home dad caring for his two-year-old daughter Stella, after Swan Hill’s childcare crunch saw the family unable to access care.
“I dropped out of work nine months ago… day care was too expensive, and also my wife is a school teacher so she has a career,” he said.
“Three months ago we looked at other options with childcare.
“Initially we didn’t go with the care because of the cost, but when we did start looking again there were just no places and huge wait lists.”
Caring for Stella by day, in the evenings he would swap with wife, Bec, who would arrive home in time for him to head to his part-time night fill role.
But on Monday that all changed when he returned to the workforce, as a car sales consultant, and Stella — bursting with excitement — headed to her first day at Swan Hill’s first childcare centre to open in nine years.
“I can be there now for Stel to go to bed, when I wasn’t before,” he said.
“We now have more time as a family, rather than me going away to work at night.
“[Stella] is having a blast at childcare, she brought home her first craft the other day… she just loves it.”
The Scott family are not alone.
Young Adventurers Early Childhood Services director Marg Hartshorn said out of approximately 100 families that had been on the wait list in the months leading up to the centre’s opening, they had catered for about 60 percent.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (July 17).
