The whole neighborhood hires a childcare partner
The family of Ms. Mui Thi Tac, born in 1987, from Moc Chau district (Son La) has been in Hung Yen for more than 2 years. Ms. Tac and her husband have 2 children, a young child in grade 5, the older child is 17 years old and has dropped out of school, and also applied to work as a worker in Pho Noi A Industrial Park.
Ms. Tac is currently a worker at Uniben Joint Stock Company (Lac Dao commune, Van Lam district, Hung Yen), with a total income of about 10 million VND/month. Ms. Tac's husband has not yet applied to become a worker, so he works freely in the area, returning from work in the morning and evening, and his income is unstable. Ms. Tac's family has an additional salary of her eldest son as a worker of about 8 million VND/month...
Ms. Tac's family is currently renting a room of about 14 square meters, without air conditioning, the rental price is 1,100,000 VND/month, not including electricity, water, and sanitation fees. "It is very cramped, hot in the summer, but there are no conditions, limited income, and expenses must be cut to the maximum, so we have to accept it..." - Ms. Tac said.
Ms. Tac said that her little daughter will be on a summer vacation by the end of May. The children have been living in Hung Yen with their parents for 2 years now. Last summer, they almost locked their children in a rented room, her husband ran home at noon to take care of the food for the father and child, and left for work in the afternoon. This year his work is more stressful, she has to think about taking care of her child in the summer early.
"My family and 3 other families in the same boarding house agreed to send their children, all of whom are in primary school, to a retired teacher near the boarding house to look after. Every day, the children come to her house, she gives the children light homework to review. At noon, the children ate food prepared by their parents. Every afternoon after work, I go to the teacher's house to pick up my child. The childcare fee for each child is 1,500,000 VND/month, said Ms. Tac.
According to Ms. Tac, because the boarding house has no playground and a pond around the neighborhood, parents are not assured when their children are away from taking care of them during their summer vacation. The fee of 1,500,000 VND/month is not small compared to the income of workers, but all families are assured because they have a place to send their children near their home.
Thanks to grandparents and great-grandparents, foreign support
Mr. Nguyen Van Do (from Vu Thu district, Thai Binh) and his wife are currently renting a room in Giap Bat ward (Hoang Mai district, Hanoi). Mr. Do and his wife are currently working as workers at a plastic manufacturing company on Ngoc Hoi Street (Thanh Tri District, Hanoi).
With 2 children in grade 5 and grade 3, both on summer vacation at the end of May, Mr. Do and his wife proactively asked their grandmother and grandmother to take turns going to Hanoi to look after them during the summer.
"My mother and my mother -in -law do not look up to look after the 3 months of summer, so I took the initiative to ask each grandchildren to look after my grandchildren. My mother will look after June, my mother -in -law looks after July. In August alone, I am about to start a new school year, I would like to study more for 2 children to rotate 3 sessions a week. The children studying with the teacher are not far away from the boarding house, not having to go to the big road, so I decided to let them look at them."
Mr. Do added that in August, when the children are at home, the couple will balance their work schedule to take turns working. Every morning before going to work, I will prepare lunch for the children, and the work schedule will be arranged so that someone will come home every half day. "Although it is difficult, we will try to overcome it," said Mr. Do.
