As a teenager, I babysat, I nannied, I worked as an assistant in Cheder (Jewish Sunday school). I’ve changed nappies, read stories, prepped dinners, sung nursery rhymes (atonally) and been splashed during countless bathtimes. Later, at university, I taught part-time in sixth-form colleges and ran gaming sessions in youth hubs (establishing, I’m proud to say, a regular Dungeons and Dragons group in my local area). More recently, I’ve worked as a child-carer through an agency. I’ve been hired help, filling in for parents towards the tail-end of the pandemic and since. And, of course, there's my role at the day unit. None of this work has ever been particularly well-paid. Despite our declared love for children, as a society we tend to underpay professional carers.

Certainly, childcare costs for parents can be substantial. According to the Day Nurseries and Payscale comparison websites, the average cost of childcare in the UK (as in many other countries) is rising. A full-time nursery placement is around ￡15,000 a year and a full-time child-minder is roughly ￡13,000. It's possible to get government subsidies and there are free nursery places for toddlers, but these costs remain a serious drain on income. It can often seem cheaper for parents to stay at home with the children, rather than go to work (inevitably this domestic labour is typically expected of women rather than men).

Unfortunately, the heavy costs don't translate into fair pay for child-carers. In the UK, the average babysitting rate is just over ￡9 an hour (in Poland, the average is equivalent to ￡3.50 per hour, while in the wealthier Denmark it's ￡13.50). Work in nurseries is slightly better and marginally more secure. British nursery workers can expect to earn between ￡14,000 and ￡24,000 per year, although normally toward the lower end of that bracket. It's not lucrative, especially given the associated responsibilities and required skillset. In the US, it's even worse, and roughly one third of childcare workers live in or close to poverty.