Hi there,

I have been searching through all of the post regarding nurserys which take babies from 3 months old but cant find what I am looking for. I am due in October, and plan to take 4 months for maternity care after little un arrives and thought it wise to start looking now.

I really would like to know aprox. cost of places in the Basel area, so that I can then narrow down on who to contact in the first instance.

I actually visited the Home from Home nursery yesterday, and although very nice, I was shocked to discover that for 2 days childcare (what I am looking for) I would be looking at CHF 920! Dont really want to work for a deficit!

Does anyone know of any informaiton on costs etc for child care as for most links I have looked at they are not advertised on the actual site? I would have no problem with leaving little un in Swiss Day care, but was wondering what was the price comparison between Swiss and English speaking centres?

Another thought would be to have a private day nanny but I suspect that the cost would be around the same, anyone with any experience of this?

One last hope would be to use a nursery in France, St Louis area, as I know there is a large ex-pat community there also, and any known difficulties with organising this.

Any feedback or experiences very very welcome.

Di

in basel the maximum is 2200 full time 5 days a week. typical is 2000CHF.

Also 2 full days is 40%. not all creche accpet kids for time less then 50 to 60%. yes the price is shocking..imagine if you hav to sent 2 kids

Shocking to say the least Is this the norm over the whole of CH or is it a way in which to encourage mums to stay at home 100%?....hmmmmm

The daycare my daughter goes to demands a minimum of 3 days. They charge 110CHF a day:

http://www.kindergarden.ch/

Mind you they are worth every penny and are fantastic with my babe

The other thing you could do is look to see if you qualify for any support from the state. I think if your combined income is less than 12000 per month they do help you. They pretty much pay half of the costs for me but I am on a single income so obviously well below 12000 per month

silly question maybe but is it neto or brutto?

awwww......you're testing me now I think netto.

This is the website but it's only in German:

http://www.ed-bs.ch/jfs/jfa/tagesbetreuung

The staff at our daycare sorted it all out for me so I'm not completely sure the ins and outs.

Just wanted to support the recommendation for www.kindergarden.ch. I think they are not completely full / may not have as long a waiting list as some other places for infants. We've really liked them.

Hi,

Thank you so much for the info, 110 CHF per day sounds about right to me.

Will call and arrange to go see on Monday.

Thanks again

You can also check with the Frauenberatung. They have a system of Tagesheim (daycares) all around town. It's on a sliding scale based on your income. My daughter went to the Tagesheim Annator in Kleinbasel for several years and they were fantastic. Might be a waiting list. Some of them give employees of certain companies a priority if they help subsidize the cost I think,

I don't get it - 110CHF a day is 330CHFs a week (because it's a minimum of 3 days at Kindergarden) = 1320CHF a month.

So, Mona (Home from Home) costs 940CHFs for a month..... so that's actually only 117CHFs a day.

Not much difference really.

My boys were both at Home from Home and had a brilliant time there. They've now both left and Mona still calls them on their birthdays to ask how they're doing

By the way we also looked at Kindergarden and it's lovely - we know people who have sent their kids there too.

But really, the prices for nurseries around Basel are much of a muchness, and the salary based method doesn't really work if you are a 2 income family (even a 100% + 50% wage) as this already takes you to the maximum for most ex-pat job holders.