EXPAT VOICES: Childcare in Czechia is 'outrageously expensive and inaccessible'

In index after index, Prague ranks as one of Europe's and the world's best places for raising a family. The most recent study analyzed 130 European cities in the areas of education, health and safety, and leisure and lifestyle with the Czech capital coming out in at number 5.

The data cited the city's teacher-to-student ratios, educational attractions and recreational spaces, healthcare accessibility, length of maternity leave, air quality, and cost of living, as making it a great place to raise children.  

We recently polled Prague's expat community on one important aspect of family life and their experience of it in Czechia: childcare. In contrast to the study findings, the Prague expat community almost unanimously finds the inaccessibility of childcare facilities to be a serious barrier to comfortable family life in Prague, with some even consider relocating due to the lack of childcare.

While some of those surveyed mention the language barrier and the lack of family support as major problems for expats when it comes to childcare, some of the main issues facing foreigners living in the Czech Republic, are the same ones that Czechs face when looking for childcare solutions in Czechia.

Here's what you had to say (note: responses have been edited for length and clarity).

"They [the government]...talks about great parental allowance, but it is just CZK 300,000...30k month, the minimum to live. After that, we have to work. But how? Finding a nursery is really difficult and SUPER expensive. We don't have relatives here, to assist with childcare. We end up working [just] to pay the bills."

"Childcare is a huge challenge! There are no state kindergartens for children below 3 (or if they exist, there is no centralized information about those). For children below 1, there are even no private facilities. Maternity leave is 28 weeks (6 months) and then you either go back to work and hire an expensive nanny or you stay at home and leave from parental benefit. Parental benefit is 10% of my regular salary, which will not pay my mortgage."

"It is close to impossible to return to work [when your child is] around 1 year of age. Public nurseries are so rare and only accept babies from 18 months the earliest (on paper, in reality from 2 years of age) while private nurseries are booked months in advance and are very expensive."

"Getting into Mateřská škola for less than 3 years old is almost impossible based on the school's acceptance criteria. It feels like the only option available is for one parent to stay home and live on almost a single income. It feels kinda discriminatory to push parents (mostly women) to stay at home. Most families decide to have another kid to be able to take care of their first while receiving parental money for the other."

"In my family, we've decided my husband will go on maternity leave as this is better for us financially. Whoever hears about it asks, "Martin, does it pay off for you to stay on maternity leave"? Do you know how many people asked me that question? Of course, nobody. I am supposed to earn less than men and I am supposed to stay on parental leave as the parental benefit is considered huge money in the Czech Republic. Czechs, do you see that the gender pay gap is huge and that's strongly connected to the lack of childcare? Women earn less because they stay many years with children, and then stay many years with children because they earn less. It's a cycle that needs to be broken."

"I pay an outrageous amount of money for my 18-month-old to go to a nursery 9h/week, while I work to make enough money to pay for the nursery. I am not considered an essential worker because I only work a few hours, and other mothers think that I somehow "neglect" my child by sending him to the nursery."