Timesonline.co.uk | Nurseries feel pinch as mothers stay home

'The first evidence of an end to the “have-it-all” generation of women emerges today with thousands of nursery places lying empty because mothers are choosing to care for young children themselves.
Almost a quarter of nursery places are now vacant. The ideal of a woman juggling a full-time career with the demands of motherhood is going out of fashion as a new era of flexible parenting rights takes root.'

I wonder which mothers are the ones most likely to stay home and/or use flex-time options (in socio-economic and geographic terms). Will these findings (of up to 20% of extant nursery places currently going unused) have any bearing on Government plans for expanding the number of nursery places?
Times article by Rosemary Bennett
30 April 2007

For the study mentioned in the article, click here.