Supports for stay at home parents would give parents and children more options, a journalist has said.
It has been suggested that the Government should introduce supports for parents raising their children in the home.
Broadcaster and columnist Wendy Grace says parents should decide where supports for childcare go, whether that's to a creche or a family member who care for the child.
She told The Hard Shoulder she can't understand why the Government is 'ignoring' parents.
"I find it extraordinary that the Government time and time again is actually ignoring the needs of what parents actually want," she said.
"When you look at every piece of kind of research or polling that's been done, people are asked if you could stay at home with your children in the early years - if money wasn't a barrer - would you like to do that? 70% of people say they would like to have a parent at home.
"What they're doing is just ignoring and saying, 'We will we will subsidise childcare, we will pay anybody but you to look after your own children, even when that's what you actually want.'"
'Money follows the child'
Ms Grace said the parents should be able to choose where the money goes.
"I can't understand why there can't be a system where the money follows the child," she said.
"By that I mean if I'm a working mum the subsidy can go to a grandparent, a creche or to me if I choose to stay at home.
"Instead we're just saying we're going to funnel it all in one direction."
'Women chained to their desk'
Ms Grace said the approach doesn't make sense.
"They're actually speaking to two sides of their mouth because their own policy... on children basically says international research would say in the early years, if possible, it's best to have a primary caregiver at home," she said.
"I know that there are parents across the country now that would love to have been at home in the early years with their small children, and they couldn't because...by economic necessity they have to leave their home.
"We used to make the joke about women [who] were chained to the sink, now there's women across the country who feel they're chained to their desk".
Institutionalised child care'
Ms Grace denied that if more women stayed at home the labour force would suffer.
"When you look at Nordic countries where they're way better at this than us, the gender pay gap actually isn't that much different here," she said.
"If we keep funnelling money into institutionalised child care and ignoring parents who want to stay at home, we're actually creating an economy where we're not encouraging flexibility."
Ms Grace added that there is "no reason why I can't be the CEO of any company and working part time and flexibly if that was something that we fought for."
