Good, affordable nursery care benefits us all – but it’s nowhere to be found

My daughter has been looking at nurseries. I must admit it is a long time since I had to think about that kind of thing. What I have learned is that babies are more expensive than ever. Turns out you can no longer just put them in a drawer, and they have to be wheeled around in contraptions that cost more than an old banger. But childcare – well, childcare is impossible. The old feminist demand for free creches went the way of the habit some women used to have of demanding men pee sitting down.

Private nurseries have sprung up everywhere. The babies will be fed gourmet mush and entertained non-stop while their parents work every hour they can to pay for this.

Coram Family and Childcare’s latest survey estimates that the average price for full-time nursery care for a child under two in inner London – 50 hours a week – is £330. But fewer than two thirds of councils report having anything approaching this provision. The government is meant to provide some free childcare for certain families when kids turn three, for 38 weeks of the year – you know, to help those people who only work 38 weeks a year!

All of this is a boon for private entrepreneurs who are setting up childcare businesses and paying nursery nurses a minimum wage. Many women are exhausting themselves to work, with very little of their salary left over. I relied on childminders, friends, grants and a free nursery place. I now know that was another era altogether.

Good nursery care is good for mothers and good for small children. Therefore, it is good for all of us. Sometimes its seems that, despite all the sanctification of motherhood that goes on, they are the people we care least about. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned fathers. Because, as we know, there are absolutely no issues to be solved there …

• Suzanne Moore is a Guardian columnist