Blessed: Keira Knightley lucky to be able to afford child care

Actor feels expensive facilities in Britain stop women from resuming work

LONDON: Actor Keira Knightley feels she is lucky to work as a young mother as she is able to afford child care for her daughter Edie. The 31-year-old bemoaned the cost of child care in Britain, adding it stops the average woman from going back to work.

“I’ve become unbelievably aware of that and how lucky I’ve been to be able to afford really good child care, because otherwise, it would be at least four years out of my career,” Knightley said.  “I wouldn’t be able to get back to where I’d been if I’d taken four years out. I think that’s the same for most women. And I think that’s really hard.”

According to the Pride & Prejudice star, childcare jobs should be better paid. “One of the things that is so shocking in this country is that child care is unbelievably expensive. It should be, it’s an amazing thing if you are good at it. But it’s incredibly difficult and should be well paid.”

Knightley also criticised the British government’s recommendation that men should have two weeks paternity leave. On the same note, she feels women have no choice but to resume working post-pregnancy so that they are able to afford full-time child care. “There is no option for a woman to go back to work unless she’s being paid really, really well and can afford full-time care before her child can get into nursery.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2016.

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