BY student reporter JESSICA FARLEY.

With the cost of living continuing to soar many Rockhampton families are questioning whether staying at home with the kids is actually gentler on the hip pocket than going to work.

Many would think that the obvious solution to the rising cost of everyday essentials such as petrol and groceries would be to increase the family's income by the majority care giver getting a part-time job.

However at present, working families with children are finding that this solution is proving more costly than staying at home with the kids. 

For working mum Stacey O'Grady, the cost of working three days a week is negating her weekly pay cheque.

"My husband works full-time and I work three days a week.  While I'm at work I have to put our two sons into day care.  It cost's me around $100 a day for the both of them.  It's too much."

Mrs O'Grady's day care expenses are further increased when her children become ill and cannot attend a booked session at her usual day care centre.

"If the kids are booked in for one of my work days and they end up being sick and can't go, I still have to pay for the session.  On top of that I've also missed a day of work so it's a lose - lose situation."

In addition to Mrs O'Grady's day care expenses she must also deal with the high price of petrol. 

Living on a property in Upper Ulam, she must drive 41 kilometres to reach her administration job in a Rockhampton medical surgery.

The 82 kilometre round trip costs her around $100 a week for petrol.  Coupled with her day care expenses, she feels that the price of working is far too high.

"I've done the maths and it's just not worth it.  I've been thinking about it for awhile and my husband and I have decided that it would be better for me to leave my job and be a stay at home mum," Mrs O'Grady said.

Like many families the O'Grady's attempted to overcome the escalating costs of child care by applying for the Government's Child Care Benefit. 

The Child Care Benefit was designed to alleviate the cost of child care by providing working parents with financial assistance.

However, as eligibility for the benefit is means tested many families are not given much relief. 

"With our combined income the Child Care Benefit provided us with almost no help with day care costs," Mrs O'Grady said.

Others have found that the strict eligibility requirements for the new Child Care Benefit also affect its usefulness.    

As a casual working mother, Yasmin Jones has struggled to meet the requirements of the Child Care Benefit.  To be eligible, parents must work a minimum of 15 hours a week.

"I don't work 15 hours a week so I don't qualify for the benefit.  But I still have to pay for day care for my 19-month-old daughter when I do work," Ms Jones said.

However, for those part or full-time workers who do qualify for the benefit and need to utilise child care facilities, the pressure is still on.

Families with new born babies would be hard pressed to find a vacancy in a Rockhampton child care centre as many facilities are currently at maximum capacity.

Regina Walker, the Director of Allenstown Childcare said that the waiting list for parent's with newborn's can be as long as six months.

"We can only take eight babies at a time so the waiting list can be quite long," Ms Walker said.

With all these factors combined together the difficulty faced by working parents in Rockhampton seems overwhelming.

"I think that parents have to work out what is right for their family financially and stick with it because money isn't something that we can afford to throw away now days," Mrs O'Grady said.