In amazement, my mouth falls open. “Really, that much?” I exclaimed when friend told how much they were spending on childcare and that was for 1 child, 2 days a week. I have no experience with our children in childcare in the Netherlands, but in Spain things are really different. Whether it is better or worse is different for everyone. I am happy to share my costs and experiences with childcare in Spain. In any case, I am very happy how it is arranged here in Catalonia, Spain. Our boys enjoy going to daycare every working day. As soon as the baby carriage is in the living room, they climb into it with big grins accompanied by giggles and sit down. Waiting for me to click them in, although they are increasingly doing that themselves as well.
How does child care work in Spain? Public vs. private
There are two types of child care in Spain: public and private. Public child care in Catalan is called Escoles Bressols (0-3 years) here in Catalonia. The public system is good. The child care centers we visited in Barcelona were wonderful. Wooden toys, not too big groups, trained pedagogical staff, vegetarian and vegan food was possible, in short you can take your child there with confidence. I think the only thing that is really a big difference with the Netherlands are the schedules and the price. I am talking about the public childcare from now on, later I will also touch on private childcare.
Child care in Barcelona
For our children, we had managed to secure a spot in public childcare for September 2023 in Barcelona, which is really quite special! Later I will explain how that worked out for us. Unfortunately, we had to give it up because we were moving in the summer of 2023 AND in Catalonia they work with an enrollment system in April/May for the next school year, so we had to find private childcare in our new hometown. Fortunately, we were smart enough to register for the public daycare in our new place of residence in May, which meant we still got two spots in a public daycare in February 2024. After all, we knew we wanted to move there, so we just tried.
Childcare opening hours Spain: five days a week mandatory
Different times are available, but your child usually just goes to daycare five days a week. You can’t choose 1, 2 or 3 days. It’s five days or nothing. Quite a time. And certainly not something we are used to from the Netherlands. We chose because of this system, that we only wanted to bring them to daycare around the age of 1. At moments like that, I am SO intensely happy that I chose in 2017 to start for myself and that I am no longer stuck with a boss who summons me to the office with mandatory working hours. Because of this, and because my partner and I split duties, we were able to let our boys stay home for the first year. Back to childcare times for a moment. So apart from the 5 days a week, these are also different. In Spain, you can bring your child at 08.00 at the earliest, and pick them up at 17.30 at the latest. Within those times you can choose different options that are cheaper or more expensive.
Vacations and days off in Spanish child care
Also keep in mind that Spain has many more days off than in the Netherlands. So, the public daycare centers are closed more often. These are the vacations where there will be no childcare for school year 2024-2025: December 23 to January 7, April 14 to 21 (semana santa), and then there are holidays in October, November, February, March and May (1 and 2). So every month there are 1 or more days that there is no childcare. No idea if the same is true in the Netherlands?
In summer from the end of July through the first week of September, they are completely closed. Just really closed. So there aren’t very many options to take your baby somewhere in August either if you just have to work. Fortunately, the whole country shuts down and all of Spain goes on vacation in August, so the only thing to do is just participate in this. Officially, public daycare (at least here in Maresme) closes at the end of June, and then they offer what is called Bressol d’estiu (summer daycare) through the end of July. At least, this was at our daycare. This is then organized by another party in the childcare building. You have to register for this through the municipality.
Often the times are also different, for us it is from 08.00 – 13.00, you can then choose to also order a hot lunch. This costs around 130 euros for 20 days per child. The costs for the bressol d’estiu are Per “summer care” different periods. I saw that in Barcelona there are also bressol d’estiu’s in August. So, it takes some searching. But, should you be looking for this, make sure you get there early. In Barcelona, you have to register as early as late March or early April! In Mataró, where we live, it’s the beginning of May. If you don’t, you won’t have a shelter for the summer. You can still choose private childcare then.
Cost overview 2025 Bressol d’estiu(Mataró)
Primer període, 8 dies 68.80 € (the half period from June 25 to July 4
To el servei, 20 dies 172.00 € (entire period from June 25 to July 22)
MENJADOR (lunch)
Fix to el servei, 20 dies 128.25 €.
Tiquet menjador esporàdic 9.00 €.
ACOLLIDA (extra time)
Acollida fixa tot el servei, 20 dies 26,00 €.
Acollida fixa meitat del servei, 8 dies 15,00€.
Tiquet acollida esporàdica 4,00 €.
Childcare costs in Spain: what do you really pay?
And now for something very important. What does child care cost in Spain? First off: public child care is income dependent. That is, if you earn little, you can get a discount, this can include if you are a single mother, or have a family with 3 or more children. Tip: if you have a family with 3 or more children(familia numerosa), you are also eligible for discounts on gas, electricity, etc. So always check with all providers if they have special discounts. For this example, I’m assuming the prices we pay in Mataró, for a family without discounts (we don’t get a discount for having twins) it may be that in Barcelona (and big cities) it is a bit more expensive. But very little will be. There are different times when your child can be at daycare.
Free child care?
Did you know that childcare in Spain from the year children are in P2 (from 2 years old) is free at public childcare centers? That means from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. five days a week with pedagogically trained leaders in a group of about 15-20 children.
You have the choice of having your child eat lunch at home from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.. But you can also let them have lunch with the friends. This costs 121 euros per month per child from the age of 2. For this they get a 3-course menu, every day! You can choose between meat and vegetarian (and we so even vegan).
You do need to always bring your own diapers, diaper creams, towels, etc. And clothes of course. With us they also cooperate on washable diapers! Although our experience is that one teacher has more feeling with it and does it better than the other.
But what if your children are not yet 2 years old? Then it costs 155 euros for monthly fee + 121 euros for food(if you choose). In this construction they go to daycare from 08.00-15.00. So that’s 552 euros per month, for 2! children, 5 days a week. And there are allowances for people who can’t afford that. Remember that the salaries are much lower than in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately, you don’t just get into public childcare, because it works with a points system. In Barcelona, with a good salary and 1 child who is healthy, it is almost impossible to just get in. Fortunately, in cities and towns around it, it’s a lot easier. In Barcelona you get points if you live in the same neighborhood where the shelter is (30 points), points if you have twins or multiples, points if you have a disabled child, are a single parent, have a family with 3 or more (numerosa) children, or are a victim of terrorism for example. So we got extra points (10) because we have a multiple child. So if you only live near the shelter, you will receive 30 points.
How does registering for child care in Barcelona work?
And then the time has come. The time has come for you to choose. How does this work? In the period April/May there are several open days at the public (and private) day care centers. Often this is by appointment (cita previa) or without, you can often see this on the website of the respective childcare center: “escoles bressol” municipales. In the overview of 2025-2026 you can see what that looks like in Barcelona https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/escolesbressol/sites/default/files/jornades_portes_obertes_escoles_bressol_municipals_curs_2025-2026_en_castella_bo_bo_0.pdf
Once you have made a choice of where you would like your child to attend daycare, once registration opens in May (often around May 5-16) you go ahead and register it. You can specify a number of bressols with #1 being your favorite. Tip! Make sure you have Google Translate on your laptop (in the browser) so you can translate the Catalan texts directly into your own language. After registering (it is most convenient to do this with your Clave Pin or Digital Certificate) the wait is on. Only in June will you hear whether you have actually been admitted. Did you make a mistake? You still have a period in which you can make adjustments. And as long as the registration is not closed you can still change your registration anyway. You can find the process on this website: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/escolesbressol/es/preinscripcio.
Enrollment period missed
“But I’m moving to Spain in the summer, how can I register my child for public child care?” Quite simply, you can’t. At least that has been my experience. You must be a resident in Spain and your children must have an NIE for you to register them for public service. It is important that they are also registered with the Cat Salut (the public health service) and have vaccinations. This is what they also asked us about.
So it takes some time to get this all done, so should you be moving to Barcelona, make sure you quickly get an appointment through a gestor to apply for your NIE (doing it yourself takes a lot of time and effort) and immediately after that register yourself and your children with the Cat Salut.
Private childcare as an alternative
But what if you can’t register in May, then? Then there are lots of private childcare centers in Barcelona and Maresme. These work about the same, although the cost is higher. Especially if your child is in P2 (sometimes i2 is also used) (in the year they turn 2) the financial difference is big. The opening hours at private childcare are a bit more flexible, but still it is often from 09.00-13.00 or 09.00 – 16.30, with possibilities of earlier drop off (half hour to hour) and later pick up (half hour to hour). By comparison. A friend of mine brings her child in Barcelona to daycare 5 days a week only mornings (09.00 -13.00) for this she pays 560 euros for 1 child.
Of course, we also had a bridging period when we arrived in Mataró. We found a super nice daycare in Mataró, unfortunately it no longer exists (too little name recognition), where you could even choose how many days you wanted to bring your child there. We chose 4 days from 09.00 -16.00 and we brought our own food. So all the food we had to bring ourselves: fruit, hot lunch, snacks and drinks. For this we paid 550 euros per month for two children! The advantage of this private daycare was that they were open the weeks like semana santa. Unlike the public daycare.
Additional costs and considerations: tax benefits and child support
Small note: my experience is that the cost is very low for childcare compared to the Netherlands. Do keep in mind that (in my situation) you pay more income tax than in the Netherlands and there is also no child benefit. You get nothing from the Spanish government when you have 1 or 2 children. Certainly not when they are older than 3 years. In the first 3 years as a working mother you can get a tax benefit of about 100 euros per month per child. You can also deduct (part of) the cost of childcare. But after those 3 years it’s done. While then everything becomes more expensive, especially with boys 😉 what do they eat a lot say! If you have any information that contradicts this, of course I’d love to hear it! I hope I helped you on your way with this overview of costs and experiences with childcare Spain.
Do you have questions about public child care in Barcelona/Maresme? Especially send us a message!
