The Staggering Cost of Daycare

[BlondeMomBlog]

On Monday I posted my regular working diva post and wrote about daycare costs. This is the first summer (thank you LORD) that we don't have double daycare. You'd think we'd be out buying an extra case of beer or something, but have you seen gas prices? Just kidding, although we do have a booze and luxuries category in Quicken.

We now "just" pay $145 a week for our 3-year-old to attend a licensed daycare, which is actually more reasonable than daycares in the McMansion county I work in just down the road. We love it, she loves it, and it's only about 2 miles from our house and right down the road from my husband's shop and my oldest daughter's elementary school. We've shuffled our schedules around like crazy (I work 30 hours a week, and 8 of those are from home on Fridays) so that my 6-year-old isn't enrolled in camps all summer long. Thankfully our moms both live nearby. On the other end of the spectrum, my SIL was paying her sitter just $90 a week to watch her son last year while she taught, but they are friends with their sitter through church and they live in a much more rural area. But $90 a WEEK and their sitter comes to their home. Wow.

What is your childcare situation? Do your children attend daycare or do you hire a sitter or nanny? Do you mind sharing what you pay for childcare? Did you ever get to the point where the cost of childcare was too high and you decided to stay home with your children?

[Michele]

I, personally, desperately want to be home. We're working towards that (student loans can kiss my pretty patoot), but the going is slow.

I'm in southern California. I pay about $1300 a month for both boys for afterschool care. That was the cheapest I could find. When they're not in school, we default to our old babysitter, which is $160/week for both boys - also the cheapest we could find.

[JackieWks]

Our daycare has cost me a career. Was it worth it .... yes.

We've been a one income family for 2 decades & also homeschool.

[BlondeMomBlog]

Thank you for responding ladies!

For the most part I truly enjoy working outside the home. My employer (I've been with them 7 years) has been awesome about letting me adjust my schedule. If one of my girls is sick I can easily call in and request to work from home as I do a lot of copyediting and most of my correspondence with clients and work is done via e-mail. Honestly that flexibility is what keeps me working, though. That and I make a great salary for 30 hours. BUT in about two years, when my oldest is ready to start kindergarten, I'd like to do freelance writing and consulting solely from home on my own...working on that goal!

[JackieWks]

One of our nephew's works at a day care. They pay him 6.10$/hour. He would make more working from someone's home & they would pay less in day care costs.

If I needed childcare I would probably find a homeschool teen who would come to my home & pay them 7$/hour. Maybe even less.

[M3]

The one summer we had traditional day care it was more than $1000/mo (in So Cal like the poster) and that was ten years ago this summer. This was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back and I said "enough is enough". You need to make more than $50,000 to cover that kind of day care and still bring money in. I think we calculated my $50,000 (in 1998 dollars) netted the family $400/mo after subtracting all the "costs of working". With the birth of my third child, it made no sense to keep working and I desperately wanted to be a sahm, so we made it happen. Haven't worked outside the home in 10 years and don't live in So Cal, so I have no idea what it would cost me now...

[Jennifer A.]

I'd probably scare all of you with this, I pay about $1100 per month when my kids are in school. I pay $783 for my son per month and the other 300 and something is my daughter. My son goes to a center,which will work with us and his disablities. He only goes part time in the afternoons since he also attends a morning early childhood program in our district. My daughter went to before and after care at her old school. We used to pay a lot less when my husband was on second shift and had two days off during the week. We are hoping in the fall my MIL will keep watching our son half a day and then we will only pay for after care for our daughter.

[BlondeMomBlog]

Jennifer:

I feel your pain. From Jan. to Aug. of last year (then my oldest started kindergarten and I was able to cut back my hours so I could pick her up from school and not do after care) we were paying more than $1,000 a month for both our girls.