Daycare

[traceroo]

This post is more of a file for me to store this information for later. I've been meaning to do a little research on the cost of daycare to find out what our future expenses would be once we start our family. Last week I identified one local place, so I finally called this morning to get their rates:

Infant Daycare, full days5 days: $293/week

Comments

[mhaithaca]

There's been a big leap in daycare costs, as more and more small, family-run operations close up shop, or have to cope with sharply increased training and insurance requirements. Our litigious society did away with the lady down the street casually taking care of a few people's kids. Cornell started its own a few years ago to help cope with the problem and offer an affordable option for staff (and non-traditional students).

[jatrina]

Massachusetts is still the highest in the country, I believe, because they demand all these regulations. While I thoroughly appreciate the regulations, the price tag was $470 a week for 5 days or $270 for 2 days. So yah, it wasn't even remotely affordable for us to do. Luckily, right as I left for maternity leave my company got an offer and is due to be bought by Forest Labs in a week or two. Yay for good luck! Weird that being laid off is good luck for me...

Laid-off

[traceroo]

I had wondered about that. Legal is such a tough department because it so rarely survives an acquisition. That IS good luck for you, though! So, do you intend to go back to work later on, or just play it by ear?

Trace

Re: Laid-off

[jatrina]

Ironically, they are interested in keeping our department intact - not all of legal, but Intellectual Property. Either until the end of the year working at our office until the lease is up, or working from home or possibly offering us the chance to move to NY where they are located. None of which I'm really interested in, to be honest. I don't want to be home working and ignore Zander - and as you can see, childcare is not really affordable.

My boss understands and is working on getting them to let me go still. Either way I get paid out on my options, so that will give a nice buffer of a year or so with me not working.

We decided I'd be a stay at home mom for at least his first few years. Once he's in school I'd see about getting work, maybe part time. I'll look into things I can do from home to supplement our income. We can squeak by on Mark's salary, so that's what we'll do. No debt here aside from the mortgage, so that's good.

[elena23]

We generally found a local friend or family. This mean we were accepting "uncertified" daycare, and couldn't use the childcare tax, but we paid around $350 every two weeks, for two kids.

There's a reason that it wasn't a terribly difficult decision to have Danny stay home. Never having to worry about who is dropping the baby off, who is picking him up, how they get to the doctor, how they got that bump or bruise, how they're going to get to pre-school, etc. is really powerful motivation...not to mention the cost.

This is also why I think that if the government really wanted to help out single parents and job seekers, they would offer safe, affordable childcare on a sliding scale. Because how do you pay for quality child care on $7.25/hour?

[moosea1]

I am currently paying about $100 a day for child care for the two year old, the 5 year old, and before/after school care for the third. (I note the ages because prices drop slightly as the kids get older because the younger they are, the more teachers per kids they are required to have). Daycare is hideously expensive.

Staying Home

[traceroo]

We've certainly thought about it. The greater difficulty here is not so much the numbers, but desire. I'm currently the larger breadwinner in the family, and at present there is a near $20,000 difference in our current earning potential, so it's not small. I'd love to stay home, but Ian is not particularly interested in staying home with kids -- by which I mean that neither Ian nor I think he'd especially like it once in that position.

We'll keep our minds open to the possibility of change later on, for him or for me, but right now -- alas, it makes far more financial sense for me to work, and far more emotional sense for Ian to work, too.

Trace