Cost of child care exceeds cost of rent i most sta

[Deleted]

Well, shit, that's depressing. I think it's right though. When I was renting I paid $750 a month for an okay one bedroom and daycare is at least $800 a month around me.

[UMaineTeach]

the paradox baffles me
childcare cost high - child care workers low pay

[amity]

Pretty sure this means we are doing it wrong.

I honestly feel like cost prohibitive childcare is one of the biggest issues facing our society right now and no one is really talking about it. Not that I know how to fix it, but I think it is at the root of many financial issues for families in many different walks of life.

Sad.

[SusanBAnthony]

I can't figure it out either, other than that maintaining an entire building as a daycare is not cost effective. With in home care, you are looking at 1 person making 600$ a month times say 5 kids, which is respectable. But that doesn't account for that woman having her own kids and taking up a spot, or babies that need a higher ratio, etc.

Actually, having a year of maternity leave and daycares not taking infants like in Canada, would solve some cost problems.

Or center was like 1200 for infants and 1000 for toddlers, and the ratio doubled. I have heard many centers actually take a loss on infant care in order to get people in the door for toddler and preschool care. Sad.

[vmars]

Why can't we have public day care? Just like we have public schools. I just don't know how families do it these days. Day care in my area would eat up any "savings" we have each month.

[thatgirl2478]

I was just talking to my friend about this the other day. When she had her daughter, she made $20 a month more than the upper limit for government daycare assistance. She was told she either needed to quit and go on MORE assistance or have another kid. Seriously. This is screwed up.

[liveintheville]

Yeah if we did fulltime daycare it'd be far and away our highest cost. The people I know who do are spending way more on daycare than mortgage payments or rent.

Infant is $2k/mo and toddler $1500.

[basilosaurus]

Yikes. We already have some of the most expensive rent and food costs, so I guess it would make sense that childcare also is way up there.

[mollz007]

Well shoot, I dont know how H and Iwill ever be able to afford kids on 2 teachers salaries. :-(

[moandjo]

Daycare for us (infant and 3 year old) is more than our mortgage, property tax, student loans, and car loan combined. DH and I do alright for ourselves (engineer and pharmacist), and things are incredibly tight. We could find cheaper in home care, but our center is average for our area. With our careers, I didn't think we'd be in this spot.

[pierogigirl]

Daycare for one costs more than our mortgage (but not more than PITI).

[ladybrettashley]

DH and I were just talking about this. We had always planned on having 3 kids (we have 1 now), but just looking at the budget numbers, I literally do not think we can afford it solely because of daycare. We make good money and live in a MCOL area. Even having two kids will be stretching our budget more than I would like. We're already planning on spreading our kids out around 4 years apart to minimize daycare costs. Ugh. This is just so depressing.

[mollz007]

I really think that unless thingschange drastically, like daycare costs go way down or teachers are paid a ton more, one of us will have to SAH if we ever want to have a kid.

[cherry1111]

Aug 16, 2012 20:11:03 GMT -5 pierogigirl said:

Daycare for one costs more than our mortgage (but not more than PITI).

Yep.

[chessie]

not surprised. its one of the reasons we dont have a kid yet. 2k per kid for 1 infant in full time day care. In some areas its even more...obviously should of went into child care business...With no family around, daycare is the only way really.

[statlerwaldorf]

Daycare for DD would cost more than our housing costs and any rent I've ever paid including on a 3 bedroom house. I have no idea how people do it especially if they have more than one child. Everyone I know either has a SAH spouse or gets government daycare assistance. It's pretty common for married couples to claim to be separated in order to qualify for daycare assistance.

[iheartbanjos]

If we stayed with our current daycare when #2 comes, we'll pay $3200/month. That's assuming that they won't raise the price again next year (fingers crossed). We're probably going to have to get a nanny and just send DD to preschool 3x week. Who knows.

[LoveTrains]

Yes daycare in my area is probably twice the cost of rent.

[mmmomof2]

But when you look at it hourly it's really not that much. I paid $332/wk for infant care. For 50 (8 hr day plus commute and 30min lunch) hours a week that's under $7/ hr. Not that I want to pay more, but that seems darn cheap when you look at it that way. Especially considering they're taking care of your child!

[penguingrrl]

Childcare costs forced me out of the job market. I was in NYC when DD1 was born. My income was $30K (the whole higher COL = higher income is also a myth IME). After taxes, health insurance and retirement I took home $1600/month and couldn't find infant care for under $2K (by comparison, rent on our one bedroom apartment was $1400). DH's salary couldn't support all our expenses plus an additional $400/month for childcare so we were better off with me not working. Our first child was not planned (we were using reliable BC), so it was not just a case of poor planning on our parts. We tried to get childcare assistance but at a combined $56K a year (before taxes) we did not qualify for assistance even though childcare would have cost us $24K. Since I'm the trailing spouse (DH is defending his PhD in Chemical Engineering in a few weeks) I was forced out of the job market.

I'm honestly more surprised when I hear that people can afford to work than when they are forced out of the workforce. It's really sad.

[Deleted]

I think daycare at a good center here is about the same price as renting a nice condo/apartment, and less than renting a duplex or SFH. Of course that is only 1 kid - if there are multiple kids it is about double.

However, I think if people can't afford a center they should do in-home daycare and not freak out about the high price of childcare if it is an option not to pay that much.

From my limited knowledge of what daycare costs around here, a decent center is about 1k a month and at home can be as low as $400 a month. That's a huge difference!

[savannah11]

This is one of the reasons we chose in home care. Our daycare cost for 2 kids is only a little over half our mortgage payment.

[schrodinger]

Aug 16, 2012 20:20:51 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

We crunched some numbers last week, and with 2 kids in care, I would bring home $600/month.

Being a teacher sort of complicates the situation as there are no centers near me that open as early as I need to be at work-id need somewhere open by 6:40 because school starts at 7.

It is one of the reasons she is at a babysitter and not a sitter-my hours, plus no need for summer care or holidays, and we live in a suburban mecca-no spots available until she is damn near 2.

This is a huge problem that I have. I agree with PP that said that lack of childcare is a huge problem in society. Anyone that doesn't work a normal 9-5 job is screwed in our town. We have no facilities in our town that are open early enough for me and DH. I'm expected to be at work at 6:30, he has to be at work at 7. Most centers and in-home open at 7 at the earliest or charge extra.

It really bugs me that there are a number of well-paying jobs in industry in my town that require 12 hour shifts and a lot of people don't bother to apply because of limited childcare options.