Full time daycare cost clicky poll

[lishie]

It pains me that we live in a MCOL area, and pay nearly $25K for our two children to be in daycare. I wanted a NAYCE facility, so I suck it up and pay the ridiculous prices.

[csquared]

Our center is around 1,900 / month for an infant and drops as the teacher to child ratio drops. Our ratios were 1:3 until age 2, 1:6 for age 2, 1:9 for age 3 and will be 1:12 for age 4. The pre-K class is around 1,400 / month.

[karinothing]

May 22, 2012 14:03:15 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

May 22, 2012 13:44:20 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

I agree but it's there:

codes.ohio.gov/orc/5104

(i) Less than twelve months old 5:1, or 12:2 if two child-carestaff membersare in the room

At some point I saw a graph and most states require 4:1, so you would think more around here would offer it.

Maybe that is what keeps us LCOL

I would be really concerned with those ratios. That's actually higher than Lucy's room (2 year olds) and things get plenty nuts in there.

Babies need so much one on one care. I would be afraid that no matter how awesome the teachers are, there would be a lot of times my baby would be left to cry simply because there aren't enough hands to go around.

If there aren't better ratio options available, could you do a nanny share (in my area it's about the same price as a center) until your babe is a toddler?

12:2 is insane. We are at 4:1 and it seems to work out well. I drop by during lunch and then see what is going on when I do pick up and at any given time one baby is asleep. So it seems like the ratio ends up being more like 7:2.

I will admit that sometimes the babies will cry a bit more than they would with a nanny but I have never heard a baby cry longer than a couple minutes and that is usually when they are going down for naps.

[BAMFMrsB]

$235/week for the infant room. It will drop ~$60/month once he moves up, for each step, I believe.

My daycare is attached to our main building so I can go see him whenever I want. :Y:

I registered him for daycare in April. ;D There was NO WAY I was missing out on this opportunity!

[karinothing]

May 22, 2012 14:16:22 GMT -5 BAMFMrsB said:

$235/week for the infant room. It will drop ~$60/month once he moves up, for each step, I believe.

My daycare is attached to our main building so I can go see him whenever I want.

I registered him for daycare in April. ;D There was NO WAY I was missing out on this opportunity!

Having daycare at work is pretty much amazing!

[octwed07]

the infant room is a bit more spendy -- about $330/week, but when they get to a year old, it goes down a little. Then when they are potty trained (about 2.5-3), it goes down to about $270/week.

[omalley]

May 22, 2012 12:12:34 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Yay! I am the first vote for over $400

Also, I always find it odd that daycare posts on MM talk about weekly costs. My DC never gives me a weekly cost only monthly (I mean obviously I can figure it out). But we pay monthly? I guess I don't understand why everyone talks about it weekly.

Our DC charges per month too but every other place we toured in our area charges per week. We prefer the monthly bill b/c then we only have to deal with it once.

FWIW we pay $1100 per kid per month. We live in the suburbs of Phila.

[smiley]

We don't currently have a child but I have been researching different places in our area.

The closest center to our home is
$175 for full time infant
$165 for full time 1 year old
$155 for full time 2 year old
$145 for full time 3 year old
$135 for full time 4 year old
Free voluntary pre-kindergarten

[Deleted]

May 22, 2012 12:12:34 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Yay! I am the first vote for over $400

Also, I always find it odd that daycare posts on MM talk about weekly costs. My DC never gives me a weekly cost only monthly (I mean obviously I can figure it out). But we pay monthly? I guess I don't understand why everyone talks about it weekly.

Isn't it because of 5 week months? They get more money this way than they would if you only paid monthly.
I'm at an in home and we pay weekly, but centers are probably different.

[MrsManners]

We pay monthly and it's $975. That will go down a little once he starts pre-k in the fall. We had a nanny for almost 3 years and she was $550/week.

[savannah11]

I love my in home provider. Just $190 per week in HCOL.

[tennis7733]

I pay $80/day so it works out to average $1800/month.

[Tea-rific]

The center we are hoping ds gets into is $1350/month for infants. The ratio is 4 to 1 with a class of 8 kids. All the teachers have degrees and it is a great organization. We have been on the waiting since before ds was born and will find out if he has a spot in a few weeks.

[Noralie]

185/wk for an infant in the center we use.

[pacificrules]

May 22, 2012 12:15:33 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

May 22, 2012 12:12:34 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Yay! I am the first vote for over $400

Also, I always find it odd that daycare posts on MM talk about weekly costs. My DC never gives me a weekly cost only monthly (I mean obviously I can figure it out). But we pay monthly? I guess I don't understand why everyone talks about it weekly.

All my places quoted weekly. I believe they charge us bi-weekly. Maybe it's because your nice center has a lower delinquency rate in payments, so they have to collect less often?

I also think another reason some places quote weekly is that every week is the same, whereas months include a different number of work/daycare days.

[Deleted]

$175/week, in home DC

[tigress]

May 22, 2012 12:07:38 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

I know this varies a lot regionally but I am curious what most MMers pay.

If you use PT care, you can vote if you know how much full time care would be.

Use the youngest age of infant available at your provider.

We are with a family friend who just started in home daycare, so its pretty cheap ($135) plus we live in low cost of living area.

If we went with a center it would probably be over $200/week.

[galaxy8227]

Ours is $240 a week for an infant--the price decreases when he is 12 months-18 months (I forgot which)