daycare questions

[rilbrianne]

1. How many children do you have?
2. Who cares for them (ie. daycare, grandparents, babysitter,etc.)
3. How much do you pay for childcare? (results will vary depending on location - that's my assumption anyway)
4. Do you find that (assuming that both parents are in the home) your daycare costs eat up one whole income?


I'm asking simply out of curiosity. I won't go into too much detail but we seem to be in the middle. DH makes about 18000/yr. Yeah, middle... sure. We qualify for daycare and food assistance now. If I get a job that I'm qualified for or even something like a grocery store clerk, we would be over the income limit and would have to pay daycare out of pocket - which in turn would be pointless after gas costs and daycare costs would eat up my paycheck. I feel so stuck. I don't want to wait until both of my girls are in school for a full day. I have a 4 yr old and an almost 1 yr old. I'm curious as to how others do it. I don't understand it.

[chpxiii]

Would it be at all possible for you to do some in home training or education during this time? That way when your children *are* ready to go to school you could possibly get a job that paid more than grocery store clerk.

[nazstar]

1. How many children do you have?
2. Who cares for them (ie. daycare, grandparents, babysitter,etc.)
3. How much do you pay for childcare? (results will vary depending on location - that's my assumption anyway)
4. Do you find that (assuming that both parents are in the home) your daycare costs eat up one whole income?

1. I have a 7 month old and one on the way.
2. Between my husband and I, we telecommute so someone is home with her everyday.
3. We don't pay but my co-worker has a 3 month old and she pays $275/week for KinderCare.
4. My husband would be working just for daycare. We didn't want someone outside the home caring for our kids so having a nanny come to our house would be anywhere from $1500-2000 a month for ONE CHILD! With another one on the way, we assume that would go up. That's about 70% of my husband's takehome pay. So, it makes sense for us to be a one income family. Plus, we don't qualify for Chapter 7 with 2 incomes.

[JollyGG]

1. How many children do you have?

Two children aged four and 1 1/2

2. Who cares for them (ie. daycare, grandparents, babysitter,etc.)

Home daycare provider.

3. How much do you pay for childcare? (results will vary depending on location - that's my assumption anyway)

I pay $700 a month which is considered dirt cheep here. Most people I know pay twice what I do.

4. Do you find that (assuming that both parents are in the home) your daycare costs eat up one whole income?

I make 38,000 and my husband makes 34,000. But my paycheck is actually smaller because I carry benifits. One persons paycheck covers student loans, daycare, and the mortgage. The others has to cover everything else.

You need to figure out a few things to decide if it is worth it. Do you enjoy staying home? Do you enjoy the challenges of working? The choice to stay home shouldn't be purely financial. I love my job and my husband enjoys his. I feel that I am a better parent when I am doing something I enjoy even if that means that I have to find someone else I trust to care for them during the day. Others feel strongly that they are the only person who can best care for their child and they enjoy doing it. I think that is wonderful as well.

Look at the whole financial picture. Would your income change your tax bracket? What about transportation costs to and from work (gas, tolls, parking)? What about the cost of a work wordrobe, work lunchs, ect.? You already mentioned your income would disqualify you for aid and the cost of daycare.

Is the position one that will lead to promotions or other carreer oportunities? Can you request a flexible schedule so that you would need less daycare (evenings, weekends, telecommuting, ect.)? Can you get additional training and make more money? Can you make more money than your spouse? Would he stay home with the children? Can he get more training or does he have advancement opportunitees?

[isitreal]

How about opening a daycare in your house? You already do it.. make money off of someone else for a change!

[rilbrianne]

I'll try to answer all of your questions, I do appreciate your input.
1. I really don't like to babysit, (I love my own kids dearly) but I'm not the daycare provider type - meaning I wouldn't want to do home daycare... I hope that came out right... you know what I mean. I don't want to babysit for someone else. I wouldn't do it for the money, it's one of those things you really must have a passion for. I would only want someone like that watching my kids.
2. I can't really take training to make more money, I am a legal secretary and that is what I love. What I was saying was that if I had that job again, my income would be used for daycare AND I wouldn't qualify for help. If I get a small job at a grocery store or something, my income wouldn't be near enough to pay for daycare but just enough to be over the limit for help, again.
3. My husband COULD stay home, but I don't think he'd last that long, HAHAHA!
4. I love being home with my girls, but I REALLY need to get back to work, I miss working with adults. I want them to get used to being around other people as well. My 4 yr old is already so reserved. Not shy, but doesn't want to interact with others.

I'll have to get back to this later, both girls are at my feet.

[rilbrianne]

Ok, I'm back. Daycare for both kids would run about 300 per week +/- here. If I had to drive to Lansing, which is about 1 1/2 hrs away, they would be in daycare for almost 12 hrs. Then there is gas cost to consider, lunch, etc. Even with a good salary, that would eat up almost all of a paycheck... and believe me, this is Michigan. I'd be lucky to even get a "good" salary.

[Granny]

I
4. I love being home with my girls, but I REALLY need to get back to work, I miss working with adults. I want them to get used to being around other people as well. My 4 yr old is already so reserved. Not shy, but doesn't want to interact with others.

I'll have to get back to this later, both girls are at my feet.

You are at the point that I was when I put the grandkids in a mother's day out program at a local church. The cost is much less than full day care and the programs are far superior to day care. There are 2 or 3 day a week programs. This allowed me some grown up time, which I desperately needed and allowed the kids to develop socialization skills.

I use the time to grocery shop including the planning and price comparisons. This has allowed me to save substantial money on the grocery budget, not to mention that I'm not dragging the kids along with me. If you could find some data entry work to do, this could serve as a double duty time.

For adult contact, I joined the Early Childhood PTA. This is a support group for mother's or father's of babies through age 5. We have monthly meetings with childcare provided. We have outings with the kids and outings without the kids. There are girls night out where the girls will meet at someone's house for games. There's a scrapbooking group. We meet for lunch. We recently had a cookie exchange. We adopt families from the elementary schools that we support. We have a yearly fund-raiser to pay for our PTA activities including the sitters for the monthly meeting. I've heard mom's clubs are similar but I haven't been to one.

Just something you might want to consider.

[HeatherB]

1. How many children do you have?
2. Who cares for them (ie. daycare, grandparents, babysitter,etc.)
3. How much do you pay for childcare? (results will vary depending on location - that's my assumption anyway)
4. Do you find that (assuming that both parents are in the home) your daycare costs eat up one whole income?


I'm asking simply out of curiosity. I won't go into too much detail but we seem to be in the middle. DH makes about 18000/yr. Yeah, middle... sure. We qualify for daycare and food assistance now. If I get a job that I'm qualified for or even something like a grocery store clerk, we would be over the income limit and would have to pay daycare out of pocket - which in turn would be pointless after gas costs and daycare costs would eat up my paycheck. I feel so stuck. I don't want to wait until both of my girls are in school for a full day. I have a 4 yr old and an almost 1 yr old. I'm curious as to how others do it. I don't understand it.

I have two children (ages 1 and 4). I quit working when I was pregnant with the second one.

When I was working, my sister-in-law watched my son for me. I paid her $300 a MONTH. Yes, very very cheap and sweet of her. I had just filed bankruptcy and had all but about $500 a month taken out for my chapter 13 plan.

I quit work after becoming pregnant with my daughter. It just seemed pointless for me to work and go into the black due to rising gas prices and my SIL was wanting to get a "real" job. I have no idea how much daycare really costs. The few times I checked into it, I think it was $300 for one child. Not sure if it was discounted for both. I missed a lot of my son's "firsts" due to working so much. I feel guilty about that. I honestly don't know when he got his first tooth, or the first time he laughed (I do know I wasn't there when he first laughed, though) I would leave for work at 1pm and not return until about midnight... sometimes later. Basically, I was only able to spend about 3 hours a day with him (wakeful hours). I was depressed, too.

I guess if I was making more money, it would be more worth it to me.... but I was working just to barely survive. There was no joy in that. Holidaysbirthdays were all sad because I had to work and not enjoy them with my family.

Being a stay-at-home mom is a very personal decision. It's not for everyone. I have days when I feel used/taken for granted and I feel like I am not "contributing". But when I was working, I felt like I was a bad parent/not there for my son. Either way, it's really a tough choice. I think I am at the point right now that I would like to take a part time job. (a few evening after my DH gets off of work.) I am waiting until after Christmas to even look because I don't want to get stuck working a shift on the holidays.
(Dang, didn't mean to ramble.... sorry)

[rilbrianne]

Being a stay-at-home mom is a very personal decision. It's not for everyone. I have days when I feel used/taken for granted and I feel like I am not "contributing". But when I was working, I felt like I was a bad parent/not there for my son. Either way, it's really a tough choice. I think I am at the point right now that I would like to take a part time job. (a few evening after my DH gets off of work.) I am waiting until after Christmas to even look because I don't want to get stuck working a shift on the holidays.
(Dang, didn't mean to ramble.... sorry)

Your kids are the same age as mine. I understand how you feel, I was at home until my 4 yr old daughter was 2. My 1 yr old was born last Christmas and was totally unexpected and threw everything off track. We had to make a lot of changes, including moving back to MI from FL and the BK. I just want to go back to what I was doing. I REALLY enjoyed it. My DH's parents still work, so grandparents aren't an option. Great - grandparents are probably not up to handling little ones that long. My only option is to put them in daycare. The cost is going to kill me though.

I hate how I have to pay someone to raise my kids so we can put food on the table. I should have grown up during the 50's. I belong in that time period, lol. I'm so old fashioned. The economy today is sickening.

[nazstar]

Being a stay-at-home mom is a very personal decision. It's not for everyone. I have days when I feel used/taken for granted and I feel like I am not "contributing". But when I was working, I felt like I was a bad parent/not there for my son.

I agree wholeheartedly! I will be a stay at home mom in 2 months for my 7 month old girl (I also have another on the way). When I go to work, I feel guilty because I'm not there for her and when i don't go to work, I feel bad because I'm not earning. But, remember that you ARE contributing in a very important way. I have days when I feel taken for granted too, but I have to admit my hubby is pretty darn good and thanking me and doing special things to show his appreciation like running me a bath, etc. But it can still get to you.

[tiredofdebt1]

Originally Posted by rilbrianne
1. How many children do you have? 1- a 9 month old
2. Who cares for them (ie. daycare, grandparents, babysitter,etc.) home day care
3. How much do you pay for childcare? (results will vary depending on location - that's my assumption anyway) $140.00 a week

4. Do you find that (assuming that both parents are in the home) your daycare costs eat up one whole income? he and i both split daycare costs...i pay every other week..and he does the same. That is a total of $280 a month....my net pay per month is $2918....so..its not too bad...

[kl030505]

1. How many children do you have?
2. Who cares for them (ie. daycare, grandparents, babysitter,etc.)
3. How much do you pay for childcare? (results will vary depending on location - that's my assumption anyway)
4. Do you find that (assuming that both parents are in the home) your daycare costs eat up one whole income?

1. One child, age 2 and 9 months
2. daycare center
3. old daycare $224/4days a week. new preschool $180/5days a week. I just got my tax statement - we spent more than $9K in daycare last year and she was only in 3 days a week all summer, and 4 days a week the rest of the year.
4. no, it definitely does not. I wish I could say it did, then I'd have an excuse to quit. If we had more children it would be tough to get by, but I would still come out ahead on paychecks (though not by much) especially when you consider stuff like contributions to 401K and healthcare premiums etc. But, it's the biggest reason we have not had another child. We can't afford daycare for 2.

[test]

1. How many children do you have?
2. Who cares for them (ie. daycare, grandparents, babysitter,etc.)
3. How much do you pay for childcare? (results will vary depending on location - that's my assumption anyway)
4. Do you find that (assuming that both parents are in the home) your daycare costs eat up one whole income?

1. 2 children-3 months and 6 years
2. Day care for 3 month old, before and after care at school for kindergardener.
3. @$1200/month
4. No, our incomes are great, our problem is the time/commute. 160 miles round trip for work. (both, we work in same place)

[atlan]

1. One boy, 5 years old
2. Kindergarten + 2 days a week before-school care + grandparents after-school care
3. $300/mo (+$5.50/hr more if he needs extra time in before or after-school
4. It depends on the month and how many hours I'm able to work (it varies a lot)

The thing that eats up my income isn't child care, it's gas. My grad program is 60 miles away from home, and I have to go there 3x/wk. (So happy to be finishing!) Once I'm out of school and working more the cost of child care will be much more manageable.

*atlan*