daycare questions

[Over our heads]

I have 4 kids, 3 are in school and the babe is 19 months.

Way back when we just had 2 kids, I was a monitor on a special needs bus for the local school district. I was able to take the boys with me since the SpEd busses had seat belts. I worked roughly 2 hrs in the morning, and 2 hrs in the afternoon. In between time was just enough for them to have naps and lunch.

I had all holidays off, the entire summer, and if school was called off for weather, I got to stay home too!

Since we didn't have to pay for child care, everything I made was actually "ours".

[Footprints1973]

I live in Illinois.

I have 1 child who is 5 and is in daycare. We pay $218.00 per week for Kindercare. This takes a big chunk of income but what can you do. It is especially hard when you are in a Chapter 13 and there is not much wiggle room for extra expenses.

Holy smokes! I thought I was paying a lot for daycare. We were paying $175 for our 3 year old and could not afford it anymore. We found a similar place for $115 a week that is non for profit.

I used to live in IL (Chicago area), but moved out of state 6 years ago...miss everything about it except the weather!

Footprints

[gymbo]

I have a 4 yr. old. I pay $216/week for 4 days -- full time. It's ridiculous but that is the going rate here.

I tried a couple of in-home places but had BAD experiences (I'm sure there are some great ones - but both of these came highly recommended and I was highly disappointed.) and the in-home/unlicensed care was only slightly cheaper anyway.

I would have loved to have more kids but I just don't know how people can afford it!!!!

11 months 'til kindergarten!

[PoorGrammyinBK7]

Wish my daughter could read this thread!

I take care of my little 3 year old granddaughter 5 days a week (except for 2 mornings/wk when she is in preschool).

I don't charge anything, but I get lots of love and hugs and sweet, sweet memories to cherish from my precious little granddaughter!

Priceless!

[Chitown]

I live in Illinois.

I have 1 child who is 5 and is in daycare. We pay $218.00 per week for Kindercare. This takes a big chunk of income but what can you do. It is especially hard when you are in a Chapter 13 and there is not much wiggle room for extra expenses.

[Cali]

1. I have two.
2. They are 16 and 17, so they take care of themselves for the most part.

[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*

[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)

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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.

[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)

[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.

[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.