I just curious how much other working mamas make and how much of that goes to childcare. I love my job and I don't know how we will afford for me not to work, but on the other hand childcare is soooo expensive. I prefer a home based setting so I posted on craigslist and my first response, though she sounded great wants $250 a week. I only make $350 a week and money is tight as it is. I just don't know what to do.
We are in NYC and pay our babysitter $500 a week; she works 8am - 5pm M-F and gets 5 paid sick days and 2 weeks of paid vacation. What we pay is actually on the low end of the scale for our neighborhood. Plus, many sitters in our neighborhood get an annual bonus equal to one week's pay. We can't afford to do this, but we do try and offer her as much flexibility and as many intangible benefits as possible to make the situation workable for her.
At the moment, the sitter's salary is 46% of my take-home pay, which is pretty significant for us as I am the major breadwinner and my salary has to cover all family bills/expenses except car and cellphone...
Next year when DS is 2 we will consider enrolling him in a local day care (not home-based); this will cost about $800 or $900 a month, obviously still not cheap but a significant cost savings for us!
In my area, south central Michigan, the top NAEYC accredited centers run about $175 to $200 a week for full time or $50 to $75 per day, depending on the age of the child. Liscenced home centers run about $135 or so...
$775 a month for my 2 year old. it includes all food and previously included cloth diaper service up until he entered the preschool 1 class. now they use sposies and pottylearn. i paid $780 when he was an infant there. my rate hasn't gone down because of the rate hikes over the last 2 years.
I'm in rural upstate NY. I pay $5 per hour cash for a 4 1/2 year old for babysitting and his preschool is $170 per month for 4 days a week/3 hours per day during the school year.
It's the low end for centers (as opposed to in home care) in this hellishly expensive city.
and it's about half of my take home pay. In terstingly, we pay the smae amount for rent ( two rooms in a six person household) which is cheap for the area; we would pay at least $2000 for a two bedroom place.
I just realized I didn't answer the percentage part either. My son's preschool is about $600/month, which is about 25% of my take-home pay. It used to be closer to half of my pay, but I got a much better job a couple months ago.
We pay 150 per week for 30 hours. She's in the 1 - 2 year age group. this includes breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks. It's flexible hours between 5:30am and 8pm and is linked to the Wake Med hospital here in Raleigh! Excellent value and wonderfull staff. It's about 15 - 20% of my monthly salary.
we pay 100 a week for DS's full-time in home dcp which includes "breakfast" (morning snack), lunch, snacks, her gas to drive the kids around to the park pretty much everyday and any other random expenses. its a little less than average around here
I pay $75 for a 4-day week, but two days are short days because I get off work early and pick her up by 2pm. This is for in-home day care with a wonderful mama who hasn't batted an eye to my cloth, frozen breast milk (when she was a babe) and now ECing/PLing. She also provides lunch, snacks and drinks. I think this is average to low for Central AR. I am getting a great deal so she is getting an awesome Christmas gift!
we will be paying 100 a week in two weeks for 2yr old dd at a small center (my ex bf's mom owns) till her spot opens at a top of the line private school. Then it will go to 190. That is approx 15% of my income for the first and 30 for the second.
I pay $40/day to my SIL who watches my 10 month old DD from 7:30 a.m. to anywhere between 2:30 and 4:00 p.m. (I'm a teacher; she's very flexible!). I didn't even research prices; she offered to do it for $25 and I told her that that wasn't enough and I wanted to give her at least $40, which is about 1/3 of my take home pay. DH made about $90K last year as a construction manager, but we still can't afford to live on one income in Calif. I'm very lucky to have my SIL who is a great mom and absolutely loves my DD.
$6/hour for one 3 yo. It comes to about 1/8 of my take-home pay. I have to pay so much because she is only in for 10 hours a week and we have a sitter rather than a daycare center.
We currently pay $56 a week for after school care which covers our son from the time he steps of his school bus until 6 pm. This fee also includes a snack. He is never there later than 4:45 and he gets there about 3:30. But it is nice to know he can be there longer in case of an emergency or one of us is later than 4:45.
The most we have ever paid for him was when he was an infant and the rate was $525/mo (six or so years ago). The least we ever paid was about $175/mo and that was a totally unfair amount IMO, but we also paid for his snacks. This amount covered us for about 1.5 hours per day. If he was going to be with this sitter for the whole day, we gave her $25 additional for each full day she had him. If she decided to take him out for lunch while running errands or whatever, then we reimbursed her. She was a dear friend and this was the only we we could think of helping her out of a financial disaster without her feeling we were giving her charity. She still watches our son once in a while and we pay her really well for that, about $10 an hour or so.
265 a week for my 4 yo dd. Her program before this was 300 a week - that was an infant to toddler program.
Oh, snacks and lunch are included and this is at a center that is pretty highly regarded in this area.
I also have to add 11 a week for computers and 15 a week for dance, but those are her choice.
ince I work at the cnter Kailey attends I don't pay anything now. Starting in january though, when I quit- WOOHOO! I'll be paying 55 a week. She'll be there from about 3:30 to whenever I can get there. The center closes at 5:30 and offers one snack (which is an all you can eat deal- we realize school aged children need more healthy snacks because of the brain and body power used during the day).
I'm hoping she doesn't have to be there much longer than 4:30. I'll have observation classes and may need to take a 2-4 pm class. In that event she'll be there until 5.
Thank you all so much for your responses. I guess like anything else, it really varies on the city/area. I'm still really torn about working or not, but thanks for the perspective.
We also have an au pair and as pp said - $275 a week is about right.
Home based care is around $180 a week around here - the cheapest option after free care from family. Nanny shares are popular, esp for part time workers. Daycare runs $800 - $1000 monthly (and only a slight discount for the second child).
No wonder folks use unlicensed/casual child care.
I read somewhere that in general, the mom has to earn approximately $35K a year for working to even be affordable in most of the US. I know that when doing the calculations for my first, we realized that with a nanny and me working 60% time, I would be paying $5 a month to work. Not feasible.
$300 a wk for a very AP enviroment that serves organic foods.. worth every penny but still we feel financially stretched. It's just under 50% of my take home pay. I carry the family insurance (no premiums), so that should be factored into the precentage some too...
I live in Colorado. I am a DCP in my home for just one child. I am paid $200 a week for 10-12 hours a day. That includes breakfast lunch and sometimes dinner, snacks too. It also includes anything else we do, (unless really expensive) rec center, movies, bowling.. He is 3.5 now, when he was an infant I charged $150, but when use of the potty became an issue, he ate more real food, and we started going places, we discussed a higher rate. Most people in the area pay about this much per child, I know many at home providers that won't take less than $50 a day, but it depends on the situation and how many children they care for. I only choose to take on one child for extra fun money so that my kids and I can afford to do fun things during the week. It also gives my little guy a best friend.
I live in Montana. I pay $335 per month for half-day Kindercare. It includes breakfast, lunch, snack, and transport to school. (I am applying for a tuition scholarship, so I'm hoping I'll be paying less, soon.)
Originally Posted by Noah's mommy
I live outside of DC (far reaching Virginia suburb) and use home based care. I pay $375/week for my 2 kids ($175 for my toddler and $200 for my infant). I know that is a GREAT rate. The center I have them wait listed on wants $275/week for my infant and $200 for my toddler.
Hi Noah's mommy, I'm also outside DC but probably closer to DC than you are (I'm near the Pentagon)....I'm expecting my first in March and I'm just shocked by how much child care could be. Every day it seems I find out more about the true costs of child rearing but at the same time, I'm more than happy to spend it seeing as how I'm so excited about my baby.
How did you set about picking/screening your provider?
I am lucky enough to work in a church that has its own daycare, so I only pay $40 a week for fulltime daycare for my 10-month-old. I am so very blessed in that regard. I was paying $80 for three days a week before I got this job.
After school care for two school age children + transportation 858.00
Full day care for 22 month old "infant" 1000.00
going back to school .................................priceless
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