Anyone else feel restricted by the cost of daycare?

JJSunshine817

Its costing us about $1100 a month to have LO in daycare. Thats the going rate (and actually a little cheaper) for the MD/Northern VA area. Originally DH and I wanted to start trying for #2 in Nov of 2012, but there is no way we can pay over $2000 in daycare costs and still manager. It just stinks I see women on here contemplating TTC for their 2nd and it makes me sad that we don't have the option to for about another 4.5 yrs when Maddy is in kindergarden. Anyone else in this same boat?

daisy889

What i have noticed is the only few options are work and pay the $2000 in daycare or if your not making much more stay at home. Either way you wont be seeing that money. Well if you cant afford to stay at home with 2, then i guess you can't have 2, it sucks. And yes were in the same boat, so if it comes down to it i will stay at home but i like my job We will be on a budget but i want 2 kids not to far apart.

ms12345

Yeah... I wanted kids not far apart, but between my health (my BP never came down after having pre-e) and finances, there's just no way to do it right now. Financially, we could swing it if I didn't have $650 a month in student loans.

oandmplus1

I understand the feeling, although we are only paying around $720 a month right now, I just don't know if our budget can take almost double that. DD had some unexpected health problems and requires contacts and glasses that insurance doesn't cover, plus she will need surgery for the third time around the age of 2 or so, so I feel we are restricted as well. I really wanted to start trying next fall too, but I want to get through DD's next eye surgery before having another LO around and worrying about how we are going to pay for it all.

P.S. My DD's name is also Madelyn and she is also about 6 months. 

laurakaz13

Does the price go down once your LO is out of the infant stage?  Pre-school prices are cheaper around here as well.  I understand the MD/Northern VA area is very expensive, but just wondering.  Also, do they offer discounts for more than one kid?  My daycare does.  Just a few thoughts. 

LoCarb

We pay $25k/yr for 2 kids.  Yes, the cost is hindering and up there with our mortgage.  We make it work and live on a budget. We don't go out often, however, w/ 2 LO's we wouldn't go out much if we had loads of disposable income. My girls are 2 yrs apart and for us it's a good age difference.

catsinawindow

Yes!  Even just having one in daycare part-time (and at a cheaper place then yours) is putting a strain on the budget.  Unless finances change dramatically, we won't be able to try for #2 until DS is in school.  Sigh...I am definately jealous of all those trying for #2 already, but I also know that many are probably SAHM and it's just not for me.  I like my job and like being a WM.

Jaylea

This is why our kids are 4 years apart.

We are looking at $22000/year in daycare costs this year.

sbmp10

This is exacty why our DD and DS are four years apart in age.  We will only have to pay double daycare from January until June.  I am a counselor in a school so I get the summer off, and then DD will go to Kindergarten so we are back to paying just one.  It will be $1800 for the two of them and that is with a 10% discount for multiple children. 

Honestly it made me sad in the beginning but we got to spend alot of quality time with DD and now we are really enjoying and appreciating the baby stage with DS because it has been so long.

I also worried that they would be too far apart in age to enjoy one another and it couldn't be further from the truth.  DD LOVES DS and DS adores his big sister and watches her every move.  He smiled at her first and laughs at her constantly!

lexigrl

The cost of daycare is crazy. We weren't trying for another baby when I got pregnant with DS2 last year and I was a nervous wreck about having to put 2 kids in daycare. Then about 2 months before I came back to work I was talking to a friend of mine who hired a sitter instead of putting her 2 boys in daycare and she suggested maybe trying to find someone so I started looking and found a girl who lives in our town. I am so thankful we decided to hire a nanny instead of putting both boys in daycare. Not only has it been a better option financially for us but having her has been a huge help. She is awesome with the boys, takes them to the park and her bestfriend babysits for another family in our town so the kids are always playing together, they go to the library, do crafts and a bunch of other things. The boys adore her and we love her. DS2 is in pre-school for 2.5hrs a day 3 days a week and she does drop off and pick up 2 times a week since I WFH one day so DS1 is still getting to be around kids his age. I can't imagine my life without her. 

Bexxy10

I actually live close to you and feel the pain.  I was in Reston, but we moved to Stafford to have less housing expense once DD was born.  My DH is military so it worked out well, but I ended up having to leave my well paying job in D.C. because I was leaving our DD in daycare for 12 hours a day, and to be it wasn't worth it.  Now I've taken a job making over 30k less, but I get to be home more with DD.  But this has also hindered us from being able to try for another if we wanted.  We haven't decided if we want another one yet, but basically the option isn't even able to be put on the table either.  I hear my friends in Reston who pay $400 a week for daycare for a child that's 5.  Thankfully moving to this area the daycare is much less.  We plan on moving to NC once my DH is out of the military so we can afford more house, and more family. 

srs5624

We decided that we're only having one. My dad keeps asking when we're going to try for #2. We keep telling him that we're not having any more children and he always responds with... Well, you already bought all that baby stuff so having a second wouldn't really cost you any more than you've already spent.

Yeah, tell that to the daycares.

We just re-iterate that we're not having any more and leave it at that. I won't give anyone our reasons for only having one because no matter what we say, someone will find a way to argue our reasoning.

mmoravec

My husband is a teacher and I was a nurse.  When we looked into putting our boys in daycare it would have taken 80% of my income, so I decided to stay at home with them.  We figured once I had to take some days off if they were sick, had Dr appts, etc pretty soon my whole check would be gone.  Plus I worked 10-12 hour days and would have missed out on so many milestones.  We have to budget pretty tight now, but it is worth not having all of the stress that would have come with working and we aren't missing out on that much money.  I can't imagine trying for a 3rd baby and the cost of it.  Right now I am just looking forward to a second income again once they start school so that we can get everything paid off.  It doesn't help that we had a lot of medical expenses related to the pregnancy, birth, and NICU stay.  Oh well, we have two beautiful boys and if that is all we can afford we will love them so much.

Bejebus

While we live in a lower COL area, the costs do go down as kids get older. In our center, the infant room is 150/week and it goes down from there. My DS is in the 3 yo preschool room and it's $115/week. However, talk to your center or provider about a two-child discount. When we were TTC DD, I talked to the director since our costs would have been $150 for infant + $130 for (then) 2 yr old room and I couldn't afford $280 a week in daycare. We negotiated down to $200 a week for both of them, and when DS moved to his new room they still took off the $15, so now we pay $185 for two kids each week. It's still a lot, but more do-able than $280.

That whole book is by way of saying, see if centers offer a multiple-kid discount or anything like that. If not, VPK (voluntary pre-Kindergarten) programs start at 4 and are mandated free by my state, so maybe you're looking at 4 years instead of 5? GL!

nikki*83*84

Wow I thought I was payin alot a month. I only pay 127.50 a week. 25.50 a day and 5 an hour under 4 hours. Plus we only get charged for days that she is there.

sarbieb

I pay $950 a month and yes, it's painful! Luckily we paid off our cars before LO came so that freed up some extra money BUT there's no way we could swing two in day care at the same time! Not to mention we could use a larger house if we have another baby and there's no way we can afford a higher mortgage AND another in day care. My husband says he's more than complete with just one child, (and I beyond love LO) but I desperately want one more. I cannot imagine not getting to experience amazing this baby stage all over again. I try to tell him we'll regret it later in life and LO needs a sibling ect ect but he laughs and says we'll be able to retire sooner with more money if we only have the one. I could cry thinking these next few months could be the last time I'll ever breastfeed ... I'm a total nursing junkie!

kcisthebombdotcom

Could you opt for a nanny instead? That is generally the cheaper option when 2 kids are involved. Maybe you could nanny share with another family and only pay half the cost? What about SAH but starting up a daycare so you can bring in extra money?

chardonnay24

Definitely. I am in school right now and when I finish, I'm looking at starting at maybe $35-40k/year. After taxes and withholding, that's basically enough to pay for daycare for 2 kids and cable. I'm looking into working part time in my field (accounting) or maybe just working seasonally (preparing taxes) to avoid this. That way, I can gain some experience and when my kids are all (we want 3) in school, I won't be just starting out and making a base salary.

kendra223

Yeah! That's why before I went back to my customer service rep job after my maternity leave, I searched for something to where I could spend more time with her and make $800 a month. $800.00 a month was the magic number because that's what was left of my check after daycare (not to mention the cost of driving back and forth to daycare... that's expensive too. Go to daycare, go to work, go to daycare, go home... our daycare was kind of out of the way).

So I got super determined and actually decided to work part time at a daycare. I found a place that would take her for free and would employee me to work in the same room as her. It was a super awesome deal. I put in my 2 week notice at the csr place right away. I went back for my 2 week notice and she went to normal daycare, I didn't like it. I'm glad I did what I did. Now daycare is free, I still get paid and I spend all my time with her.

Now... this begs the question, will we have an LO #2? I don't know. There are still so many other costs to take into account. I know someday I'll want to get into a career because I do have a degree. I know that I want to provide LO with things she will need and appreciate, such as a college fund. It's still uncertain. And my Hubby is saying he's happy with just one. I just dunno how to feel. Sometimes I think I could be happy with just one too, but sometimes not. Sometimes I just want to find a good part time at home job so if we have another LO I can stay home and still work on a career.

There's just so much to take into account these days. Things are much different now. That's why I think our parents question us about only have one LO (well for the ones who do only want one LO). There's new challenges for our generation. So for some of us, it makes sense to just have one LO. Others ponder this and they can make it work with two. Some do daycare, some don't. In the end, we do what we feel is best for our families.

kwitt22

The cost of daycare is outrageous to me. Thankfully mil watches dd for us free of charge. If we didn't have that I might as well stay home, bc the cost of DC would basically be my whole paycheck.

lana5259

I suggest looking into home-daycares or learning centers vs. daycare centers. Home-daycare has all the benefits and same guideline/requirments of licensing of public daycare centers; but are lower cost do to the fact that depending on state the child to provider ratio is 1 to 4. Where public daycares the ratio can be 1 to 18. Learning centers are also a great option, they focus more on education and one on one. Most major colleges have this option. Where I live both home-daycare and learning centers are half of public daycare. And they have more benefits for the children.