How much does Daycare cost in your area?

[bleedingheart]

My children are getting older but they both continue to attend daycare in the summer while I work. I enrolled them years ago in a national chain (which I will not advertise here) but they have excellent retention rates..the woman that watched my kids as babies also watched my 20,18 and 16 year old neice.
They make meals for the kids...etc

The price tag is $176 per week per child. With multi-child discounts it is going to come to around $280 something a week.

After school care is approximately $5 a day ($25 a week) and it is in school... There is also Before School programs with hot breakfast for $5 a day so that you can drop them off and they can have breakfast (my kids eat at home and have a snack there too sometimes)...when I have used the service.

I am not complaining, I work to pay for healthcare, retirement, education..etc and I live modestly so I can afford this right now..granted it is a lot of money but I want quality child care for my kids.

I also want to say that of all the tax money that I pay, I would prefer that more money would be directed to allowing those children less fortunate the ability to get access to such great care while their parents work.

So back to the original question...what is the cost of childcare in your area?

[caligirl]

1. $700 a month when i worked, but that was 10 year ago. Montessori.

You get what you pay for here, I had him in cheaper day care and they mistreated him. Pulled him out ASAP filed a report with DSS and went to court. Judge whipped on them good and forced them to return my deposit. Plus they got a nice visit from DSS and a report on file for anyone to read for 5 years.
Don't go $$ go quality to the extent you can. I went child care based first, then went for a education based program, much better system. Some of the larger churchs have preschools that can be very good too. I have to stree the education point, I found that the people were better trained and more capable of acting likde adults themselves.

[bleedingheart]

2. for just one child?

just curious...

[caligirl]

16. yes, its the bay area. I had to work, then I realized how happy

he was at Montessori and worked to keep him there through kindergarten.
Kept him out of cali publics one more year that way. It paid off big in 2 and 3 grade math and reading. He was way ahead andlearned a true love of learning and a very inquisitve mind for knowledge. I credit Montessori for it. he is now a hs Junior with excellent grades, SAT scores of 740V,700math, and 720 writing and is in the running for national merit finalist on this years psat for hs juniors. 1.3million took the test and he finished in the top 13,000. Takes AP classes too and is doing well there.
I have always believed it was the way they approach learning and how they approach the children. Whenever I visited, the kids were always absorbed in their classes and the teachers always spoke to them never down or at them. very child education focused with kind respect and educated staff.

Sorry for going over board. Bay area child care(cali childcare)costs alway shock newcomers here. I lived on the east coast and and am familiar with the cost differences. Shocked me too. But its the way it is here. Very expensive. But think about this, the medean house price is now 622,ooo. And its just a plain ranch house not necessarily where the best schools are. High demand,low avilable homes for sale and little new construction.

[ReadTomPaine]

6. Montessori is excellent.. but it is more than simple daycare..

as you point out! Highly recommended to those with the resources.

http://www.montessori.org/

[bleedingheart]

9. quality care pays off in the end...

my children are exposed to wonderful experiences and educational programs at their daycare center. It is the most expensive in our area but it is definitly worth every penny.

[CanOfWhoopAss]

3. $146 in Smyrna, GA (Atlanta Metro) + 30 for baby in diapers (nt)

[Divameow77]

4. I pay a friend $160 per week for my 2 & 7 year olds,

but when I first started looking a popular chain wanted $230 a week for just my 2 year old. I live in a southern suburb of Minneapolis.

[Ysolde]

5. Summer varies...

since my daughter (3rd grade) goes to different kinds of camps. The Girl Scout ones are the most affordable ($25/week for a day camp), but you can't go to them all summer (more like 1 day camp and 1 resident camp) because of the demand. She's taking some camps at her school (private) and they're running $190/week. The local YWCA is running about $120/week. During school, the after school care is $185/month.

Straight Day Care for my son at a wonderful center that strives to pay much better than anywhere else, has certified teachers, and gives them benefits costs $650/month (at 4 1/2 -- more for younger ones).

I totally agree with you about quality care for low-income kids. Good childcare needs to be available to all families AND it shouldn't stop at age 12! I just don't understand why we abandon middle school kids. When they're at their most vulnerable, we no longer provide after school care. It's just crazy!

Oh, and I'm in Tulsa, OK.

[bleedingheart]

7. I completely agree with you about middle school programs

there are none! they need more monitoring at that stage and there are no programs for those youngsters!!

I just can't see my kids being able to come home to a house at 13 like I did all alone or all summer alone..it was a recipe for disaster back then and it still is.

[caligirl]

21. Me too. I quit my job in part because of that. Too old for after school

care, too young to be left alone.By this time they were in public and not Montessori. The riskiest time for high school students(teen preg etc.) between 3 and 6 pm weekdays.

[kcass1954]

8. In south Florida...

My son is 9. After-care is $35/week. Summer camp (including activities) is $125.

When he was still in pre-school (4 years ago), we paid $110/wk for full-time care.

[Sweet Freedom]

10. In Texas

after-school, on-campus care: $38/week
Summertime: $145/week plus registration and supplies.

(Highest I paid was $175/week when my child was a toddler)

[FinallyStartingToWin]

11. I Pay $227 Per Week In Morris County, NJ For One Child

And the daycare is nothing special. The really good daycares around here are about 280-300 a week.

[tjdee]

13. Ah...the price is jacked up just because it's Morris county, you know that

LOL...

Ah....Bergen and Morris....so very much money for everything.... (I lived in Bergen, which aspires to be Morris, for a number of years)

:hi:

[FinallyStartingToWin]

17. No Shit! LOL

I have my second on the way, so 6 months from now we will have 2 in daycare for $1800 a friggin month. I figure for that price, I should by a second damn house with a mortgage for less and put an ad in the paper saying free house if you watch my kids... Hey, at least I'd get a tax deduction and have an investment! LOL

[MissB]

12. Depends on the age

When my children were toddlers, care at a center cost $1400 a month per child.

The rate drops as the children get older. I wasn't really clear as to what age range you were talking about.

[bleedingheart]

15. sorry for not being specific, I was just wondering general costs

Actually daycare has gone up significantly after having dropped a bit for a while.

It was $145-159 a week for my babies (8-5 years ago)...then it went down. But now school age children are $176 a week, but that includes all meals and snacks. I also pay a $150/each enrollment fee to cover the field trips and other stuff they do all summer.

[tjdee]

14. I'm paying...about $150/week for summer camp.

Makes me sick, too! Even though I know that is dirt cheap...considering.

[KansDem]

18. I don't recall but remember it was our 2nd biggest expense each month...

For awhile, we had two children in daycare. And the daycare providers want to be paid on Monday, so those months with 5 Mondays resulted in payments of over $1,000. Those months, the daycare bill surpassed all other monthly expenditures including our mortgage payment.

Come to think of it, I don't know how we survived (well, on second thought, we're still paying off accumulated debt from that time and will continue to do so for some time to come...)

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

19. $2000 per month for 3 young children.

This is a NAEYC accredited program which, among other requirements, sets ratios of staff to children. Also, the price decreases as the children get older (babies cost > toddlers > young children > school age). This is in Pennsylvania.

[caligirl]

20. Another resource might be your community college

here ours has a program on campus to teach students about development or child care or some degree program. So they run a very good, highly rated day care program. They just got in to a new facility on campus. It fills up fast, moms like it alot here. $$ is lower but quality is very good.

[TalkingDog]

22. Lunch with a friend today in Winston-Salem NC

She dropped a figure of 8000.00 for a year of daycare for her 3 year old boy.

I told her after accounting for: all the time to and from the facility, car maintenance, gas costs, plus all the Dr. visits from catching every germ in creation from all the other kids, it was actually more like 1500.00

Hidden costs people, hidden costs.

(edited for internal spelling Nazi)

[bleedingheart]

23. I use the Cafeteria Plan to help save money on taxes ...

however the individual has to weigh whether it is worth it from many perspectives.