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daycare costs more than college in 31 states

My child's is only $600/month. Not bad considering they are teaching them how to read, do arithmetic, draw, play nicely with others, keep them from driving me crazy for a couple of hours...etc
 
brainhulk said:
My child's is only $600/month. Not bad considering they are teaching them how to read, do arithmetic, draw, play nicely with others, keep them from driving me crazy for a couple of hours...etc
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Your child is likely older. Everywhere else I've been the costs go down as your child ages since the teacher/child ratio can be higher. Pretty sure in MD that the ratio for anyone under 2 y.o. is like 3-1 or something ridiculous like that. For the toddlers on the upper end of that range I'm sure a 3-1 ratio is helpful to have an extra set of teacher eyes and hands, but for newborns you have to be kidding me.
 
The most we spent was $470 a week when both were full time, now one is after school so we arent at that level anymore. Felt like a raise when we saved $500 a month with that change.
 
I was paying $1,200 a month for mine which is on the cheap side. She's in full day kindergarten now. Nice not to be living paycheck to paycheck anymore.
 
Full time at our Daycare is $100/wk and half day pre-k all week is ~$55. My wife could make more money and we could have someone else raise our kid, but we decided to stick to part time daycare + Pre-K.
 
After day care costs, taxes, fuel, and other misc expenses, my wife was bringing home roughly $1000/month from a $40k/year salary as a teacher. The second kid would have pushed us to the red. She stays at home now.
 
it's interesting how my brother and sister both had a kid less than a year apart, and one went to daycare and one didn't.

my brothers kid stays with his grandmother while he and his wife work, but my sister's kid goes to an actual daycare with other kids.

it is pretty crazy how different their personalities are, even at the age of 1yr old and how they are now around 2 years old.

my wife and i don't have a kid yet, and we had planned that when we do have a kid to have her off work for a year or two to raise the kid, but after seeing the personality of my sisters kid after he's been in daycare, i am 100% for daycare now. the interaction with children and things he has learned really is a great thing. my brother's kid is also very smart because his grandmother teaches him stuff and plays with him, but you can also tell that he doesn't have the social skills my other nephew does.
 
Not sure if anyone suffered through the Daddy Daycare movie... I saw bits and pieces on TNT of FX a while back.... A lot of that movie is legit. The state auditors roll through and look for staffing violations, etc... When kids are young, the provider to child ratio is like 1 to 2 or 3... So they have to pay a lot of people and it's hard for the business to turn a profit just from staffing alone.

Once they get older, it's a lot easier to manage a room of kids. We pay around $600 a month for our daughter....but it's a pretty decent daycare. I don't have a problem leaving here there. They have good security and are very aware of her safety. In 3 months or so that number is going to double when we put our son in, but with 2 of us working, it's not that bad considering it allows us not to get displaced in our careers.


As for college, my wife and I both neither dragged our parents down. Both of us took on our own college debt. I think my parents probably threw $10k at me over the course of 2 years. The rest of the time, I paid my own way up through grad school.
My wife was on scholarships and didn't really take on any college debt until she went through grad school and racked up $90k...yay...
 
I have family in Brussels, Belgium.

They get quality kindergarten free and ~€450 per kid per month.
 
Scarpozzi said:
The state auditors roll through and look for staffing violations, etc... When kids are young, the provider to child ratio is like 1 to 2 or 3... So they have to pay a lot of people and it's hard for the business to turn a profit just from staffing alone.
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Truth. Sold mine 12/2013 thankfully.

Licensed for 57 kids and payroll was costing me $18K/mo. Add in food, insurance, workers comp, unemployment, rent, lights, etc, etc...Even run properly/efficiently, it's hard to make $$.
 
This is why my wife is choosing to stay home with our upcoming twins. It essentially makes no economic sense to have others raise our kids.
 
Just saw an article the other day that said there has been a sharp rise in the number of families with a stay-at-home parent, for this exact reason.
 
What's really funny is that these days you can't even use public schools as "daycare" anymore. A public education fucking nickel and dimes you to death.

When I was in elementary school, the only things we paid for out of pocket was field trips and lunches if we bought them - they were about $0.75. Hell, classrooms even came stocked with things like paper towels and tissues. These days the kids have to pay for the copy paper that their assignments are printed on and a school lunch costs as much as typical fast food fare. Not to mention that the school supply lists at the beginning of the year have things like paper towels and tissues on them. I'm surprised the schools are gracious enough to provide toilet paper and running water. Private school might end up being just as "inexpensive" these days.
 
highland145 said:
Truth. Sold mine 12/2013 thankfully.

Licensed for 57 kids and payroll was costing me $18K/mo. Add in food, insurance, workers comp, unemployment, rent, lights, etc, etc...Even run properly/efficiently, it's hard to make $$.
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Out of curiosity when you wrote up your business plan and budget did you expect these costs? What was your break even point per child per month?
 
purbeast0 said:
it's interesting how my brother and sister both had a kid less than a year apart, and one went to daycare and one didn't.

my brothers kid stays with his grandmother while he and his wife work, but my sister's kid goes to an actual daycare with other kids.

it is pretty crazy how different their personalities are, even at the age of 1yr old and how they are now around 2 years old.

my wife and i don't have a kid yet, and we had planned that when we do have a kid to have her off work for a year or two to raise the kid, but after seeing the personality of my sisters kid after he's been in daycare, i am 100% for daycare now. the interaction with children and things he has learned really is a great thing. my brother's kid is also very smart because his grandmother teaches him stuff and plays with him, but you can also tell that he doesn't have the social skills my other nephew does.
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did your bother's kid start going to daycare as soon as his mom went back to work? I am debating between getting a nanny or sending to daycare. Daycare would be more expensive, and I don't think they interact with other kids too much at 5-12 months...or do they? Definitely want to send my daughter to daycare after she turns 1 though
 
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The downside to staying at home it the stalling of ones career. We have friends that choose to stay home as it was the more affordable option at the time but they are set back 5-6 years in their careers. We actually went red for a few months before things evened out but have since come out on top.
 
We pay $600 a month for preschool 3 days a week and we'll be paying a nanny to watch our 3 month old $7/hr which will come out to an additional $700 a month ($1,300 total). Our friends are expecting this fall and we'll be sharing the nanny to help offset the cost. The nanny's rate goes up to $9/hr but we'll be responsible for only $4.50/hr.
 
bigi said:
I have family in Brussels, Belgium.

They get quality kindergarten free and ~€450 per kid per month.
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ahh, was waiting for a response like this. It's obvious that we are behind Europe and need to have the government run daycare centers.
 
CPA said:
ahh, was waiting for a response like this. It's obvious that we are behind Europe and need to have the government run daycare centers.
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This already happens on the state level. At least in MN. Low income mothers qualify for the state to pay for daycare.
 
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