If I might ask...how much do you pay for child care?

I was wondering how much I might expect to pay for childcare when I go back to work. I don't know if we will do in-home care with a nanny or go to a church daycare, but I would like to have some sort of idea to go on when we start looking. The twins will be 2 1/2 and the baby will be 1 1/2 when I go back. I know it depends a lot too on region, state, city, etc. If we hired a nanny, I have a number in mind, but would like to get some feedback first to see if I'm on target. I wouldn't expect anything other than taking care of the babies, cooking their meals during the day and cleaning up whatever mess they make together. Thanks!

 

We do an in-home daycare and pay only $8/hour -- she provides meals and snacks too. It's a steal for us -- and sometimes I feel bad so I actually give her a little extra.

 

We do in-home with another family for $7/hr. She keeps my girls up to 25 hours a week for $175 a week and we don't pay for Christmas, Spring, or Summer breaks (my husband is a teacher). The only reason we get such a great deal is because the other family uses and pays her full time.

I wouldn't change it for the world, though. She loves my girls, gives them tons of attention, and they get to interact with other children two days a week.

The other days they stay with their grandma.

 

My boys are almost 3.5 & attend daycare 2-3 days per week at a nationally accredited center. Because I'm part time, I pay per day, which is $40.50 per child. My boys are there from 7:30-4:30 most days, so 9 hours. I guess, for the both of them, that equals about $9/hr for the 2 of them combined. They get breakfast, lunch, & afternoon snack. Any field trips are extra. Whenever we get a sitter (which is rare), I pay them $8/hr, so our daycare isn't that much higher (and I don't have to supply any food!).

At 2.5, I paid $43.50 per day per child. Our current center didn't allow part time until 2.5, which is when we joined. Prior to that we were in a center that I wasn't overly thrilled with, but it was the only one allowing part time for children under 2.5 in our area. At 1.5, I was paying $222/week for both kids...so probably around $8/hr for both. Any other center, I would've had to pay full time...which ranged from $195-250/week PER CHILD! Because I've always been part time, I've never gotten any discounts for a 2nd child...but at our current center you get 10% off for a 2nd child if you pay full time (I'm not sure if a discount would apply for a 3rd child).

I know a lot of people have wonderful experiences with in home daycares & nannies, but it wasn't something I was comfortable with. That being said, I look forward to the days that my daycare tuition is less than my mortgage per month!!! Once my boys turn 4, our price goes down to $39.50 per day per child...it's amazing what even $2 less per day equals out to in a year !

Good luck! I hope you find something you're comfortable with!

 

at 2 I paid $152 a week for both (the center offered a 20% discount on the second child)...we switched centers when they were 3.5 and this center is quite a bit more expensive at $202 a week (with a 10% discount for the second child) but that is 3 full days per week from 8:30 to 4:30...they get breakfast, lunch and a snack...

I'm excited for K in the fall when I'll have that extra money in my pocket!

 

My two are in an in-home daycare full time, she provides breakfast, lunch and two snacks per day, plus does a preschool curriculum daily. I pay 110.00/ea per week.(I am getting a multi-child discount.)
They attend with 4 other 3yo's and love it there!

 

This year we have them in a church affiliated preschool and we're paying $247 per month for both of them (3 days/2.5 hours). :good: This is alot cheaper then where they were last year. Last year they were going to a daycare/preschool and it would have been $988 a month for my two. :faint: :faint: Another mortgage payment!!

 

We pay over $1500 a month for an inhome daycare. It's $70/day for both. But it's 7:30-5:30, and she provides everything but diapers plus they do preschool curriculum. She has 2 full time employees and 2 part time employees and about 18 kids total.

 

Around here a nanny for 3 kids usually runs around $15-$20/hr or a flat weekly rate of about $500. Its a lot. We pay our sitter $12/hr for our two. When they were in daycare it was $2000/month. Its expensive.

 

When we had a nanny, we paid $14/hour for our two children. That was the going rate here, and seemed to be pretty average according to people on Twinstuff. Our nanny didn't do anything other than take care of our girls and pick up the majority of their mess. In addition to the salary, we paid her for all federal holidays and one week of paid vacation/sick time. It was a lot of money, but I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat because it was fantastic knowing my kids were well cared for in my own home. I didn't have to take time off when they were sick, nor did I have to plan for snow days or weather delays. And it was so much easier to let my girls sleep in when needed, be able to keep them in their PJs, and never have to rush them out of the house to daycare or someone else's house. We put our girls in preschool when they were 3 and my morning workload tripled. Seriously, it's so much harder to get kids up in the morning on a schedule, get them dressed, cook breakfast, make little people eat their breakfast, get their coats and boots on, warm the car up enough so that no one whines, and then drive to school.

 

Another option is an au pair, which is much cheaper, but you have to be ok with someone living in your home.

I never really researched because there is no way I would find something cheap enough for it to be worth it for me to work, but a lot of places quoted me $130 a week per child for just 2 days!

 

Good to know! At first I thought we would definitely hire a nanny so they could stay home until they started kindergarten. But now, I'm leaning more towards a church daycare. I'd like for them to be able to interact with other kids and for the twins to learn to function without each other. That way school won't be as much of a shock. I think I also like the idea of having more people around to watch them, instead of just one person all day, every day. I know how much energy and patience that takes and I don't know how trusting I am! We'll see though, I know we'll recognize the ideal situation when it presents itself. I also know their can be long wait lists for good programs and I'd rather start searching sooner instead of later. Thanks!

 

I did lots of shopping around, and the average in my area is $90 - $130/ea per week. Most places (in-home and centers) are open like 6am to 6pm. There is usually a 10 - 20 % discount for additional kids, and the prices often decrease as the kids get older (more for infants, less for toddlers, etc.) So, my 3 at a center would have been somewhere around $300/week total when the twins were infants.

We have a nanny who comes to our house and also cleans it. We pay her $330/week. Since we pay federal and unemployment taxes for her as our employee, it ends up being about $380/week total. She's there from 6am until 5pm, takes care of our 3, and our 5th grader when he's dropped off after school.

 

Wow. We pay $417 a week for the two kids, and that's with a 10% discount on one of them and a small additional negotiated discount because we enrolled when they first opened. It's a great, national center that I can't say enough good about. We are in Ohio, so not a particularly expensive market. I looked at one daycare here that was like $400 per child.

 

We pay $1600 a month for an in-home daycare center for our twins, with no sibling discount. We also provide all the food and diapers. Right now, there is one other infant there.

Though it is very expensive, I would not want my children cared for by anyone else or in any other setting right now. The provider follows a cirriculum and does field trips. My children are also learning and are constantly exposed to another language. Because of this exposure and their interactions, they are bilingual and that means alot to us. If we could afford it we would be willing to pay more for what they are getting there.

We looked at a few other centers (in-home, church, large centers) before selecting this one and the rates were lower ($110 - $175 per child/week), but we are paying for the difference in what we believe that our children are getting at this price.

 

We pay 850.00/month for 2 kids. It should be 1000.00/month, but the owner gave us a $150.00 discount on the second child. Our oldest DS went to her also. They are there M-F from 8:00 - 4:00 or 4:30. We also pay $125.00/month for full day kindergarten for our oldest DS.

There are not many reasons I'm excited about them getting older, but I am looking forward to putting this money to other uses!

 

When we did daycare, it was only for 3 days a week. For my two, it was 221.40 for those 3 days and that was with a 10% multi-child discount. They go to a Community Ed daycare now on those same 3 day, but just in the afternoons after Kindergarten and it's $22/day. If they went a full day, it would be $32/day.

 

I should add: the center is open 5 days a week from 6:30 to 6:30. My kids are usually there from 7:30 or 8 until 5:30 or 6.

 

Our kids have gone full-time (45 hours a week) to an accredited daycare center since they were newborns, and we pay about $1000 a month per child.

 

We go to an in home daycare and it is $250/week for both kids ($125/kid). She provides breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack, as well as an educational based program.

 

My grandsons go to preschool/daycare full time and my daughter pays $200.00 per week for both. They are 4 yrs old. Over the years they have paid up to $1500.00 per month for full time care.

 

If my kids were to go to school...

Where I used to work, it costs $160/week per kid. They were open from 7:30a-4:30p. The ages were 2.9-5.

Another former place of employment was a daycare/preschool. Infants started at $250/week. Their hours were 6:30a-5:30p. It went down a little bit as the kids got older... I can't remember how much the preschool rooms were.

And if my kids were to go to school in town... there is a private preschool that is T/Th and it's 2.5 hours with no lunch. It would cost me $166/mth per kid for about 20 hours/mth. And we do have public preschool in the school system and that is currently $1800/yr per kid and goes from September-May and is either morning sessions or afternoon sessions and four days/week.

 

At this age $120 a week per child (7-6pm at max/5 days a week) dropin is $25 a day

 

It is $175 per kid here for 4 days a week IN HOME daycare.
It is $275 per kid at a Center.

Obviously, not cheap and TOTALLY not worth the cost for us SOOOO expensive it's scary!

 

Why is it scary?

 

We pay $1300 a month per twin and $1000 a month for the six year old for his private kindergarten. We are at a federally subsidized center so that keeps the ratios down but the cost is on par with what I've seen in this area for a clean, caring facility.

We are currently exploring other care options to see if we can reduce cost but it is almost impossible in this area.

 

When the girls were in full time daycare, we paid $360/week for both. Now that I'm working afternoons to evenings, we use a babysitter/nanny and pay her around $12 per hour.

 

We pay $54 per day per child. They go three times a week so we have a monthly bill of $1296. We thought about five days a week but that would be $2160! I came here to post about something similar.

 

I was thinking if we brought someone into our home we would pay $1500 a month. (Assuming I would a 40 hour week). From what I can tell and without knowing about multi-child and/or military family discounts, the places we're looking at will cost $1500-2000. Thanks for sharing all of this info with me!

 

We pay $243 a week for both at 3 years old and that includes a 10% discount for one of them. It was much higher when they were infants. They keep them from 8-5 each day, but the facility is open from 6:00 - 6:30 if we have something early or late at work that holds us up.

We are at a local daycare chain. They aren't quite as nice of facilities as the national chains, but we have been very happy with their staff. The national chains were quite a bit higher in cost. We opted for a day care facility, because we didn't have any single person we trusted to be alone in our home with the boys. I think the boys have benefited in several ways from that decision. They love their teachers, their little friends and I love that they learn so much more there, than I would have had the patience to teach them.

 

Are you a military family?? If you are, there are other programs that will help subsidize your payment. Where we go, prior to getting the military subsidation, we had a 15% family discount for having 3 children. It was a 10% military discount before the 3rd child came along. But at that age (2.5, 1.5) we paid $186/wk for the 2yr old and $213/wk for the 1 yr old. That's w/o discounts. So $158.1 and $181.05 respectively with the discount. Once we got help from the military program, we were paying $141 and $163 respectively. that's PER CHILD PER WEEK. $1780/month for all 3 children with the military program. Without it was $1988/month with the family discount, and with NO discount it would have been $2340/month.

If you want more info, send me a PM.

 

We paid about $1,500 as well for a full time nanny... perhaps a bit more with taxes, holiday presents, etc. But it was well worth it!

 

"soo expensive it's scary." Does that make sense?

In other words... it's SCARY how much it costs!

 

Yes, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

 

We pay $235/wk for both of them. The regular price is $120/child but we get $5 off for the second child. (Sometimes, I wonder why they even bother...)

Most all the centers we looked at were with in a $10/wk price of the center we choose. But we really love the (non-religious) curriculum and the teachers. They serve breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. We usually don't make it for breakfast though.

They are open from 6:30-5:30. (7a-5:30 for infants.)