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In our city there are after school programs in the community centers. There are waiting lists but if you put your child on several lists there is always a spot for them. I raised my daughters on my own and had to work 8-5 sometimes with overtime. I used the daycare at YMCA and tried having someone come to the house to take care of them (shared the person with a neighbor who had a daughter) That didn't work out because the other kid was destroying my clothes and curtains etc. The young woman who babysat really wanted to do other things. For a while I was lucky enough that my sister was home and took care of them. But things always change, I had to move to another city for work. When the oldest was 12 I decided to let them stay home during the summer and that worked out well, they were good girls, except the one time I let my older daughter have a friend stay.
My youngest grand daughter is 3 and she has been at a communty center day care since she was 6 months old. She is learning 2 more languages (they teach chinese and spanish). They learned sign language as babies and she is thriving. I wish everyone could find someplace like that for their child (not exactly, but that fits the family). My daughter and son in law make a lot of money so they can afford 300 a week for day care. I know most people can't afford that, especially single parents.
My 12 year old grandson was in a community center after school program and a summer program. The cost is based on income so my younger daughter could afford it. This year he will be 13 so he won't qualify for those and will probably be spending some time home alone after school when his mother has to go to the office (one week a month). In the summer, since I am now retired he can spend the days with me, we can do yard work and go to museums.
I have known people who spent many of their retirement years providing full time day care for their grandchildren. I would only do that in case of financial hardship such as the mother of the child being widowed.
I would not do it in order for my adult offspring to pursue a lifestyle far beyond what my husband and I had.
I don't know if it would be possible to live on one income if a couple made the decision to live more frugally and modestly. I don't think that's even a consideration as they want what their peers want.
Nationwide, more than 70,000 child care programs are projected to close, and about 3.2 million children could lose their spots due to the end of the child care stabilization grant program on September 30, according to an analysis by The Century Foundation.
Child care in America has long had issues: The costs are steep for both providers and parents, leaving it both in short supply and unaffordable for many families. Last year, the average annual price nationwide was nearly $11,000, according to Child Care Aware of America, though the rates can be much higher depending on the location.
Less and less parents can afford that. Work two jobs, you could say - then when are they going to see their children? Do their parenting duties?
I think a lot of Americans are a little scared of day care and exaggerate the costs. $11,000 a year is about $916 per month. If both parents work on non minimum wage jobs they should be able to afford to pay that. And quality day care offers a lot of advantages to most kids. They are being taken care of by professionals with knowledge of childhood education, they get to socialize, play, learn and have fun. That I think is much better then being stuck at home or cared by some other busy, stressed out parent struggling to take care of their own kids.
Of course I know that $11,000 is just an average price. In our suburb of NYC, we paid about $1200 for our daughter five years ago. It is not cheap but I would not consider the price to be exorbitant.
Now the question of whether the two parents should work or just live on one income is a different question. I think there is no simple answer to that question and the cost/benefit analysis is different for every family. I have no idea what the answer is. For our family, my wife has Masters so she insisted on working although she maximized all available leaves to stay with our newborns for as long as possible. I would not say that this is an ideal solution. Both of us working demanding jobs added more stress in our lives, made it hard to succeed in both caring for children and in moving ahead at work. Ironically after we paid for day care, commuting, baby sitters on days that day care is closed, lunches, etc we were not very far ahead financially as compared when I was the only one working... However, we had two people contributing to 401k and social security benefits which is a future financial advantage...
Of course one earner and one person staying home presents its own set of challenges. I don't think there is an ideal solution in anything...
Won't companies have to let people work from home? Or automate to eliminate positions if they can't get people to work because they have kids? Or open their own child care departments? Either way the free market should work this out somehow.
I find myself wondering whether the phenomenon is just American. Families are getting smaller and populations older in a great many countries. Inflation seems to be worldwide, too.
Seems to me it is just another part of what is driving population decline.
In a nutshell….
Here in France 80% of the cost of daycare is subsidized by the government. The cost for the citizens is on a sliding scale depending on income. A low income family may pay as little as €50 a month per child for full time daycare. Higher earners can pay €400 a month and top earners €1000 a month. Daycare is tax deductible.
Our children start mandatory public preschool at age 3. We have both before and after school clubs where kids can be dropped off early to school and picked up later. Public school is free and the fore and after care costs €5 a day per kid. If you drop your school age kid @7:00 am and pick them up by 6:30 pm it will cost €25 a week virtually eliminating the need for outside daycare. Some employers offer on site child care for their employees as well.
For the under 3’s we have many options for day care…professional child minders, nurseries, private homes, Nannie’s, live ins, friends and family etc where the cost may vary, but are still considered affordable.
In a nutshell….
Here in France 80% of the cost of daycare is subsidized by the government. The cost for the citizens is on a sliding scale depending on income. A low income family may pay as little as €50 a month per child for full time daycare. Higher earners can pay €400 a month and top earners €1000 a month. Daycare is tax deductible.
Sounds good, but how is the quality of these Day Cares? Are they private and subsidized or actually run by the government? Do you know what is the typical kids to adult ratio?
People seem to think that a single income home only means sacrificing on vacations or a large house. What it really means for many families is sacrificing on home ownership period (and related housing insecurity with rent), fully funded retirement/college savings, and medical care in the best of situations - not to mention the opportunity cost of one parent losing career momentum and years of any kind of retirement savings/matching. In the worst of situations, it can mean not being able to afford food or clothing. My partner and I both grew up in single earner households and for that reason would never, ever put our kids through it short of one of those dream scenarios making 6 figures in a small town. That's just not reality for our careers.
I'm very concerned about this problem - daycare is expensive enough as it is where I live ($3000+ for bare minimum infant care) and hard to find (year long waitlists). Grandparents still work or don't live nearby, and there aren't many stay-at-home parents in neighborhoods anymore to split childcare with. Lots of people in my life are scrambling right now to find nanny-shares because they're nervous about maintaining a spot in their child's daycare. With 2 bedroom rents at 3-4K in the burbs and mortgages even more than that for a small starter home, being forced to drop out of the workforce due to lack of daycare spots is absolutely devastating.
A lot of people forget this too.
Two incomes essentially spreads risk out. If you have a single income household, and that income vaporizes, you're SOL.
Someone out of the workforce probably won't get back in as well off as they previously were.
Two incomes essentially spreads risk out. If you have a single income household, and that income vaporizes, you're SOL.
Someone out of the workforce probably won't get back in as well off as they previously were.
This is not always 100% true. In many cases, you have two exhausted individuals, trying to both do well at work and contribute at home and often failing in both tasks. They very often are at risk of being laid off and losing their jobs.
On the other hand, a single earner presumably has time and energy to do their work well, to be motivated, well rested, etc. So very often the risk for one well rested, stress free person to lose their job are about is similar to the two stressed out, exhausted parents trying to work...
Sounds good, but how is the quality of these Day Cares? Are they private and subsidized or actually run by the government? Do you know what is the typical kids to adult ratio?
Most are private and subsidized. Happily, France also scores well when it comes to quality of childcare (PDF), as staff looking to enter this profession need Master’s level qualifications. A) Infants (birth to 18 months old) - 1:3 adult-child ratio, 1:18 teacher-child ratio. (B) Toddlers (18 months to 36 months old) - 1:4 adult-child ratio, 1:16 teacher-child ratio. (C) Preschool (36 months to enrollment in kindergarten) - 1:8 adult-child ratio, 1:24 teacher-child ratio.
This is not always 100% true. In many cases, you have two exhausted individuals, trying to both do well at work and contribute at home and often failing in both tasks. They very often are at risk of being laid off and losing their jobs.
On the other hand, a single earner presumably has time and energy to do their work well, to be motivated, well rested, etc. So very often the risk for one well rested, stress free person to lose their job are about is similar to the two stressed out, exhausted parents trying to work...
Yeah, we've told our recent college graduate son to enjoy his bachelor years. His efficiency apartment might be small but his off hours belong to him. No getting up with newborns, no childcare worries, only feeding himself and getting himself to/from work.
Work hard, establish a nest egg for yourself, don't worry about keeping up with the influencers, watch the credit cards. Watch the eating out.
Start young, save early and often, don't live above your means. Learn the difference between needs and wants. Starbucks on occasion as a treat is fine. Starbucks every morning is an expensive habit.
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