News, Childcare for Two Is More Expensive Than Rent Now (parent, wife)
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My sister pays as much for childcare for one infant as her mortgage payment. It would be more sensible for her husband to stay home with the baby, since he makes a lot less than she does, but she says the daycare pays more attention to the baby than he would. It's too bad we don't live in the same city, since I'm already home with my kids during the day, and one more (especially one adorable little guy) wouldn't be a problem.
My kids have never been to daycare...my husband and I worked opposite shifts after our oldest was born, and then I stopped working when we had our second child. Sometimes my husband worked two jobs, but he wanted to do that because he wanted me home with the kids. I learned to do everything I could to save money...work on the cars, cut hair, cook well enough that we don't eat at restaurants much, fix things around the house, and I looked for jobs for my husband online for years, until we found one that paid well enough that he didn't need two jobs. I was surprised that it was so important to my husband for me to be home, especially once the kids were in school and we could have had very affordable after-school care for them, but he said he spent most of his childhood at daycare (or at his grandma's house in the summers) and he likes knowing that I'm home with them.
No, it's too bad that people bother to have children when they don't want to spend any time with them. And just farm them out to strangers.
I quit my office job shortly before becoming pregnant with my daughter because it did not make sense for me to work if we had to pay for daycare for two children. This was 13 years ago, and daycare for my son was $160/week for four days; doubling that cost plus the commute, work clothes, etc, would have made it so I was bringing home very little each week. It ended up working out well; staying home meant I could breastfeed the new baby exclusively, fewer doctor's visits (they pick up every germ going around in daycare!), less spent on clothing, etc. Things were tight during those years, but doable. Everything is so much more expensive now, though, and I don't know how feasible that is for the majority of middle-class families.
No, it's too bad that people bother to have children when they don't want to spend any time with them. And just farm them out to strangers.
Well, they tried for years and had a couple of miscarriages. He had a pretty good job when they started trying. He got laid off two years ago and he's been trying hard to find another job with the same pay and benefits he had at his other job...right now he's working for a big company but it's a sales job with monthly quotas, which he started about six weeks before the baby was born. And the company she works for was just sold to another company, so she doesn't feel like she can reduce her hours at her job to spend more time with the baby, because she can't trust that his job will always be there, and she's having to prove herself to the company that bought her company.
The little guy is a precious gift and a joy, even if he didn't show up at the best time for them. I'm just glad she was able to have a baby and I wish they lived near me so he didn't have to spend his days with strangers.
I quit my office job shortly before becoming pregnant with my daughter because it did not make sense for me to work if we had to pay for daycare for two children. This was 13 years ago, and daycare for my son was $160/week for four days; doubling that cost plus the commute, work clothes, etc, would have made it so I was bringing home very little each week. It ended up working out well; staying home meant I could breastfeed the new baby exclusively, fewer doctor's visits (they pick up every germ going around in daycare!), less spent on clothing, etc. Things were tight during those years, but doable. Everything is so much more expensive now, though, and I don't know how feasible that is for the majority of middle-class families.
This isn't a bad thing. It helps build their immune system. My kids rarely get sick but they had the usual colds, ear infections with my son and random viruses for my daughter when they were little. I would rather it then instead of now that they are in school and getting everything under the sun.
For many of these people, I don't even understand how it is immediately advantageous to work. We have some dual-income professional couples with people in our office and they probably make at least $150k+ HHI and to them it is financially stressful.
I honestly don't understand how most people can afford to have children these days.
It certainly is not like it was in the 50's and 60's when most men (this was before women got equal pay for equal work) could support a wife and kids on just his salary -- and I think this is just one more way that life has gotten worse in the past 50 or so years and not better. Of course, if a mother wants to work and can afford childcare, that's different, but I am talking about how in most families today, the mother must work (too).
I guess you find an employer that offers free/subsidized child care (only one parent needs to get such a job) . Or just earn good $ before having kids.
I guess you find an employer that offers free/subsidized child care (only one parent needs to get such a job) . Or just earn good $ before having kids.
Or you suck it up and do what you have to do. You cut out going out to dinner and luxuries until you're kids are in school. Or you ask relatives to watch them and work out the pay. Or you work opposite shifts.
Why SHOULDN'T child care be expensive? Seriously, think about it. You're handing over your CHILD/CHILDREN to the care of another person or several other people- that kind of care is supposed to be cheap? Children should be considered your most precious possession and when you want to provide and protect something as important as your child, then you should expect to have to pay out the a$$ for it.
For me, there wasn't any question that I was going to be a SAHM. I was raised by one and I highly believe in it- being a mom who worked outside of the home when my children were smaller was never an option for me. Like others on here, I quickly discovered that my salary would be eaten up by childcare expenses and didn't see any point to handing over my salary to someone else to take care of my children. DH and I have become very creative and resourceful with our money and from what we hear other people tell us, it's something that they envy. We're willing to live with less in order for me to stay home and not a lot of people are willing to do that.
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