How much do you pay for childcare?

[crunch!910]

For an inhome daycare, I was quoted $4.25/hr for my two boys. I simply cannot afford that.

A price I was quoted by a daycare facility was $120/wk per child. Flat rate that must be paid even if your child misses a day or if you need care only 3 or 4 days per week opposed to 5. I obviously cannot afford that either.

Honestly, for both of them full time, I could only afford $1.5/hr - $2/hr. No one is willing to be paid so low, so I am forced to accept free childcare by DH's family. Not ideal and I worry every day that their lack of discipline is turning my child into a royal brat and hope it won't effect the kind of man he'll be someday...

[elizabeth.scalf]

I pay $60/ week for a neighbor to watch my two girls for 6 hrs total. She takes them to the library, and does things with them, and they get good attention. I could probably get cheaper rates somewhere else but they're close, it's convenient, I know her, and the girls like it.

[TinyHineyDiapers]

I pay $150 a week for my 3 y/o in a home daycare fulltime and $115 a week for my K kid for before and after school program (appx 2.5 hours a day). I don't mind the $150 since its FT but $115 a week is 3x the price per hour which I think is ridiculous!

[Brooke789]

$110/week per child for full-time in a licensed in-home daycare.

ETA: That includes 2 meals and 2 snacks. We pay whether or not they go. If the daycare is closed for the week we still pay.

[Palooka]

Wow...I cannot believe how how low the cost is for many moms in here. We pay $12/hr for someone to com to our home and care for our 9 month old, she usually works 40 hours a week. So that hurts man.

We get a lot of benefits from the arrangement, so I do feel its worth it. she will wash, dry and put away the cloth diapers at least twice a week. She also dries and puts away our babies laundry if I start it in the morning. Our sitter loves our pets and watched our dog last weekend when we were out of town (she said she didn't want pay but I added it to her check this week anyway). It was also important to us to have someone who spoke English well, but was fluent in another language. Our sitter speaks her native Hebrew to our son all day, but her English is excellent and we never feel there's a language barrier. Anyway, we love her and think she is a fantastic person, so we justify the cost that way, though it is most of my paycheck.

[nhawkins16]

DD goes to preschool from 9-3 three days a week. She has before care for an hour and after care for 2 hours and we pay $47 a day.

[songbird516]

I can't imagine paying what some of you ladies pay!
Right now since I'm sewing part-time from home, my children go to daycare 1 day a week. I only pay 30$ for the both of them for one day. It's a licensed, in-home daycare that is run by a friend of mine. She'd watch them for free, but she needs to make a living!

I was offered a part-time job 2 days a week, but even only paying 30$ a day, it wasn't worth it to work, so now I'm just working more diligently from home, lol.

[mmmom]

My daughter is in an OSC program so for 1hr before and 1.5hrs after school plus full days on school holidays the fee is $450/month
My son is in a Kinder OSC so for 1hr before school and from lunch to pick up plus full days on school holidays his fee is $750/month

That being said I teach preschool for the same school/OSC so I actually only pay $600/month total so $300/kid for the entire month and that covers everything from spring break, winter break and PD days where the kids have no school

[AcrossTheUniverse]

It varies so much depending on where you live!

When I lived in CA an in-home daycare ran $40 a day for a toddler for full-time care. Here in AZ the same care is about $20 a day!

Also, in CA I had a nanny/babysitter that I paid $16 an hour to watch 2 kids in CA. Here, it costs about $10 an hour to watch 3-4 kids.

[d_arnold]

$190 a week for my 15 month old DD. She goes to an excellent in home daycare. It goes down to $160/wk when she's 17 months and then $120 a week once she's PL'd.