Just curious:CHILD CARE EXPENSES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

[mama2be]

I'm just curious...since we are all from all over this should be easy to do...I am just totally curious (no other reason) of what child care cost across the country at different places. Now I know some will say NYC is billions, and I know it is high...but if you can give your average or good place, a place a TYPICAL WORKING FAMILY would take their child that would be great.
For comparison lets do FT care..

I am curious as to 1. dropping a child off at someones home
2. a nice child care

[mama2be]

My friend takes her two children to a ladies home and is very pleased for $100 a week. (per child)...

The gal who I interviewed that I like the most would have charged $125 a week. (Her DH took a job in Charlotte)...

The nicest day care here in Clayton (about 15 miles outside of Raleigh) has locked doors, great staff, teaches sign lanquage etc...and is $158 a week.

If I go back to work I am looking into someone coming to the home but have no idea what that would cost.

[newbelly2002]

You only mentioned across the States, but here's the average for Deutchland.

The state-run (very good) Day cares, full time, run about 170 Euro a month. Yes, a month. Private ones run about 50 Euro more. This is for children from 1-3 years old.

For in-home care we are looking into a bi-lingual agency who is, by most measures, pretty extravagent (we're interested because of the languauge issue). The agency charges a "brokerage" fee of $380 a year and then the "kinderfrau" charges an additional 6-7 Euro per hour. The agency mentioned that Kinderfraus are trained and schooled in childcare--whatever that means. They also offer evening "baby-sitters" who charge between 5-6 Euro per hour. I have heard that hiring a babysitter, without using an agency, will run between 4-6 Euro per hour or you can arrange for a "flat rate" for the night of between 20-40 Euro.

I have no expereince with childcare in the States, but my guess is that this is pretty inexpensive (of course, we're working with only one researcher income so perhaps it all works out in the ever-so-copious laundry).

Paula
Mom to Dante 8/1/02

[loewymartin]

Neve,

To give you an idea of what someone coming to the home would cost in upstate NY (near Albany)...we have a nanny who takes care of Alia, cooks and cleans the house. We pay her $10.25 an hour. Plus, we pay her medical coverage and all of the normal employer taxes. 2 of our friends have nannies as well, and they pay a little less. One has a 2 year old, and the nanny doesn't cook or clean and the other has 2 nannies (different shifts) to cover the entire day, but her kids are 3 and 5. So the kids aren't even there both together all day.

We don't have to take and pick up Alia (which is wonderful!) and our nanny was the one who asked about the cooking and cleaning. She loves to cook - and puts together the grocery list and I go buy the stuff. And we had a maid, but once Barb saw what the maid did, she said she could do it while Alia was sleeping. We increased her rate to cover the additional activities, and said that her main focus is Alia and if she didn't have time to cook that day, or clean that week that was fine.

That's my input!

Michelle - Mom to Alia Jailin born 5/16/02

[danielleh]

Hi,

I'm a SAHM, but my I have several friends with infants in child care centers on Long Island (suburb of NYC) and my mom was the assistant director of a fairly large center (about 100 children). These centers charge between $1000 to $1200 a month for a full time slot for an infant, with the price dropping for toddlers and preschoolers.

Danielle
mom to Jimmy born 8/29/02

[darebear]

I live in NY and the Tutor Time in Manhattan cost $343/week for a 2 year old. I think it is somewhere around $450/week for an infant. My niece goes to a Tutor Time on Long Island and my sister pays $900/month. We just hired a nanny until my son goes to nursery school in September and it costs just over $500/week, but she also does the laundry, cleaning, etc. And that includes her health insurance.

Allison

[mama2be]

A euro is about exactly $1 I believe...so those rates sound super!!!

And yes child care from around the world is a great topic I didn't mean only the US sorry about that :)...

[mama2be]

See I think that's the way to do it...if my frineds took what they spent in child care and added those maid expenses they could probably find someone to come into the home...

I am referring to another post I just posted that states I have friends who pay child care at $125 a week and then a 3 hour house keeper $80 a week...

Just interesting how we pay house keepers so so so much more than the folks that watch our children...

In otherwords the house keepers make almost 10 times what the child care provider makes...

[mama2be]

Yikes...I guess I have it good down here in NC...

[darebear]

That was my first reaction!! We had moved up from Florida(Miami) and I remember my friend telling me that it cost $95/week for her 3 year old at one of the best day cares in the area.

[JMarie]

We aren't using daycare - DH and I work different schedules - but the on-site daycare for our company charges $900 per month for infants for five days of care. It doesn't matter how many hours - it's all by days. My schedule is 7AM - 3PM and DH's used to be 11AM-7PM, but since we'd be paying the same amount for 20 hours of daycare versus 40 hours, he changed his schedule to 4PM-midnight so he could stay at home with Aidan while I worked. He used to work those hours prior to our wedding, so we're used to never seeing each other! I'm just thankful we work for a company that is so willing to be flexible with schedules for working families. There is no way we'd be able to buy a house this year if we were paying that much for daycare. Honestly, I never even considered in-home daycare - I've heard entirely too many horror stories so I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat where that's concerned. I'm sure plenty of people have had wonderful experiences, but we were able to work it out without daycare.

JMarie
Mom to Aidan Christopher 01/28/03

[Magda]

I used to work at a day care center in MI. They charge about $200/ week for 5 full days(more that 4 hours) a week for infants. Plus a $75 annual fee. As children get older the prices go down becuae they can have more children per teacher.

Elaine

[todzwife]

As a nanny I make $400 (every week) BEFORE taxes here in LA. She has another nanny who makes the same (I think) and she pays her some extra to clean. I work from 7:30-3:30. I don't get medical or anything, and I have had to work all national holidays since I started 9 months ago. But she's really good about sick days. When the boys were newborn, I worked from 7-4, because they slept so much.
Shandelle ;)

[Momof3Labs]

My neighbor has a licensed in-home day care, and she charges $40/day for an infant. We may use her when Colin gets a little older; until then, we work different days and my mom takes care of Colin the one day a week when we both work.

[Nina31]

Hi,
I live near Allentown, PA (about an hour north of Philadelphia) and I send my DS to daycare full-time. The rate is $115 a week for a toddler, including lunch and snacks. The rate will drop when he's potty trained.

Nina

[nohomama]

We employ a number of child care options. Here's a run down:

Child Care Co-op - An investment of time...you take care of my kid for three hours, I take care of yours for three hours. We use this anywhere from 9-12 hours (occassionally more) per week and, in turn, provide that amount of time for others or "pay" with magnets (one magnet = one hour).

Barter - I'm a massage therapist and periodically barter for child care with a fabulous woman who loves Lola and massage. She watches Lola for a block of time and in return gets a massage. If you calculated this arrangement in terms of dollars, she occassionally gets "paid" upwards of $25 an hour.

Sitter - In Northampton, MA I pay between $8-$12/hour for a sitter.

Day Care - Lola goes to an in home day care one day a week and we pay $4/hour regardless of the child's age. It's run by another fabulous woman who's quirky, to say the least. She PREFERS cloth diapers (she'd send disposables home to us if we had her use them) and works T, TH, F, 8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. during the academic school year only(no summers or school holidays). Obviously not a situation for everyone, but we adore her regardless.

[twins r fun]

I just got paid to evaluate a few centers around here-they are a national chain (and not great in my opinion). Full time for infants and toddlers (through 24 months) is $242/week. The toddler rate drops to $182/week. I thought this was outrageous-to put my 2 in daycare it would cost $2000/month! I only made (after taxes)about $1700/month as a teacher!

Nicole

[JulieL]

MISSOURI: I live in the suburbs, nicer portion of St. Louis called West County. It is about $200 to $240 a week for places like Kinder Care for full time care of an infant. Nicer places like Montessori centers is more like $300 a week. South and north of St. Louis city more like $100 a week. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! I have no clue about nannies this way, don't have the $$$ for one so never looked into it.

[JMarie]

Oh, I MISS St. Louis! DH and I attended WashU - it's where we met - and we've been thinking about moving back. I used to rollerblade around Forest Park every single sunny day over 50 degrees, and get kicked out of the zoo at least once a month (apparently, you can't rollerblade in there...). We're currently in the suburbs of Chicago, so it wouldn't be a huge leap down south...

JMarie
Mom to Aidan Christopher 01/28/03

[parkersmama]

I find it truly shocking how much people in large cities pay for childcare! Unless my salary was a lot larger working in a big city it would never pay for me to work! *Edited to say that we live in Columbus, GA. (left that out the first time!)* We've had 3 childcare arrangements over the years:

1. When my first ds was a baby, we took him to a woman's home and he was the only child she cared for other than her own 3yo. I think we were paying about $65 per week! A great deal looking back on it and she sure did love him. When her 3 yo was old enough for the GA pre-k program she got an out of the home job and we went to...

2. A state-licensed home daycare. This woman ran a daycare in her house and the meals are supplemented by the state. She did a really great job and I think it was about $70 per week. I was working part-time and paying the full-time rate though because she didn't have part-time slots. When ds #2 was born, he went there too (an additonal $50 per week, 2nd child discount) but apparently didn't like it and cried all the time so she gave him the boot (expelled from daycare at 6 mos!! LOL!). At that point we changed to...

3. A nanny in our own home. I didn't go through an agency but instead through an ad in the newspaper. She was an older (mid-60s) woman who often drove me crazy but loved/loves my kids with a passion. We only requested that she care for the children (about 25 hours per week) but she did lots of housecleaning, too. She really took great care of them. That was $160 per week plus paid vacations, etc. We have recently let her go though because I will be losing my job and staying home from now on.

Anyway, that's a wrapup of our situation. I know the top daycare in town charges about $140 a week for infants and less as they advance to older classes. Still a bargain compared to NYC and Chicago!


Denise
mom to:
Parker, 9/1/1997
Wesley, 3/9/2000
and #3 (a girl!) due 4/29/2003

[jubilee]

Portland, Oregon
I work full time and my son went to Children's World Learning Center during the summer full time (about 44 hours a week). I was paying $185 a week-- and mind you that was for a 10 YEAR OLD! I have no idea what a baby would cost...

[lmintzer]

The going rate for a nanny in Oak Park, IL (suburb of Chicago) is $10/hr. People pay as little as $9 and as much as $12. In the city, the range is $10-$15.

We pay our nanny $10/hr. I work half-time plus, so we pay her for roughly 26 hours/week.

Lisa
& Jack, 22 months

[peanut4us]

We're in Austin Texas, and are so not looking forward to paying between 800-850 a month. It's 5 days a week full-time (you can't get a part-time slot at any of the centers until your child is 2).

It's a really nice facility though that prides itself on employee retention... all of the ladies in the infant rooms have been there for at least 4 years.

Once we have a second child though, I don't think it will pay off to have both of us working... at that point child-care will be more than my house payment, utilities, and property taxes combined!

[Hallie_D]

Chicago: A nanny would have cost us $10/hour plus medical/taxes, etc. We use a day care center we love and pay $287/week for a baby. The rate drops for toddlers. Our budget is very, very tight, but right now there is no way for us to afford only one of us working--unfortunately, we both earn almost exactly the same amount--and we both work for a nonprofit.

[VickiH]

I live in Hoboken, NJ which is right across the river form NYC, so prices here are just as high as NY. We are looking into hiring a nanny if I go back to work next month. It is $350-$500 a week, depending on the person'e experience and whether they want to paid on or off the books. If they want to be paid on the books, they usually want health insurance too, so that adds up. I don't know what home daycare or a daycare center costs. From what I heard the centers in our town are not as great as they could be, so we never even considered them as an option. I can't belive what it costs in other areas - it is time to move!

[zuzu]

I live in the Washington, DC area and have only researched centers so far. The rates near our home range from $260-300 per week for infants. The nicer centers are closer to the $300 mark. I have no idea what in-home care would cost.

If Nicole is reading, would you mind disclosing what national chain you think is not that great? We're considering La Petite Academie and I just wanted to know if you, or anyone else has any feedback (positive or negative) on their centers. We looked at Kindercare (the most expensive) but were not impressed with the center closest to us. I can't wait until our daughter-to-be turns two so we can enroll her in a Montessori program!

Thanks.

[egoldber]

Where do you live? I am in Northern VA. While I don't work outside the home, I think that most of my friends pay in the neighborhood of $200-$250 a week for center based care and a bit less than that for home based care.

I personally pay a sitter $8 an hour to come to my home and watch Sarah a few hours a week. The general rate seems to be $10-$15 and hour for an in-home child care provider (that is probably without benefits or taxes, but I have never asked).

I am also looking at the Montessori school around the corner from me for pre-school. Their pre-school program doesn't start until 2 1/2 and your child must be potty trained. The rate for their all day program (7:30am-6pm) is $7000 a year (which is really for their 10 month school year). The rate for other Montessori schools in the area that I have researched is similar.

HTH,

[sntm]

I miss St. Louis too. I lived three blocks from Forest Park, and while Charlottesville is lovely and supposedly has some pretty parks (I haven't seen them yet!), I occasionally pine over the idea of pushing Jack around Forest Park and hanging out at the zoo or the botanical gardens all the time.

Anyway... can't remember the exact numbers but think that most daycare around here is $150/week, at least at the UVA daycare, but the wait list is around a year. We are thinking about hiring one of the residents' wives (SAHMs) for daycare, to give them a little extra income and hopefully keep our costs down. Hopefully in the lab my schedule will be flexible enough that we can do a co-op situation. Our next-door neighbors just had a baby, so hopefully we can babysit each other's kid and enable each other to go out on occasion.

shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03

[twins r fun]

I better not post it on the off chance someone from the center reads this board (I still have several left to evaluate), but I will email you or private message you if your profile allows.

Nicole

Edited to Add: I just checked and don't see your profile, but you can look up mine if you want and email me. But the chain isn't one of the two you mentioned.

[trumansmom]

Yikes, the advantages of living in the heartland! We live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Truman is in an in-home daycare, and her price just went up from $70 to $80 a week. That's actually a lot cheaper than I've encountered anywhere else in town. And her home is less than a mile from my office. We've been fairly pleased.

Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/29/01

[zuzu]

Nicole--Thanks. I'll email you.

Beth--I'm in Montogomery Co. This will be our first, so we're still looking into everything from daycare to strollers. (Your name looks familiar from the stroller thread!) When I heard the prices in our area I thought they were high, but I know friends in NYC pay up to $1700 per month. I wonder if center care, like many things, is less expensive in VA. We only checked with the four centers closest to our home, so there may be other less expensive ones around. I know the rates drop once they turn two, so that's something. I wish one of could stay home, but that's not an option right now.

I think we're naming our daughter (due at the end of April) Sarah too!
Thanks for your feedback. I think choosing child care is easier than choosing strollers! DH thinks I'm nuts. . .

[egoldber]

Oh, but I envy you being so close to BuyBuyBaby! :) Sometimes DH and I wish we had considered location a little more carefully when we re-located from California. We might have ended up in the Rockville area if we had done so. But hindsight is 20/20 and we love Northern Virginia. (Despite all the recent snow!)

HTH,

[alkagift]

We've looked at several FT Day care centers in the north perimeter area of Atlanta. One of the most expensive was $280 a week, but they were trying to limit their kids to the children of hospital employees. Hospital employees were charged $180 a week for the same center.

In general though, it ranges from $275 a week for a nice Buckhead place to about $225 a week for a nice place near my office. Nannies are about $2000 a month here but home-based care is less. I haven't found a home-based care that made me comfortable, though.

Allison
EDD w/ #1, 5/27!

[Melanie]

The center at my husband's work, which i NYAEC certified is $800-something/month. I was looking to go to work part-time, but it would have to pay handsomly to make it wrth it, as they of course don't offer part-time rates.

Mommy to Jonah

[zuzu]

Looking out my office window, I see the white stuff has just started again!

We live in Gaithersburg and have become regulars at BBB and Great Beginnings in recent months. I think all their stroller salespeople recognize us by now. They don't even ask to help us anymore, only whether we've made our decisions yet. Are there any baby stores in NoVa worth checking out?

Thanks.

[egoldber]

Mostly just the usualy stuff. There are three BRU stores in Chantilly, Sterling and Alexandria. There is a Baby Depot/Burlington Coat Factory in Fairfax. There is a store called Baby 2 Teen in Manassas that carries some interesting things you don't find a lot of places. They have Aprica strollers, the Bertini M5 Shuttle and things like that. There is also a store called Lewis of London in Falls Church, but I have never been there. BuyBuyBaby is where people go around here for the "good" stuff. :) I have never been to Great Beginnings.

[KimberleyDawn]

Hi Neve,
I live in Ontario, Canada and the going rate for a ++ daycare centre is approx. $1200-1400/ month for a full time infant, the prices do go down for toddlers, preschoolers and school age children.
Kim
(Proud new Mama of William Feb.20/ 03)

[zuzu]

Thanks for the info. Great Beginnings doesn't carry the whole range of products that BBB has, but their furniture departments for infants & kids are great, and they seem to have a lot of strollers, with plenty of room to test drive. I'll have to check out Baby 2 Teen and Lewis of London next time I'm out your way.
Thanks again!

[myllam]

In the San Francisco Bay Area (Peninsula), the in home childcare facilities we looked at ranged from $800 to $1100 a month. The rates seemed to be the same for infant or toddler. Kindercare was $1100/month...