A Day Care Cost Confession
OK I guess I do have to confess a little bit here. In my orginal post regarding some of the reasons why I stay home I had mentioned day care costs being real high, somewhere around $350 to $500 per week per kid.
I even asked my wife when she got home what it was we were quoted with 2 years ago. Well, she even said my figures were a tad high. She told me it would cost us more like $35,000 to $40,000 for daycare with 5 kids and 2 of them in school most of the year.
But, I still think that is high. There is no sense for me to go to work just to turn around and spend that money on daycare when I can be home with them myself. I will talk more later about some of the things I do when I’m home in case for some reason I am left in a hairy situation. Everybody should have a back up plan if things go bad.
But Kailana of Hawaii emailed me and left me what it costs her for childcare:
Hey Steve,
Glad to hear that b5media has added a Daddy blogger to their group! I’ve been a big fan of Kerri and Hsien and look forward to reading your blog, too.
My daughter attends preschool here in Hawaii and it cost $600/month. Next year we’d like to get her into private school which will cost us $15,000 a year for kindergarten. Can you believe that?
Aloha ~ Kailani
The Pink Diary
Wow – that is high. When I worked, I paid $30/day for one and an extra $5 would have been added if Thomas (my youngest) had existed then. At the time, I made $70K/year, so if you took out vacation and holidays, that is approx 47 weeks a year x $175 = $8225. Not bad at all.
School is included in our taxes here in Ontario, but pre-school isn’t covered. Thomas goes in the mornings for 2.5 hours at a rate of $16/day. Still not bad.
So let’s say you moved to Canada, eh? 5 kids would run you approx $50/day. Even with 2 in school, most daycare providers here would still charge $5 for before and after school, which really, barely covers a snack.
ALl these figures are based on private, in-home daycare, whic is all I ever would use. Daycare centres gross me out.
But I made a coupld of phone calls and for me to put Thomas in, full days (9-5:30), 5 days a week, would run me $750/week at a daycare center. No thanks. Why would I pay more to have my kid exposed to more germs?
Hope that helps your research!
Karen
I’m pretty sure daycare costs about $1200+/month in the San Francisco Bay Area where I’m originally from. So you’re not too far off the mark for hot areas like California and New York.
I think you’re still near the mark when you add the other costs in. Basic day care rates are just the beginning. You already mention the additional work expenses, gas, lunch, wardrobe, etc.; but let’s stick with daycare.
Kerri, my wife, stays home with our three, but here are a couple additional facts I’ve heard from co-workers and friends:
* Sick kid? Can’t take them to day care, and you need to take a holiday.
* Running late? Traffic? Some day care centers have strict policies and charge by the minute if you’re late to pick up your kid.
Bald Man, you touch on a few good points. The miscellaneous costs add up quickly. But I think most people see the point and that it is extremely expensive even for 1 or 2 kids. 5 kids, it is just not even close to being an option.
So this is where all the cool kids are hanging out this morning.
How fun to come to check out your site today and to get a warm fuzzy from Kailani! Good start to the day. BTW-I also count in the cost of getting up early and wrangling three kids in the car with the stress of actually showing up someplace on time. Whew, just thinking about it stresses me out….
Yea thanks for stressing me out now… Guess I’ll go brew another pot of coffee…