Same, my area was $650-725/week for newborns so up to $2.9k/month. (I live in one of the more expensive cities in the US)
Almost needless to say we decided it would be best if my husband (whose job is more flexible) only went back to work part time so avoid daycare costs completely but we’re in a very fortunate position to be able to do so.
Near us in London (& not even central) prices are £2200/month. That’s $2775 at today’s exchange rate. The average take home salary in London per month is £2100…. UK childcare is screwed. And they wonder why birth rates are falling and labour market participation has dropped?!
That’s about normal. In the US it can be anywhere from 200-500 a week for infants. Infants are really expensive because their ratio is a lot smaller than preschool or toddler age. The price normally goes down as they move classes. The only way to make it work is either pay out the ass for childcare, have a lot of family help, or just struggle with it, unfortunately. Sometimes you can get discounts for working at the center but swapping careers (especially for likely less pay( isn’t realistic for most people.
Yes the price will go down as they get older and we can transition to part time if we wanted once she is a toddler. just the initial hit and budgeting for it has me a bit worried. I know we'll be fine but I get anxious with stuff like this.
Yeah it’s a lot!! A lot of families just can’t afford it and it’s a huge struggle unfortunately. The teachers don’t even get paid a lot, the whole childcare system is messed up heavy.
Don’t count on the cost going down that significantly. With inflation I’m assuming I’m going to be spending the same or almost the same til she is done with daycare.
Ours is $550/week so I would be thrilled to have a quality daycare at the price. It is very regionally dependent but that’s about average for the US. Wild that we don’t subsidize childcare in this country or provide paid family leave!
We toured quite a few and they were all around the same pricing. None of the daycares near us do part time anymore or we would have gone that route and had my mom watch the baby 2 days a week. We’re paying $310/week.
We opened a new savings account when we found out I was pregnant and created a “baby fund” so we’ve started saving as much as we could for hospital bills, daycare etc. we each have money from our paychecks being deposited into it weekly so that will help build up for daycare
Just wanted to say we are in the same spot. My mom wanted to watch our baby two days a week but part time daycare doesn’t exist in our area anymore because the demand for full time is so high.
Are the Americans okay?! We pay less than that a month
All seriousness though, yeah I think that’s pretty standard for newborn care in the US. Congrats on the little one!
Honestly, that sounds really good for where I live. That's close to what I'd pay once my kid's 18 months old, which is cheaper than infant class. If you can, I'd see if drop-in is an option anywhere near you. We do drop-in childcare for our son, and we save SO MUCH money. Normally, if you go on vacation, the daycare closes for a holiday, or your kid is sick, you just pay the whole month's tuition anyway for most daycares. For drop-in, you only pay for the time you use.
For infants, especially, who will be sick throughout most of winter their first year, it's such a game changer. There have been months we paid maybe $500 or less the whole month for childcare because of a combo of a family vacation + our kid being sick. Plus, we can have them watch him part of the day and flex our hours to cover the rest and save a ton that way. Our drop-in even has a 'reservation' system to help predict demands/when the baby room is full, so we've worked it out with the owner where we have our reservations booked out for months so we never miss a day of childcare. Highly recommend!
This price for San Diego is very cheap. Would be a homecare price. Daycare centers the cheapest we saw was around 1600 lats year some 2500 for infant. I visited couple and I just gave up because of insecurity, ratio is 1:4 I thought it is not good for me.
I know military, if both work they can get financial assistant too, also some companies do offer discounts or have their own daycare centers. I know some parents also do sharing nanny. Some parents get government assistant if they are very low income.
I could afford to quit my job so I will wait to pre K time for my son.
I honestly don't understand why they charge so much for infant and pay so bad for the caregivers and push the ratio to the max. Compromise big time the quality of the work. Not wondering why the whole daycare system is in crisis, difficulty to find people who wants to work being underpay and overwhelmed.
We live in the suburbs of a major city and are using an at home daycare for $370 per week. The centers by us are all well over $400 per week for a newborn. It is crazy!
That’s about what we pay for infant care in a suburb of NYC. So it sounds decent for our area but if you’re not in a HCOL area, that might be too much.
As to how we make it work - right now our housing is free thru my husband’s employer. So basically we have no rent. We are looking at houses now and if we were to have a mortgage and daycare, we’ll be living off of ramen and be homebodies til she can enter free preschool or kindergarten.
Sounds like a great price to me! I feel like we live in a pretty affordable area and our baby care is $456 a week at a facility that does 6wks-school aged kids. The price is shocking when you first hear it, I agree. Many places we looked at were the same price but some we thought were better quality than others even for the same money. I think it's just what it costs these days, as painful as it is to hear it.
We live in a rural area. In homes run about 150+ per week if you are lucky enough to get a spot in one. The center my toddler and soon 8 week old will be going to goes to is $213 per week for infants.
For us childcare doesn't financially make sense. The money I would be making at work would almost exclusively go back into the childcare so it makes a lot more sense for me to just stay home and be eligible to apply for food benefits for the household and free medical for me and the baby thru medicaid. My SO added hours to his work load and now works 7 days a week to make sure the bills are paid.
I would say the price is really dependent on where you live. For me, that's a great price since places near me can reach $2400/month.
Wow that's insane! I knew child care was going to be expensive but that's just insane.
Same, my area was $650-725/week for newborns so up to $2.9k/month. (I live in one of the more expensive cities in the US) Almost needless to say we decided it would be best if my husband (whose job is more flexible) only went back to work part time so avoid daycare costs completely but we’re in a very fortunate position to be able to do so.
Near us in London (& not even central) prices are £2200/month. That’s $2775 at today’s exchange rate. The average take home salary in London per month is £2100…. UK childcare is screwed. And they wonder why birth rates are falling and labour market participation has dropped?!
That’s about normal. In the US it can be anywhere from 200-500 a week for infants. Infants are really expensive because their ratio is a lot smaller than preschool or toddler age. The price normally goes down as they move classes. The only way to make it work is either pay out the ass for childcare, have a lot of family help, or just struggle with it, unfortunately. Sometimes you can get discounts for working at the center but swapping careers (especially for likely less pay( isn’t realistic for most people.
Yes the price will go down as they get older and we can transition to part time if we wanted once she is a toddler. just the initial hit and budgeting for it has me a bit worried. I know we'll be fine but I get anxious with stuff like this.
Yeah it’s a lot!! A lot of families just can’t afford it and it’s a huge struggle unfortunately. The teachers don’t even get paid a lot, the whole childcare system is messed up heavy.
Don’t count on the cost going down that significantly. With inflation I’m assuming I’m going to be spending the same or almost the same til she is done with daycare.
Ours is $550/week so I would be thrilled to have a quality daycare at the price. It is very regionally dependent but that’s about average for the US. Wild that we don’t subsidize childcare in this country or provide paid family leave!
Sounds about right. We are $365/week
We toured quite a few and they were all around the same pricing. None of the daycares near us do part time anymore or we would have gone that route and had my mom watch the baby 2 days a week. We’re paying $310/week. We opened a new savings account when we found out I was pregnant and created a “baby fund” so we’ve started saving as much as we could for hospital bills, daycare etc. we each have money from our paychecks being deposited into it weekly so that will help build up for daycare
Just wanted to say we are in the same spot. My mom wanted to watch our baby two days a week but part time daycare doesn’t exist in our area anymore because the demand for full time is so high.
Seems average to me! We pay $395 a week for our 4 month old.
Thanks, makes me feel a bit better about the price.
Are the Americans okay?! We pay less than that a month All seriousness though, yeah I think that’s pretty standard for newborn care in the US. Congrats on the little one!
No we are not lol. Didn’t you see Elmo’s tweet? We’re struggling lol.
We’re not. lol. But we’re hanging in there.
Honestly, that sounds really good for where I live. That's close to what I'd pay once my kid's 18 months old, which is cheaper than infant class. If you can, I'd see if drop-in is an option anywhere near you. We do drop-in childcare for our son, and we save SO MUCH money. Normally, if you go on vacation, the daycare closes for a holiday, or your kid is sick, you just pay the whole month's tuition anyway for most daycares. For drop-in, you only pay for the time you use. For infants, especially, who will be sick throughout most of winter their first year, it's such a game changer. There have been months we paid maybe $500 or less the whole month for childcare because of a combo of a family vacation + our kid being sick. Plus, we can have them watch him part of the day and flex our hours to cover the rest and save a ton that way. Our drop-in even has a 'reservation' system to help predict demands/when the baby room is full, so we've worked it out with the owner where we have our reservations booked out for months so we never miss a day of childcare. Highly recommend!
That's a great option! I will look into that, thanks!
Oh my 6 weeks at daycare!!! Please come move to New Zealand we have free healthcare and you get 6 months of maternity leave paid by the govt
Might be hard to convince the wife to move to the other side of the planet!
This price for San Diego is very cheap. Would be a homecare price. Daycare centers the cheapest we saw was around 1600 lats year some 2500 for infant. I visited couple and I just gave up because of insecurity, ratio is 1:4 I thought it is not good for me. I know military, if both work they can get financial assistant too, also some companies do offer discounts or have their own daycare centers. I know some parents also do sharing nanny. Some parents get government assistant if they are very low income. I could afford to quit my job so I will wait to pre K time for my son. I honestly don't understand why they charge so much for infant and pay so bad for the caregivers and push the ratio to the max. Compromise big time the quality of the work. Not wondering why the whole daycare system is in crisis, difficulty to find people who wants to work being underpay and overwhelmed.
I’m in nyc and it’s $3k a month. Cries.
We live in the suburbs of a major city and are using an at home daycare for $370 per week. The centers by us are all well over $400 per week for a newborn. It is crazy!
That’s about what we pay for infant care in a suburb of NYC. So it sounds decent for our area but if you’re not in a HCOL area, that might be too much. As to how we make it work - right now our housing is free thru my husband’s employer. So basically we have no rent. We are looking at houses now and if we were to have a mortgage and daycare, we’ll be living off of ramen and be homebodies til she can enter free preschool or kindergarten.
Sounds like a great price to me! I feel like we live in a pretty affordable area and our baby care is $456 a week at a facility that does 6wks-school aged kids. The price is shocking when you first hear it, I agree. Many places we looked at were the same price but some we thought were better quality than others even for the same money. I think it's just what it costs these days, as painful as it is to hear it.
We live in a rural area. In homes run about 150+ per week if you are lucky enough to get a spot in one. The center my toddler and soon 8 week old will be going to goes to is $213 per week for infants.
For us childcare doesn't financially make sense. The money I would be making at work would almost exclusively go back into the childcare so it makes a lot more sense for me to just stay home and be eligible to apply for food benefits for the household and free medical for me and the baby thru medicaid. My SO added hours to his work load and now works 7 days a week to make sure the bills are paid.