Daycare waitlist fees, ugh!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else annoyed with daycare waitlist fees? With my first child I wasted $500+ getting on waitlists, but then nothing was available in time and we went with a nanny share. I’m looking for care for a second child but I can’t seem to get answers from many places about how many people are already on the waitlist. Daycare owners/staff/teachers, do these $50-$200 fees actually serve a purpose or are they just free money and a way to take advantage of new parent anxieties?

[Anonymous]

Where are you located? I never had to deal with waitlists. Many many annoying parts of daycare searching (including facilities that don't list their tuition rates online, resulting in several 1:1 convos I didn't need to have). But not waitlists

[Anonymous]

(Not OP) I’m in DC and YES the waitlist fees are terrible! I only put my oldest on two, and would have gotten off one in April 2020 so yeah. A couple hundred dollars wasted. 🙄 Fortunately in the great COVID disruption I got my oldest into a daycare I like with sibling preference, I only needed one waitlist fee for my second. I assume the waitlist fees are a good way to make extra cash for businesses that are pretty minimally profitable to start with but it really sucks as a parent.

[Anonymous]

I think the point of waitlist fees is to prevent parents from waitlisting if they aren't serious, but they suck, and I imagine are a huge barrier to low income parents.

[Anonymous]

Pretty sure my in home daycare provider just pockets the money- there is no waitlist . It is fake and you only get in if you suck up to her a lot or know someone

[Anonymous]

I think it's terrible and the daycares who required a waitlist fee left a bad taste in my mouth. the especially annoying part is that they wouldn't tell me where I was on the list - hey pay us $300 and you might get in next week and we might not have openings for the next 5 years. I ended up doing that for 2 or 3 daycares then got fed up with the practice and only looked at home daycares without those fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else annoyed with daycare waitlist fees? With my first child I wasted $500+ getting on waitlists, but then nothing was available in time and we went with a nanny share. I’m looking for care for a second child but I can’t seem to get answers from many places about how many people are already on the waitlist. Daycare owners/staff/teachers, do these $50-$200 fees actually serve a purpose or are they just free money and a way to take advantage of new parent anxieties?

No. They are a way to give parents that do not want to invest in enrolled spots and invest the deposit to do so. Schools only want serious parents. If you’re not one, stay on the wait list and shut up

[Anonymous]

I am a serious parent. If a daycare I liked said they would guarantee me a spot for the time I want it, I would gladly pay a month deposit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else annoyed with daycare waitlist fees? With my first child I wasted $500+ getting on waitlists, but then nothing was available in time and we went with a nanny share. I’m looking for care for a second child but I can’t seem to get answers from many places about how many people are already on the waitlist. Daycare owners/staff/teachers, do these $50-$200 fees actually serve a purpose or are they just free money and a way to take advantage of new parent anxieties?

No. They are a way to give parents that do not want to invest in enrolled spots and invest the deposit to do so. Schools only want serious parents. If you’re not one, stay on the wait list and shut up

Uhm, I think this a discussion of the fee to be put on the waitlist not a deposit to reserve a spot. We all pay the latter gladly but you can’t become a “serious parent” until you’ve been on (and gotten off) the waitlist, and consequently paid the waitlist fee. If really adds up if you need to be sure you have a spot in time.

[Anonymous]

At a minimum, schools requiring deposits should inform you on what position you are in. They obviously can’t guarantee a spot, but I would pay to be 200th in line, but would happily pay to be 20th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At a minimum, schools requiring deposits should inform you on what position you are in. They obviously can’t guarantee a spot, but I would pay to be 200th in line, but would happily pay to be 20th.

PP, I hit send to fast. I wouldn’t want to pay only to find out later I was 200th and therefore unlikely to ever get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else annoyed with daycare waitlist fees? With my first child I wasted $500+ getting on waitlists, but then nothing was available in time and we went with a nanny share. I’m looking for care for a second child but I can’t seem to get answers from many places about how many people are already on the waitlist. Daycare owners/staff/teachers, do these $50-$200 fees actually serve a purpose or are they just free money and a way to take advantage of new parent anxieties?

No. They are a way to give parents that do not want to invest in enrolled spots and invest the deposit to do so. Schools only want serious parents. If you’re not one, stay on the wait list and shut up

Every parent looking for care for their child is a "serious parent" this is absurd. If these daycare are going to collect wait list fees, then they really should be transparent with families about their status on the list. If a care provider is unwilling to be open about their business model and practices, I would not want to leave my child with that provider, because what else will they conceal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(Not OP) I’m in DC and YES the waitlist fees are terrible! I only put my oldest on two, and would have gotten off one in April 2020 so yeah. A couple hundred dollars wasted. 🙄 Fortunately in the great COVID disruption I got my oldest into a daycare I like with sibling preference, I only needed one waitlist fee for my second. I assume the waitlist fees are a good way to make extra cash for businesses that are pretty minimally profitable to start with but it really sucks as a parent.

I will note both waitlists I was on were perfectly transparent about where I was — but it’s hard to know how helpful being 43rd on the waitlist is when there are people who get on it before they’re even pregnant and people don’t get removed when their kids age out of the spot they’re waiting for. :-/

[Anonymous]

My kids are teens, but I am in solidarity with you. Waitlist fees for daycares suck. I think $50 was the most I paid in the early 2000s. $100+ is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure my in home daycare provider just pockets the money- there is no waitlist . It is fake and you only get in if you suck up to her a lot or know someone

I know for a FACT a large daycare center in Arlington just pockets the cash. They have a “waitlist” but don’t go by it…the director even told us she preferred not to go by it.