Shutdown and childcare

Anonymous
I have savings and can go a month or two while still paying childcare but my fear is we won’t get back pay. Trump may just close the government and only reopen the agencies he likes. Or pay only the working agencies that affect his popularity, like TSA. It’s too uncertain to risk.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Can you spend this extra time with your child and just pay to keep slot open? At a reduced rate. Then everyone wins.


You really don't get the point. It's paying for the slot while you're not getting paid. Whether or not you keep the child at home has nothing to do with it.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Can you spend this extra time with your child and just pay to keep slot open? At a reduced rate. Then everyone wins.

Why would a daycare offer a reduced rate? Most places have a waitlist so the provider can just move on and take on another paying customer.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Can you spend this extra time with your child and just pay to keep slot open? At a reduced rate. Then everyone wins.



You think daycares are offering reduced rates when they also have bills and payrolls? Some may but it’s not a given.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Can you spend this extra time with your child and just pay to keep slot open? At a reduced rate. Then everyone wins.



You think daycares are offering reduced rates when they also have bills and payrolls? Some may but it’s not a given.



Counterpoint; if the OP went this route, you could justify it to the daycare that they're able to change their ratios (since they have one less child) while still bringing in tuition. Admidittely, it's a tough sell though.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those of you in the federal government - how long can you afford to keep paying daycare or nannies or aftercare if there is an extended shutdown?


Explain why someone off work at home would need childcare?


In 2013 my then 1 year old went to daycare in my office building. If no families paid the daycare (100% federal employees) would have gone bust. All the people working would have found new jobs. It’s not easy to find any spots, let alone convenient and safe ones. It was very painful to be home with my 1 year old full time while also paying for her daycare, but it’s what we needed to do.
Anonymous
Pp here - to be clear, since the building was closed the daycare was required to close during the shutdown as well.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Can you spend this extra time with your child and just pay to keep slot open? At a reduced rate. Then everyone wins.



You think daycares are offering reduced rates when they also have bills and payrolls? Some may but it’s not a given.



Counterpoint; if the OP went this route, you could justify it to the daycare that they're able to change their ratios (since they have one less child) while still bringing in tuition. Admidittely, it's a tough sell though.


and then the daycare would have to kick the new kid out after the shutdown. it's going to be an even tougher sell to find a family who will use a daycare slot for who knows how long and that will get taken away with a day's notice. this isn't an option.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:4 months of savings for bare minimum (housing and daycare).

Other options out there like NFCU have loans for Fedss and opening a 0% APR credit card.

Im single with 1 kid and been trying hard to save since January anticipating getting RIF’d


This person has the right idea. As a dual fed household have had 6 months (at least) emergency savings since Jan so we are not worried. I highly doubt the shutdown will continue past Thanksgiving - there would be an uproar over delayed travel due to lack of air traffic controllers at that point.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:4 months of savings for bare minimum (housing and daycare).

Other options out there like NFCU have loans for Fedss and opening a 0% APR credit card.

Im single with 1 kid and been trying hard to save since January anticipating getting RIF’d


This person has the right idea. As a dual fed household have had 6 months (at least) emergency savings since Jan so we are not worried. I highly doubt the shutdown will continue past Thanksgiving - there would be an uproar over delayed travel due to lack of air traffic controllers at that point.


Trump and the admin will find a way to pay just the agencies or persons they want to keep open so that the shutdown doesnt change the lives of those outside of federal workers. Or at least not immediate consequences.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Can you spend this extra time with your child and just pay to keep slot open? At a reduced rate. Then everyone wins.



You think daycares are offering reduced rates when they also have bills and payrolls? Some may but it’s not a given.



Counterpoint; if the OP went this route, you could justify it to the daycare that they're able to change their ratios (since they have one less child) while still bringing in tuition. Admitedly, it's a tough sell though.


Former Program director here: Unless we had MANY children not attend, we can't change the ratios if only a few children do this.

For ex: PreK Classroom has group size of 20, teacher:child ratio 1:10. Until TEN children in this room don't come, we can't change a single ratio with 12, 14, 15, 19 children.

Infant classroom Group size 8, teacher:child ratio is 1:4. So here, until 4 children don't come and the classroom is at 4, we can't decrease a teacher.

BUT in DC, the rule is that there must be TWO staff members in a classroom at all times. Period. End stop. (not true in MD and VA) So even if there is ONE child there need to be two staff members .... so in the example above, we'd need TWO baby rooms to lose 8 children, to combine the last 4 from each room and keep 2 teachers, lay off 2 others.

That's not tenable, as we won't be able to rehire those teachers - and please know that finding GREAT, qualified, ECE teachers is NOT EASY - so laying them off would mean we might not get them back and it would take a while before we could reopen the room because you can't open until you rehire 2 teachers.

It's a horrible situation all around. Truly. If we delay collecting tuition from the fed parents, that's great, IF a program has enough $ to pay rent, staff salaries, health care, heat, electricity, phone, and paper goods. BUT in this case, we all are very worried that the feds won't be getting back pay - or at least, not all of them. So then, we'd have provided free childcare for 1 or 2 months (it CANNOT/WILL NOT go longer than that, RIGHT????) while collecting tuition from the other parents who aren't feds, or who have only 1 fed and one non-fed parent.

IF we don't offer this, we lose the families, which we hate, but we have to make payroll, rent, and all other bills. In a program with a long waiting list, this means we'd have to fill it.

I used to hate all these decisions! During the pandemic, we did ask for half pay from parents so we could cover payroll and we asked landlords to wait until we reopened for our rent. But in this case, we need to be open for non-fed families
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

Trump and the admin will find a way to pay just the agencies or persons they want to keep open so that the shutdown doesnt change the lives of those outside of federal workers. Or at least not immediate consequences.


I would agree, however if they had the ability to do that they would have already been doing it. They used tons of Defense R&D money to pay the military this last pay cycle, but they won't be able to do it for the next one

And that's the military we're talking about. TSA and ATC are more than willing to get sick with the shutdown flu more than 4 weeks from now, and once we get to thanksgiving we're talking about multiple pay cycles that have gone through already

Any shenanigans they try would be easier now than multiple weeks in the future
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Trump and the admin will find a way to pay just the agencies or persons they want to keep open so that the shutdown doesnt change the lives of those outside of federal workers. Or at least not immediate consequences.


I would agree, however if they had the ability to do that they would have already been doing it. They used tons of Defense R&D money to pay the military this last pay cycle, but they won't be able to do it for the next one

And that's the military we're talking about. TSA and ATC are more than willing to get sick with the shutdown flu more than 4 weeks from now, and once we get to thanksgiving we're talking about multiple pay cycles that have gone through already

Any shenanigans they try would be easier now than multiple weeks in the future


I disagree. Shenanigans will be easier in the future because the public will turn a blind eye to it when the public gets desperate for airports to function again and food stamps to work.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those of you in the federal government - how long can you afford to keep paying daycare or nannies or aftercare if there is an extended shutdown?


Explain why someone off work at home would need childcare?


Did the ivermectin kill off the remaining few brain cells you had?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:4 months of savings for bare minimum (housing and daycare).

Other options out there like NFCU have loans for Fedss and opening a 0% APR credit card.

Im single with 1 kid and been trying hard to save since January anticipating getting RIF’d


This person has the right idea. As a dual fed household have had 6 months (at least) emergency savings since Jan so we are not worried. I highly doubt the shutdown will continue past Thanksgiving - there would be an uproar over delayed travel due to lack of air traffic controllers at that point.


A dual fed family can easily save far more.
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