How much do you pay for in-home care for an infant?

[Anonymous]

I was wondering how much you pay for in-home care for an infant and what hours your infant/child is there. Does the price decrease as they age and if so at what age? Any comments and feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

May want to try the daycare forum for more responses.

There is a range - we paid around $300 a week but went through an agency (monday morning moms - only in MoCo) and the place had a low ratio so it was worth it. But typical prices for infants are usually closer to $200 - 275 I think.

The price usually drops when they turn 2. Most standard places bank on having your infant there M-F for around 8-10 hours. Most close at 6 though you could probably find one later. That's just the norm.

In case you are interested, it is usually hard to find PT care for an infant because they are the most costly and therefore it is how most providers make most of their income.

[Anonymous]

I pay $250 per week. Price does not go down at our daycare until the child is potty trained. Then it drops to I think $220 per week. My DD is now 2 and I am moving her to a center, which will run me $205 per week. There is an additional savings to me of about $1,000 per year because my in home center requires us to pay when she is off, which means I have to pay her plus someone else to watch my child during those times.

[Anonymous]

Paying $250 a week. The daycare providers hours are 0730-1730. And like PP, we have to pay for the two weeks she takes off. I don't get that. Can someone explain that to me??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paying $250 a week. The daycare providers hours are 0730-1730. And like PP, we have to pay for the two weeks she takes off. I don't get that. Can someone explain that to me??

Probably like you are paid for vacation days I would imagine. I do remember we paid for 52 weeks a year when we were at home daycare, not sure if they got two weeks off though, that does sound like a lot. One week would be more reasonable...especially since most parents would have to find alternative care.

[Anonymous]

You don't get that?? Wow. Someone who takes care of your most precious gift in life doesn't deserve paid days off as you receive at your full-time job?

Providers need a break. A time to recharge. You want them at their best for your child, but if a provider can't afford to be off and be out the income they will not take the much needed break.

Providers work on average 50-60 hours per week plus time spent in the evenings and on weekends cleaning, buying supplies, planning curriculum, etc. Being a daycare provider is one of the hardest jobs in the world and one of the most thankless at times too.

BEFORE expenses providers in this area make an average of $4.00 an hour per child. And as I said, that is before expenses, before food, before toys, before insurance, before self-employment taxes, before Social Security, before paying staff, before craft and curriculum supplies, etc.

[Anonymous]

And oh by the way, how many of you who feel providers don't deserve paid vacations are willing to pay a "babysitter" $10-$15 per hour in the evenings? But you complain over paying your daycare provider who spends 50 hours a week with your child $4.00 or less per hour and a paid vacation.

[Anonymous]

I live in Reston and in this area I found the average to be $30.00/day - but I didn't check if they are licensed, have a degree in ECD, etc since it turns out I won't be needing a day care.

[Anonymous]

Our provider is in N. Arlington and we pay $300 / week for 40 hours, $12/hr for every hour over. Two weeks vacation, one week of sick leave. It ends up being almost the same as what we would pay at a downtown center, but we LOVE our provider and our son is thriving.

[Anonymous]

$200 week (pay for 52 weeks/year and they get 2 weeks well-earned vacation and some pd holidays).

[Anonymous]

$240/week in Silver Spring...8:00 AM - 5:30 PM. 2 weeks of paid vacation plus Federal holidays. They provide lunch and snacks for the toddlers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't get that?? Wow. Someone who takes care of your most precious gift in life doesn't deserve paid days off as you receive at your full-time job?

Providers need a break. A time to recharge. You want them at their best for your child, but if a provider can't afford to be off and be out the income they will not take the much needed break.

Providers work on average 50-60 hours per week plus time spent in the evenings and on weekends cleaning, buying supplies, planning curriculum, etc. Being a daycare provider is one of the hardest jobs in the world and one of the most thankless at times too.

BEFORE expenses providers in this area make an average of $4.00 an hour per child. And as I said, that is before expenses, before food, before toys, before insurance, before self-employment taxes, before Social Security, before paying staff, before craft and curriculum supplies, etc.

Ignore this rant. I suspect it is the same person who ranted on this same subject in the daycare forum, who does not understand that most service providers do not receive pay when they are not actually providing a service and so it is perfectly normal to question this practice. Nobody is questioning the right of a care provider to take a vacation. Given her attitude, I would be very concerned if she cared for my child.

That said, this seems to be a pricing norm for in-home care. One way to think about it is the care provider could choose to charge slightly more per week and not charge when she/he is on vacation or they could charge the same 52 weeks a year and have several weeks of vacation built in, thus you are not really paying for a time when you are not getting service so much as agreeing to a weekly payment plan for a known quantity of service that includes weeks off. It is then the choice of the parents if they want to match their vacation timing to the care providers or find alternate care.

[Anonymous]

I'm another MoCo Monday Morning Moms user, and we pay $285 a week. With regards to the issue of paying for extra weeks of care when the provider is on vacation, we actually do not have to do that - if our main provider goes on vacation, we can use a back-up provider through Monday Morning Moms. However, we do still pay if WE are the ones on vacation, which makes sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Ignore this rant. I suspect it is the same person who ranted on this same subject in the daycare forum, who does not understand that most service providers do not receive pay when they are not actually providing a service and so it is perfectly normal to question this practice. Nobody is questioning the right of a care provider to take a vacation. Given her attitude, I would be very concerned if she cared for my child. That said, this seems to be a pricing norm for in-home care. One way to think about it is the care provider could choose to charge slightly more per week and not charge when she/he is on vacation or they could charge the same 52 weeks a year and have several weeks of vacation built in, thus you are not really paying for a time when you are not getting service so much as agreeing to a weekly payment plan for a known quantity of service that includes weeks off. It is then the choice of the parents if they want to match their vacation timing to the care providers or find alternate care.

Wow, I have to say a parent like you wouldn't last long in my care. And daycare providers can sniff out rude, inconsiderate parents a mile away. I might suggest you adjust your attitude if you plan to seek out care. Otherwise you will find that no one will keep you in care for long.

Daycare providers deserve to be paid for stats and time off by parents and even their own vacation should they choose to include those specifics in their contracts. And yes, you will also find most home daycare providers have policies and procedures AND contracts that parents must sign to ensure care.

BTW, I posted anonymous as I don't have the time to properly register here as I have children about to arrive. But I have the gonads you are lacking in that I will be glad to post who I am. My name is Judy Trickett. And, you might just learn a thing or two of you visit my blog. It is parents like you that make blogs like mine a necessary evil.

www.justthebabysitter.com

[Anonymous]

Thank goodness I don't have to deal with parents like you. You seem very disrespectful to the job that we do. Remember, you sign a contract, you are agreeing to it. If you don't like it and want to talk smack about the policies, please do the provider a favour and not waste their time and look elsewhere.
Like Judy said, We can see you coming a mile away, and I can make my mind up in less than a minute as to whether you are going to respect me and my policies. And no, I do not charge for my holidays, I work around my families, unless there is time that *I* need. But they still pay for theirs.
I am sure you get your 2 weeks paid, why shouldn't your provider. You aren't at work during those 2 weeks, why should you get paid? It works both ways Sweetheart.