Yep - welcome to DC!

We live in Montgomery County and pay $3600/month for an infant and a 3 yo. Writing that check makes me want to throw up a little.

FYI, housekeepers do your housekeeping. A nanny should tidy up after your child. In other words the nanny should generally leave your house as clean as she found it. That's about it.

Of course you can find cleaning ladies who don't mind keeping an eye on your child, but that's not a nanny.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 on the nanny recommendation. I don't know why people choose daycare unless it's a HUGE savings for them.

Good point...NANNY! Lol

I don't understand getting such a cheap nanny.
For someone legal, who you pay legally, it costs more - not less - than daycare.

Not if you have two kids and depending on the number of hours. We stagger schedules so nanny works 42 hrs since I have minimal commute. We pay just over $3k a month for one child (add employer taxes on top of that) It would be more but not double for two and the convenience of not packing up the kid everyday is worth it to me ans in our case she does all baby laundry, bottle cleaning etc.

Pp and she is legal, speaks English and my native language.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 on the nanny recommendation. I don't know why people choose daycare unless it's a HUGE savings for them.

Good point...NANNY! Lol

I don't understand getting such a cheap nanny.
For someone legal, who you pay legally, it costs more - not less - than daycare.

Not if you have two kids and depending on the number of hours. We stagger schedules so nanny works 42 hrs since I have minimal commute. We pay just over $3k a month for one child (add employer taxes on top of that) It would be more but not double for two and the convenience of not packing up the kid everyday is worth it to me ans in our case she does all baby laundry, bottle cleaning etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 on the nanny recommendation. I don't know why people choose daycare unless it's a HUGE savings for them.

Good point...NANNY! Lol

I don't understand getting such a cheap nanny.
For someone legal, who you pay legally, it costs more - not less - than daycare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Home daycare is around $250/kid/week in the suburbs. Centers are $300-350/week. I didn't find anything close to $500/week.

Not sure what suburb you are referring to but here in Gaithersburg/Rockville, the average home daycare cost for infants is $300-350 per week. There aren't many $250 and those are not good. My baby is going to a center and we are paying $500 per week. Children in the Shoe, Goddard, Georgetown Hills all cost about $2000 per month and the cost for after 2, is maybe $200-300 cheaper per month.

Arlington/Alexandria/Springfield--looked at all 3. Settled at an incredible home daycare in Springfield where I pay $220/week. I think he's better cared for there than he is when I have him in my care!

I second this. I paid $275/week per kid at our in-home in Alexandria. Now older DD is at a full-day preschool for more like $300/week.

Our infant is in an in-home daycare for basically $1300/month. Toddler in a daycare/preschool center for $1400 month (and used to be in the in-home place). Kensington/Silver Spring.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are moving to the area next month. Average cost of two kids in daycare (infant and toddler) where we live now (NJ suburb of NYC) is $2800, $3k at the MOST. Here I did the math at Children in the Shoe, and its close to $4k/mo. Is this right? Am I calculating this correctly? Did a quick look at some other daycares and its comparable, give or take a couple hundred. This is in the North Bethesda/Rockville area. Wow, this even beats what my friends pay in SF. Do I just have mom brain right now and am doing the math wrong?

For baby and toddler, where are you located and what do you pay?

OP, which jersey suburb. I am visiting family in Passaic county. I bet daycare here is a good bit cheaper here, but probably not much cheaper in downtown Ridgewood or Montclair. Same dynamic here in downtown Bethesda with Shoe, and other centers right there, and Gaithersburg and N. Bethesda. In both cases, each place is a legit suburb that plenty of people commute from, but costs are pretty different. FWIW, I believe Shoe's center in Olney is at least somewhat cheaper, but probably more than others out that far.

Whoops. I made the last two posts and realized I didn't notice that you were in N Bethesda/rockville. I would think you could find somewhat cheaper there but my experience is more with Bethesda and DC.

Anonymous wrote:We are moving to the area next month. Average cost of two kids in daycare (infant and toddler) where we live now (NJ suburb of NYC) is $2800, $3k at the MOST. Here I did the math at Children in the Shoe, and its close to $4k/mo. Is this right? Am I calculating this correctly? Did a quick look at some other daycares and its comparable, give or take a couple hundred. This is in the North Bethesda/Rockville area. Wow, this even beats what my friends pay in SF. Do I just have mom brain right now and am doing the math wrong?

For baby and toddler, where are you located and what do you pay?

OP, which jersey suburb. I am visiting family in Passaic county. I bet daycare here is a good bit cheaper here, but probably not much cheaper in downtown Ridgewood or Montclair. Same dynamic here in downtown Bethesda with Shoe, and other centers right there, and Gaithersburg and N. Bethesda. In both cases, each place is a legit suburb that plenty of people commute from, but costs are pretty different. FWIW, I believe Shoe's center in Olney is at least somewhat cheaper, but probably more than others out that far.

Anonymous wrote:We are moving to the area next month. Average cost of two kids in daycare (infant and toddler) where we live now (NJ suburb of NYC) is $2800, $3k at the MOST. Here I did the math at Children in the Shoe, and its close to $4k/mo. Is this right? Am I calculating this correctly? Did a quick look at some other daycares and its comparable, give or take a couple hundred. This is in the North Bethesda/Rockville area. Wow, this even beats what my friends pay in SF. Do I just have mom brain right now and am doing the math wrong?

For baby and toddler, where are you located and what do you pay?

Yup, your math is right. Just cut my July check to Shoe for just under $4k. You can get cheaper, but location is key. I don't think any of the other centers in downtown Bethesda (or most parts of downtown northwest dc) are going to be cheaper, or at least appreciably so. The exception is if you can get into a subsidized center for fed employees. I believe the daycare at my agency would be about $3,200. $800 bucks a month would be real $, but the fed center would still be expensive. But I haven't tried to switch for a number of reasons: 1) the chance of me getting both in at or around the same time (necessary bc would be impossible to do pickup and drop off for any length of time at two centers); 2) it would make telework almost impossible, which I don't want even though I only sporadically telework now; 3) it would mean I would never get help for drop off/pick up from grandparents, which is nice to have; and , perhaps most importantly, 4) it would mean I would have to take my two kids on the metro daily since driving isn't a great option-now I can read or relax most days on the metro and if it is jam packed I can squeeze myself in. Two kids on the metro, particularly with all the recent troubles, just seems like a nightmare not worth $800/month.

Anonymous wrote:+1 on the nanny recommendation. I don't know why people choose daycare unless it's a HUGE savings for them.

Good point...NANNY! Lol

+1 on the nanny recommendation. I don't know why people choose daycare unless it's a HUGE savings for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Home daycare is around $250/kid/week in the suburbs. Centers are $300-350/week. I didn't find anything close to $500/week.

Not sure what suburb you are referring to but here in Gaithersburg/Rockville, the average home daycare cost for infants is $300-350 per week. There aren't many $250 and those are not good. My baby is going to a center and we are paying $500 per week. Children in the Shoe, Goddard, Georgetown Hills all cost about $2000 per month and the cost for after 2, is maybe $200-300 cheaper per month.

Arlington/Alexandria/Springfield--looked at all 3. Settled at an incredible home daycare in Springfield where I pay $220/week. I think he's better cared for there than he is when I have him in my care!

Yes and for this price you will likely get hand foot and mouth . On the bright side your kids will likely keep all of their hairs.

Centers are very expensive for babies and toddlers in the DC area, but the price tends to drop quite a bit once they turn 3. There are a number of preschools in the area that only do 3 & 4 year old classes, but far fewer that have infant and toddler classes. So the centers are basically able to charge a ton for those younger classes and still have a wait list. Many people around here use in home or a nanny (or nanny share) and transition to a center-based preschool at age 3.