Anonymous wrote:The center in my neighborhood charges around 3200 a month PER kid.

What neighborhood? What center? I am at a pricey center, but $3,200 per kid seems really high.

Anonymous wrote:We pay $3000/month for one half of a nanny share for one toddler

What is so great about this nanny that she's making 72k/yr? That seems pretty unbelievable.

We pay $3000/month for one half of a nanny share for one toddler

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Why do you want to vomit about the high cost of substitute care of *your* baby and three year old? Are you happier to write a bigger check for your mortgage payment?

Do you not understand the (typically) permanent consequences of inadequate care of such little children? Hence, The Hell of American Daycare. Google it and educate yourself a bit. Perhaps you'll then be happy. to. pay. for. decent. childcare. Perhaps not.

Not the PP, but we pay $3,500 month for our infant and toddler in daycare, and while I very much appreciate that they are well taken care of while my husband and I are at work, I get a pit in my stomach writing that huge check. I want the workers to be well-paid, and I want my children to get quality care, but I do get that slightly nauseous/anxious feeling about how much money we spend for childcare. Oh, and our mortgage payment is about half of our childcare costs. We live in an unfashionable neighborhood in Ward 5.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

It's also the case that infant care is the most expensive to provide, mostly because of the higher required ratios. At our center (a non-profit), I think the infant room barely breaks even.

Yes, infant care is extremely labor intensive. But what other culture sends off their babies to complete strangers so many hours a week? Do American parents not want to make the sacrifice? Even a relative would be better. Little children require stability, competence and love. All there are equally critical.

What other culture? How about the French? Other European countries? LOL. Many send their babies off to daycare and while you may not know the provider like a family member, I wouldn't say they are complete strangers.

Anonymous wrote:The center in my neighborhood charges around 3200 a month PER kid.

What hours does it have?

The center in my neighborhood charges around 3200 a month PER kid.

Anonymous wrote: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.

It's also the case that infant care is the most expensive to provide, mostly because of the higher required ratios. At our center (a non-profit), I think the infant room barely breaks even.

Our kid are at the Shoe, and yes, that's the cost. At least they provide a small discount when you have multiple kids there.

I will say, though, that for our family the cost has been more than worth it. Our kids are loved and happy and challenged appropriately and play a ton. I feel SO lucky to have them there. Worth every penny.

We're paying a little over $4500 for two kids per month. It's expensive but there weren't other alternatives and its temporary. Once they're in school that's a whole load more disposable income we will have to put back into the savings we are slowly depleting. DC has some of the highest childcare costs in the region. As much as it is ridiculously expensive at least we were able to get spots for both of them at a place we liked which is not the case for everyone with the crazy wait lists.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Why do you want to vomit about the high cost of substitute care of *your* baby and three year old? Are you happier to write a bigger check for your mortgage payment?

Do you not understand the (typically) permanent consequences of inadequate care of such little children? Hence, The Hell of American Daycare. Google it and educate yourself a bit. Perhaps you'll then be happy. to. pay. for. decent. childcare. Perhaps not.

OF COURSE I think it is worth it. I also think it's just what it costs. I feel very blessed that we can afford it, even though it is a huge number.

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.

It's only worth it financially if you have a second kid. We pay $2200 a month for day care for one kid. It will go down next year when he is three. But really it all depends on so many factors that are individual to the family. For instance, both DH and I commute 40 minutes to an hour on the metro, and we find it tough to stagger schedules because we're both fairly high up and need to be in the office during core business hours. So if we had a nanny there'd be a lot more hours. We also prefer day care for various reasons, and a nanny would have to be a significant cost savings for us to consider it -- which it's not, at least with one kid. Also, we don't find it a hassle to pack up the kid and bring him to daycare. The daycare provides food; the only things we send are water (daily) and bedding/diapers (once a week). We walk there and it's on the way to the metro, so DS gets some exercise and time with us, and it's not out of our way. He's in day care from 8:30 to 5:30 and loves it. I'm sure he'd love a nanny too, but we are very happy with the care he gets. Of course, we pay through the nose for that care.

Also, we don't have a dishwasher. DH and I both wanted to die every evening when we washed all the bottles and bottle parts by hand. Any nanny who had to do that would probably have quit on us!

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?

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.

We've made the exact same calculus except we're at Wonders. I know we are paying a premium to be able to walk to the day care from our house and then jump on the metro. But we love the care, and I refuse to drive at rush hour in this area. We are lucky to be able to afford it. It means we barely spend any money elsewhere -- haven't taken a vacation in 3 years -- but we knew that going in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Why do you want to vomit about the high cost of substitute care of *your* baby and three year old? Are you happier to write a bigger check for your mortgage payment?

Do you not understand the (typically) permanent consequences of inadequate care of such little children? Hence, The Hell of American Daycare. Google it and educate yourself a bit. Perhaps you'll then be happy. to. pay. for. decent. childcare. Perhaps not.

You sound harsh. She obviously cares about her children and that's why she's paying the high price. Some of us on this board don't earn $200K or $300K and childcare costs in DC is the highest in the country.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Why do you want to vomit about the high cost of substitute care of *your* baby and three year old? Are you happier to write a bigger check for your mortgage payment?

Do you not understand the (typically) permanent consequences of inadequate care of such little children? Hence, The Hell of American Daycare. Google it and educate yourself a bit. Perhaps you'll then be happy. to. pay. for. decent. childcare. Perhaps not.