Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The least expensive options for school aged kids are before/aftercare through the county and an au pair. Those were our #1 and #2 plans. Trump has suspended the au pair program and the county is unlikely to offer before/aftercare.

I personally haven't seen an kid activities that are offering camps where I am located. In fact several of our standby places have gone out of business. All of our summer camps have been cancelled. Has anyone seen these options for a 4 and 6 yo in Arlington? Maybe for older kids...

That leaves a nanny. They ones I've spoken to want $27-30 per hour and a year commitment. That's insane COVID-19 pricing and isn't something anyone could have anticipated.

Clearly everyone who had kids without envisioning the possibility of a global pandemic and having a $1 million income to plan for that was just irresponsible

And people said I was crazy when I mentioned it was going to be a killer summer for nannies back in May.

Who's laughing now Sharon?

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/882757.page#17230709

Anonymous wrote:The least expensive options for school aged kids are before/aftercare through the county and an au pair. Those were our #1 and #2 plans. Trump has suspended the au pair program and the county is unlikely to offer before/aftercare.

I personally haven't seen an kid activities that are offering camps where I am located. In fact several of our standby places have gone out of business. All of our summer camps have been cancelled. Has anyone seen these options for a 4 and 6 yo in Arlington? Maybe for older kids...

That leaves a nanny. They ones I've spoken to want $27-30 per hour and a year commitment. That's insane COVID-19 pricing and isn't something anyone could have anticipated.

Exactly. We had our kids 5 years apart so we would only have to draw down savings for a few months with both in day care. After care costs 25% of what our older kid's day care costs, we can swing that. We DID budget for child care in a very significant way - i would have loved to have them closer together, that's a big life choice - but that budget predicted that school and after care would exist. As they have for my entire life. Our county in MD hasn't even released plans yet.

And yeah, we cannot afford a private full time nanny at $50-60k a year. This isn't a "suck it up" issue. Do you realize how awful it is to tell people to just drop our of the workforce and stop complaining? Like, give up a career you love and worked hard for because of a horrible pandemic our government won't respond to, and DON'T COMPLAIN?

Even if camps will be available for school age kids, it's a higher cost than just paying for after care. People planned their kids and budgets based on 5 day per week school being available. There should be a child care subsidy for families if school isn't open. Unemployment was extended due to the pandemic, why not child care costs?

Anonymous wrote:The least expensive options for school aged kids are before/aftercare through the county and an au pair. Those were our #1 and #2 plans. Trump has suspended the au pair program and the county is unlikely to offer before/aftercare.

I personally haven't seen an kid activities that are offering camps where I am located. In fact several of our standby places have gone out of business. All of our summer camps have been cancelled. Has anyone seen these options for a 4 and 6 yo in Arlington? Maybe for older kids...

That leaves a nanny. They ones I've spoken to want $27-30 per hour and a year commitment. That's insane COVID-19 pricing and isn't something anyone could have anticipated.

Traditional backup option #3 is grandparents, but they aren't available once kids are back in school because they are high risk.

Anonymous wrote:The least expensive options for school aged kids are before/aftercare through the county and an au pair. Those were our #1 and #2 plans. Trump has suspended the au pair program and the county is unlikely to offer before/aftercare.

I personally haven't seen an kid activities that are offering camps where I am located. In fact several of our standby places have gone out of business. All of our summer camps have been cancelled. Has anyone seen these options for a 4 and 6 yo in Arlington? Maybe for older kids...

That leaves a nanny. They ones I've spoken to want $27-30 per hour and a year commitment. That's insane COVID-19 pricing and isn't something anyone could have anticipated.

Clearly everyone who had kids without envisioning the possibility of a global pandemic and having a $1 million income to plan for that was just irresponsible

The least expensive options for school aged kids are before/aftercare through the county and an au pair. Those were our #1 and #2 plans. Trump has suspended the au pair program and the county is unlikely to offer before/aftercare.

I personally haven't seen an kid activities that are offering camps where I am located. In fact several of our standby places have gone out of business. All of our summer camps have been cancelled. Has anyone seen these options for a 4 and 6 yo in Arlington? Maybe for older kids...

That leaves a nanny. They ones I've spoken to want $27-30 per hour and a year commitment. That's insane COVID-19 pricing and isn't something anyone could have anticipated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people seem to have kids they can't afford and expect that society will just take care of them. I see people complaining on Facebook that they have five or six kids and can't possibly afford to pay for their care or deal with watching them all day. Why did you have five or six kids? What was your plan if you or your spouse was in an accident, or became seriously ill? I just don't understand it.

That’s unfair. People did plan. For the little years. NOBODYS family planning has ever had to account for school being open.

It's unfair to suggest that children are expensive and having five or six of them is a bad choice unless you are extremely wealthy? Because that's true and it should be acknowledged. I could never afford to support five kids, so I won't have them. Birth control is free. Childcare is not.

And clearly nor did most people but regular families saying wow I never envisioned paying for full day care for two elementary schoolers are allowed to
say that and weren’t irresponsible for having 2 kids having no idea regular elementary school would just cease to exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stayed home until my youngest was 2 and my oldest was 6 so we never had to pay for both in daycare. 3 full days of care and 2 days of aftercare will likely zero out the salary I bring home.

SAH during this is a valid choice.

It’s a valid choice whenever someone wants to do it. It is, however, not the option I prefer since I worked hard for my career and love it and don’t want to have to throw it away.

Then you bite the bullet since it’s temporary and pay for nannies and camps.

I wasn’t asking for advice first of all but second of all, nobody knows how “temporary” this is.

OP, you are so naive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people seem to have kids they can't afford and expect that society will just take care of them. I see people complaining on Facebook that they have five or six kids and can't possibly afford to pay for their care or deal with watching them all day. Why did you have five or six kids? What was your plan if you or your spouse was in an accident, or became seriously ill? I just don't understand it.

That’s unfair. People did plan. For the little years. NOBODYS family planning has ever had to account for school being open.

It's unfair to suggest that children are expensive and having five or six of them is a bad choice unless you are extremely wealthy? Because that's true and it should be acknowledged. I could never afford to support five kids, so I won't have them. Birth control is free. Childcare is not.

Same. And for the people who said 'Who has 5 or 6 or 7 kids?' There are a lot of them. I especially think its become a thing with Instamommies. After all you need kids in diapers who can't object to cameras in their faces 24/7. So they replace each kid once they turn 2 or so.

And its not just the 'poor' mommies. Its wealthy ones as well. Some of these women think its cute or fun to have this many kids because 70% of their non-sleeping time is spent away from home while someone ELSE takes care of them. Bet its not so fun now?

I also personally don't believe that anyone should be expecting childcare from the American school system during a pandemic.

Instagram.com/thecollinskids - 8 kids


Instagram.com/mybabydolls - 9 kids


Instagram.com/she_plusfive - 5 kids


Instagram.com/jordanpage - 8 kids


Instagram.com/officialkristagreener - 6 kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people seem to have kids they can't afford and expect that society will just take care of them. I see people complaining on Facebook that they have five or six kids and can't possibly afford to pay for their care or deal with watching them all day. Why did you have five or six kids? What was your plan if you or your spouse was in an accident, or became seriously ill? I just don't understand it.

That’s unfair. People did plan. For the little years. NOBODYS family planning has ever had to account for school being open.

It's unfair to suggest that children are expensive and having five or six of them is a bad choice unless you are extremely wealthy? Because that's true and it should be acknowledged. I could never afford to support five kids, so I won't have them. Birth control is free. Childcare is not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stayed home until my youngest was 2 and my oldest was 6 so we never had to pay for both in daycare. 3 full days of care and 2 days of aftercare will likely zero out the salary I bring home.

SAH during this is a valid choice.

It’s a valid choice whenever someone wants to do it. It is, however, not the option I prefer since I worked hard for my career and love it and don’t want to have to throw it away.

Then you bite the bullet since it’s temporary and pay for nannies and camps.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stayed home until my youngest was 2 and my oldest was 6 so we never had to pay for both in daycare. 3 full days of care and 2 days of aftercare will likely zero out the salary I bring home.

SAH during this is a valid choice.

It’s a valid choice whenever someone wants to do it. It is, however, not the option I prefer since I worked hard for my career and love it and don’t want to have to throw it away.

Then you temporarily pay for childcare until this is over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stayed home until my youngest was 2 and my oldest was 6 so we never had to pay for both in daycare. 3 full days of care and 2 days of aftercare will likely zero out the salary I bring home.

SAH during this is a valid choice.

It’s a valid choice whenever someone wants to do it. It is, however, not the option I prefer since I worked hard for my career and love it and don’t want to have to throw it away.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/office-for-children/ccar


When teachers asked about childcare this is the link we were given, so I'm passing it alone to other parents...