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That's ridiculous. $200 just to hold you a spot in their daycare? Wow.
And why in the world would you pay a daycare if your child isn't even there yet? I don't know what kind of daycares you are looking at, but this seems a bit off to me. I'd search around more.
Or maybe that's just how they do it in big cities?
Oh I can play...10k paid for the 40% chance of even becoming pregnant at all! In Vitro Fertilization, just to get what most parents get for free, Pregnant after a good time! IVF's not fun at all but it worked!
The problem is that the demand for infant daycare space vastly outnumbers the supply. The number is infant daycare spaces in Chicago is in the hundreds; and there are of course thousands of babies in Chicago. So if a spot opens up before you need it, you need to pay for them to "hold" the spot for you or else they will give it someone else lower than you on the wait list. Some of the waitlists are two years long so if a spot opens up you will do anything to hold on to it.
We don't have to pay to be on the waitlist, but we do also have to deal with the "holding the spot" policy. The good news is that you should only have to pay to hold the spot if it opens up when the baby is born. That rarely happens if they have a waitlist fee. We're hoping that a spot doesn't open up for us for four months, because I'll be on maternity leave for six weeks, then DH goes on summer break for three months. So we won't need daycare for four months. So hopefully God works it out so that a spot opens up for us when we need it and we don't have to pay for care when we don't. But I'm SO with you on the sticker shock of it all!
Another thing we weren't prepared for the price of: cord blood registration and storage. We've decided to donate it instead of paying $2000 just to store it!
This and many other posts on this Babies board make me never want to have a child! Haha, that's outrageous. I know my boss had get on the waitlist for daycare as soon as she knew she was pregnant with her 2nd, but she didn't say anything about paying. Maybe she had to, I don't know, but WOW! crazy.
Wow....I think that if my choice was to pay thousands of dollars in advance for a serivice i'm not using, or stay home for a year I might seriously weigh my options! I'll have to look into this when I start planning to get pregnant (I live in a huge city, too!). Thanks for the head's up!
Oh yeah, for everyone reading this and freaking out...I would DEFINITELY check on the daycare availability in your area AS SOON AS YOU KNOW YOU'RE PREGNANT! Specifically infant daycare is impossible to find. I was told that we should have signed up for the waitlist when we found out we were pregnant! Apparently it's a LONG list. Hopefully we find something that works out for us, I don't know how we'd get through without daycare!
wow! Those prices are crazy! I suppose because I have a close friend who was a part time (under the table type) nanny for all 4 years of college. I think she charged $10 per hour! I guess it just seems like crazy prices!!!
I find those prices ridiculous. Ugh, how frustrating.
Honestly, after researching daycare in our area, we actually discovered that having a live-in nanny is almost equal to paying for daycare at a reputable center. We've been researching nannies (we won't actually hire one until this summer), and for a live-in nanny, we're looking at about $1000-$1200/month. The difference is that we'll be paying for all of his/her living expenses (private room and bathroom, utilities, food, and we'll even provide a car and gas). If we chose to just hire an independent nanny, we'd easily be paying $2500/month.
It's like that here too! They encourage you to get on the waiting list as soon as you are even thinking about conceiving. My friend put herself on the list 3 years ago and she just got the call about 3 months ago. Yeah, her son is 3 years old now!
Because this daycare is subsidized by our work, she jumped at the chance. Here it is unlikely that you get called early, so most people bite the bullet and risk the fees.
We're working on alternative arrangements including a 3 month maternity leave and a stay at home dad for the following 6 months. That gets us most of the way through the first year.
After that we'll have to decide nanny or daycare, but if all works as planned, we'll have a built in nanny by that point...
wow, this makes me feel a little better about our options...I think the economic downturn has actually made it easier to get into daycare here...the daycare I have in mind used to require full time, but now they have moved to allowing part time, bc they aren't as full
I'm a nanny, and I charge $16 an hour. The family I work for has 3 kids under 4 (4 y.o twins, and 2y.o, all boys). I generally work 30 hour weeks, plus maybe some late stays for date nights. So for $500 a week they get day care for 3 kids! I'm definately going to get a nanny when I have kids, the flexibility is worth it, and it works out cheaper I think. I also do basic cooking and cleaning for the family. Definately look into getting a nanny.
We are not expecting (but our office has turned into a baby factory) so I know that daycare for infants in Boston is roughly $2k/month; and I'm sure there are additional fees and wait lists. It's crazy!
I had sticker shock when I saw how much it will cost a baby to our health insurance. Originally it was $360 more a month but now, we found out we can get 1/2 off to add on my husband's which is $170 month. Still, that bites.
Most of our friends have done nanny shares until kids are old enough for preschool. It seems pricey until you split it a couple of ways, and then you realize it's nowhere near as costly as quality infant daycare. It's worth looking into, if you live in an area where there are other young families. (One friend totally lucked out and they share with their next-door neighbors!)
The health care situation is another can of worms entirely....I was astounded to find out that although FI and I pay about the same for our individual policies, his (statewide public employer) insurance is $100 flat fee for a family of any size---and mine, with a small private firm, is $1,000. Yikes! It's literally the same policy with the same local healthcare provider, too. Totally insane. And sadly not one of the things that heathcare reform will tackle at all. *sigh*
I don't have much to contribute as we live in a smaller town and we haven't even started looking at prices yet, but I think our biggest sticker shock is going to be with nurse-midwives (certified of course). We're pretty lucky because we will have fairly opposite schedules with FI working nights/afternoons and me working mornings/midday. There's a small chance that there will be some overlap and we'll need someone to care for our kid, but I would refuse to pay as much as they want to charge you.
I know when my uncle/aunt started looking at daycares they cheaped out and only went to inexpensive ones and were surprised when the pplaces weren't up to par. They ended up going with a live-in nanny. The only problem I have with this is that they don't spend time with their 3 young children and as a result the kids don't respect them and act up continually. They even take their nanny on vacations with them instead of spending time together. I feel bad for the kids, really.
For those ridiculous daycare prices you may want to consider the cost of a nanny!
I know someone who lives in NYC and found a nanny share with another family through her pediatrician. Basically, the nanny watchs her child and the other family's child together and both families share the cost of the nanny. Works well for her!
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We knew that having a baby in the city is expensive, but we had no idea just how bad it is. We were really shocked this week to learn that we may have to pay full price for 3 months of day care while I am home on maternity leave to "hold" a spot in the daycare. This is in addition to the nonrefundable $200 "waitlist fee" we have to pay just to get on the wait list. The fee doesn't even guarantee they will ever call us off the wait list! For this reason we were told to apply to get on 5-6 different wait lists, paying $50-$200 for the privledge of being on each one. All these fees combined add up to over $5,000 - for which we get NOTHING in return (other than a future spot in a daycare). I thought weddings were price-gougey, but this takes the cake.
What was your biggest baby sticker shock?