Childcare costs
By ruby222
@ruby222 (4847)
October 18, 2008 9:40am CST
After chatting to a friend I was quite taken aback when I realised that to send one child to a day nursery here in the United kingdom can cost as much as thirty pounds a day,or sixty dollars.I could not believe what I was hearing ,and when I started to calculate I was reeling from the shock of the thought of paying one hundred and fifty pounds a week for childcare to place one child in full time if the young mother needed to work.I know that you may b able to find registered childminders who may charge a little less,or a friend or kind family member who will offer their services,but you still would have to reward them in some way or another.The British government have a scheme for aged two and over(I think that it is aged 2)where help can be given towards the cost of the childcare in the form of vouchers,but I am sure that is about as fast as it goes.They have reported that more and more grandparents have been recruited to look after grandchildren on a very regular basis to let the parents both go out to work.With today's economy the wage of one will not go far in keeping the roof over the families head or to fill the larder.Do you pay exorbitant charges for childcare?
3 people like this
18 responses
@lilybug (21107)
• United States
18 Oct 08
The last time my kids were in daycare the cost was $65 per kid per week. That is about the average around here for a home daycare. I don't know how much it is for a daycare center. I think in daycare centers it varies based on the age of the child. Infants are more.
2 people like this
@LouiseKnittel (4764)
• United States
18 Oct 08
Infants would require a lot more attention. I can understand that! How long ago was it $65.00 a week!?!
1 person likes this
@LouiseKnittel (4764)
• United States
18 Oct 08
I have been thinking about this for a little while now. Starting up a little daycare. I will have to investigate it a little more!
I have never paid for daycare. But I was thinking that if I could open a small one I would be able to be a little more reasonable then some of the others!
1 person likes this
@dfollin (24216)
• United States
8 Jan 09
Wow,I am moving to the United Kingdom! Lol!
On,the serious side,most day care for a 2 year old here is $250 to $300 for 6:30 to 6:30 am ,Monday thru Friday and if you are late then you get charged $10 for the fist 5 minutes then $10 for every minute after that.If it gets to where you are 15 minutes late they call the police and your child goes to a foster home.
My son's ex,the mother of their child works some weekends and they cannot afford that much anyway so I watch her for only $20 a day and I provide the food.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
4 Nov 08
Hello ruby. It is also very expensive to send a child to a good childcare center, where children are taught how to read and write and some entertainments. But it is much cheaper in a simple child nursery. Usually the children have lunch at the nursery and go back home with their parents. As to my son, when he was little, my wife took good care of him at home and he was sent to school when he was five. Usually grandparents take care of their grandchildren if they are available in China. Thank you for your discussion, friend.
@GreenMoo (11834)
•
17 Jan 09
Hello Ruby!
Was tidying up my inbox today, and found lots of discussions I'd not responded to at the time.
Not seen you about for a long long time. How are things?
Now, in answer to your question, I used to pay an outrageous amount of money to have my eldest looked after in a nursery. What I paid in fees annually was actually more than my lowest paid member of staff earnt, which just highlights how working just isn't worthwhile for some people with children. I'm sure it was also more than the majority of staff in the nursery earnt as well.
Now the Government has introduced Tax Credits which help to pay for childcare things are a little easier. I don't think there's an easy answer though. Childcare is expensive. The premises need to be paid for and safe, the staff need to be paid (and they are generally terribly underpaid when you consider that we leave them in charge of our most precious possessions), and the legislation heaped upon nurseries and other child carers needs someone to wade through it.
@iyah10 (4115)
• Kuwait
2 Nov 08
It is really expensive for the childcare program in the place of yours and I was thinking before that it is Kuwait has the expensive School that we called it a "special class" for a children but here we used to pay 250KD in a quarter of the month and it is almost a 1000 dollars......but not including things that they need.
@jfeets726 (775)
• United States
21 Oct 08
My daughter just started full day pre-k, so child care isn't as much of an issue now. I quit my job as a retail manager (due to long hours) to stay at home with her. I started working from home part-time at night. Before quitting my job, my daughter was in childcare for 9 months. We had a sitter who was pretty good until we ran into a few problems and switched. My friend was doing daycare at the time and had an opening so we got lucky. We paid $20 a day at both places.
I feel so bad for those with large families. I had a friend who decided to stay at home because she was being charged over $200 a week for two kids in childcare. She was basically working to pay for her babysitter.
@checapricorn (16061)
• United States
21 Oct 08
[i]Hi ruby,
I was really shocked about it when I got here since in our Country, people can get a nanny with a very minimal cost, anyway it is because also we don't earn much there as people here and in UK!
I have no kids but got friends who are paying $300 for 2 kids for a week![/i]
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
21 Oct 08
I run a home daycare. The cost is $110 a child per week. I am the lowest charging daycare in my town. Most of them charge $125 a week per child and they also have paid sick days and their birthdays off and paid. I think that some people are crazy to pay what some of these ladies are asking. I have been on both sides of this daycare thing so I try to be fair to the parents, but don't let them take advantage of me.
@gemini_rose (16264)
•
19 Oct 08
Just lately I have been considering trying to find a job, I was looking to find weekend work only to try and avoid having to have childcare, but it is impossible. I looked then at just any jobs, the only jobs I am qualified to do though are for minimum wage. I would not be too bad when the kids were all in school as I would just have to have care for a couple of hours but in the holidays it would end up costing me more than I was earning to get care for three children. I could not ask family as they are all working and they all have their own families to take care of. So, I am stuck at home for a bit longer I guess!
@hllywdprncss76 (179)
• United States
19 Oct 08
When i went back to work my oldest was 18 months and i put her in a daycare and i paid $265 a week for one child! Thank god i was only there a few months because theres no way a single mom could pay almost $2200 a month for two kids in daycare, rent & utilities. A few months later i found the preschool that my girls are at now & i pay $675 a month for my 3 year old and $575 a month for my 4 year old. I love their preschool. The teachers are great & my girls feel comfortable there. In fact my youngest was crying for her teacher & i sent her a text telling her that her little buddy was crying for her. About 15 minutes later she knocked at the door because she was in the area & wanted to say hi. A good daycare is so hard to find
@ndaniel229 (419)
• United States
19 Oct 08
I was lucky enough to work at the daycare my daughter went to. But if I hadn't -- I would be paying $875 a month. And she's almost 2... in the preschool program. Younger children are more. It's sick! I couldn't imagine having more than one child and paying for daycare... might as well stay home!
@victory999 (758)
• China
19 Oct 08
Nowadays fostering a child is very tired,because we not only spend lots of money in their daily life,but also we should pay more attention to educate them.
In another way,the child bring us much more happy when they grow up.Hence every coin has two sides.
@annjilena (5618)
• United States
19 Oct 08
here in the united states child care is through the roof it cost about $100.00 to $125.00 a week for one child that is expensive for them to keep one child the only thing you can do is carry them on your taxes at the end of the year and you will get some of that money back if you haven,t made to much money. they give help to low income family for child care if they have to work.i did a discussion back here about grandparent raising there grand children one lady got mad at me for posting such a question i told her it wasn,t directing anything at her it wasn,t a personal question it just was a question asked.what it was she was raising her grands and she was mad about it.any way you are right with the price of day care it,s going be hard to pay rent and buy food especially if you are a single parent.
@littleowl (7157)
•
19 Oct 08
Hi ruby, my daughter was in work at one stage and had a registered nanny for her son, the state helped pay for it but she had to pay the rest and that was £500 $1000 a month but she was only earning about that when working in the end she had to stop the nanny as she wasn't benefitting from it and has had to stay home with her son til he goes to school and is still getting the same amount as to when she was working..the system is all wrong there really is no incentive to work if you have to pay out your wages as well for daycare...littleowl
@chiaeugene (2225)
• China
19 Oct 08
the cost of raising a kid nowadays is frightening. the cost of sending a kid to childcare over here in china is almost equivalent to an adult average salary in an office job. so u can imagine the pressure of many parents here. the govt also does little to help and only the middle income and above can afford to do so. this is also due to the fact that china has the largest population in the world and there are so many children but the childcare facilities is limited so that in term jack up the prices of entry into childcare. here most grandparents look after the children while both the parents are out at work. it is a very common trend as the pay in china is not high.
@reddbone (48)
• United States
19 Oct 08
Yes, I think childcare is very high and I have taken my children out of childcare because we can't afford it and we are struggling so I think it would be wise for anyone who has children in childcare should find someone who doesn't charge alot of money for there services.
