Childcare crisis?

[kork13]

Yet another result of the just-won't-die pandemic has been a pinch in the availablility of childcare services. Gratefully we've previously managed okay with our two boys, but the problem became more acute for us with the birth of our newest baby girl in March. DW has somehow juggled them all so far while I've been deployed & she was taking multiple college classes... But in August she began her Physical Therapy doctoral program, and it's shockingly demanding. We gratefully have had various family members able & willing to help out, but we're reaching the end of that rope in late September. So we're on waiting lists ranging from 1-6 months long, in a small town, hoping against hope.

It has already been a rising problem for years. Part of the problem is pay -- childcare jobs typically don't pay terribly well, in spite of the high level of trust placed in them. Most of the (unavailable) options around us charge $130-$150/wk/child. I'd pay double that if it meant reliable care... But if I can't find something in time, the only other option remaining will be a nanny, which would cost >$450/wk on the low end. ::shudder::

If people can't put their young kids into daycare, they can't work (or go to school). That leads to further stagnation of a job market, and the vicious cycle turns.

[disneysteve]

Literally millions of women have left the workforce since COVID began for this exact reason. It has a lot to do with why so many employers, especially in the service industry, are struggling to find workers. Professional women can afford costly childcare, but restaurant servers, housekeepers, retail workers, and other lower paid employees can't, so they're stuck staying home with their kids. And many daycares have closed permanently.

There is also still a high level of fear of putting kids back into daycare and school until there is a pediatric vaccine available, especially in the places that refuse to enact sensible COVID restrictions in the schools like masks and vaccine mandates for staff and older students. My wife and I have said many times that we are grateful our kid is grown and we haven't had to deal with this issue. We've seen so many of our friends and family members struggling with it.

[rennigade]

Getting on a waiting list has been around as long as i can remember. I think we signed up approx 6 months in advance. We got into our 2nd choice. After a couple months there our 1st choice had an opening so we moved locations. I believe ours cost around $42/day or so. It's approx $10k/year. Money WELL spent. Gives us a break from kiddo and socializes him with other kids and teachers. Don't forget, I believe you can get up to $10k in tax free money through your employee for daycare. Don't quote me though.

Covid should be the least of parents worries in a daycare setting. The amount of other viruses that you're going to experience with a baby in daycare is astonishing. We have an 11 month old. He's always getting something. Month ago was hands foot mouth, which was mild luckily. Two weeks ago he had RSV. We both got crushed by the rsv. All the symptoms are basically identical to covid. I've been sick more in 2021 than any other time in my life.

His immune system should be godlike when he gets older.

In terms of price, if you're lower income there is help. There are forms anyone can fill out to get a cheaper rate, if you qualify.

[Petunia 100]

Yet another result of the just-won't-die pandemic has been a pinch in the availablility of childcare services. Gratefully we've previously managed okay with our two boys, but the problem became more acute for us with the birth of our newest baby girl in March. DW has somehow juggled them all so far while I've been deployed & she was taking multiple college classes... But in August she began her Physical Therapy doctoral program, and it's shockingly demanding. We gratefully have had various family members able & willing to help out, but we're reaching the end of that rope in late September. So we're on waiting lists ranging from 1-6 months long, in a small town, hoping against hope.

It has already been a rising problem for years. Part of the problem is pay -- childcare jobs typically don't pay terribly well, in spite of the high level of trust placed in them. Most of the (unavailable) options around us charge $130-$150/wk/child. I'd pay double that if it meant reliable care... But if I can't find something in time, the only other option remaining will be a nanny, which would cost >$450/wk on the low end. ::shudder::

If people can't put their young kids into daycare, they can't work (or go to school). That leads to further stagnation of a job market, and the vicious cycle turns.

$130-$150 per week for each of 3 children or $450 per week for the nanny isn't all that different. In the current climate, I think I would much rather have the nanny.

[Like2Plan]

I agree that finding daycare was a challenge 30 years ago. It hasn't gotten any easier. And, I also agree that COVID has made it even more challenging.

I agree with Petunia that the nanny option might be the better one. The centers are doing their best with COVID. If a child has COVID symptoms, they have to get tested. If they are diagnosed with COVID, the whole class is closed for a period of time for a quarantine. They also have testing protocols (for staff) --wait a certain number of days after exposure and then get tested.

The only problem is if you as a parent are counting on the daycare center to be open and all the kids from one of the classes are quarantined.

But, even if they don't have COVID, the rules for child care centers are you can't bring your child in if they have an active infection with other childhood viruses, etc (must be fever free without taking fever reducing medicine for a certain number of hours, no vomiting, no diarrhea etc) That could throw a real wrench into the plan....

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...us/5630926002/

https://cdhd.idaho.gov/pdfs/cd/Coron...l-04-07-20.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...screening.html

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/content...19_Booklet.pdf

[disneysteve]

If they are diagnosed with COVID, the whole class is closed for a period of time for a quarantine. They also have testing protocols (for staff) --wait a certain number of days after exposure and then get tested.

This is what people don't understand when they say, "Oh it's just another virus." No, it isn't. When one kid in a class gets some routine illness, they don't shut down the whole class. But if one kid (or one teacher) gets COVID, everybody has to quarantine for 14 days. Big difference.

[MonkeyMama]

I agree that finding daycare was a challenge 30 years ago. It hasn't gotten any easier. And, I also agree that COVID has made it even more challenging.

1000%. Is one of those things where the light is just shown brighter during a crisis. We found it more financially sensible to just not to work (between daycare expenses and taxes).

In a high cost of living region, people have always managed with "nannies". Not in the upper class traditional sense, but just the more kids you have the more sensible it is to just hire one person to watch all the kids. Just extra so during a pandemic.

I have a friend with four kids who hires international nannies. & I mean, it was $1000/month daycare, 20 years ago. More today, I am sure. Anything is cheaper than $4K/month (for four kids!). With the international nannies, they mostly provide room and board. I am always thrown off by the nanny perception, accordingly. But for reference, these are school teachers who hacked childcare. My other friend who did this was a single mom.

Most everyone else I know with a "nanny" (anyone with more than one kid) just hired a teen or college student to pick up their kids and watch them a few hours after school. My employer did this during the pandemic, he has a couple of younger school-aged kids. Ended up pulling his kids out of school entirely (it was a cluster for his like Kinder & 1st grader) and hired an employee's teenage sister to watch his kids full-time.

& let's get real. Some of our "it's more financially sensible not to work" comes with some "like hell we would have ever hired a teenager to watch our small kids." I don't personally think it's a great solution. But it is a solution. (I am sure there are some very fine teenaged nannies, but we have firsthand witnessed a lot of not-so-great situations when it comes to our neighbors and their teenaged nannies). & really and truly, we don't have any family nearby whatsoever and we 100% put our kids in childcare. It just wasn't going to be hiring a teenager because they are cheap.

I have no doubt it's more challenging than ever. Good luck! I'd just think a little outside the box, scour the ads, talk to everyone you know where you live. I have no doubt you will figure it out because you have the means. We personally gave up when our "we struck childcare gold" daycare provider moved out of state. But we just didn't have the means. Childcare might have gone up from $1K to $2K per month (per child) during the housing bubble. Don't remember the exact numbers, but I do remember it was completely absurd. I guess also a good reminder that if you have an absurd year or two financially re: childcare, these things are temporary. Crazy economic factors (like recessions and pandemics) are generally pretty temporary, in addition to kids getting older.

[riverwed070707]

Kork. Hire the nanny. You are deployed and have a demanding job. Your wife is raising 3 children alone and in medical school. Not only does a nanny make more sense with everything going on with COVID (not even talking risk here but purely from a reliability standpoint), but it also alleviates your wife of the stress of having to get 3 small children cleaned, dressed and loaded in the car before she can even start her morning. A nanny will help manage the house, keep things picked up and potentially even prep or start dinner. Get the nanny. It will be worth every penny.

[Fishindude77]

For couples, Mom (or Dad) always has the option of forgoing the job and whatever income it brings in, and stay home to raise the kids.
This system worked for a long time.

[disneysteve]

For couples, Mom (or Dad) always has the option of forgoing the job and whatever income it brings in, and stay home to raise the kids.
This system worked for a long time.

It did work for a long time, when one average income could support a family. As we've discussed many times, that often is no longer the case due to stagnant wages and rising prices.

[rennigade]

Yeaaahhhh...another thread that has gone down the covid tubes, as usual.

James...have you given any thought to adding a Covid Related link to the main forum page? Anything and everything covid should go there. Every other financial forum does this. Well, bogleheads pretty much bans that crap, and ER has a very heavily moderated covid section that has to be pre approved. Its hard for anyone to discuss a topic anymore without throwing covid stats out and what people should and shouldnt do.

Remember when savingsadvice used to be a place to discuss financial related topics without going off the rails? Been a while, I know.

[Petunia 100]

Yeaaahhhh...another thread that has gone down the covid tubes, as usual.

James...have you given any thought to adding a Covid Related link to the main forum page? Anything and everything covid should go there. Every other financial forum does this. Well, bogleheads pretty much bans that crap, and ER has a very heavily moderated covid section that has to be pre approved. Its hard for anyone to discuss a topic anymore without throwing covid stats out and what people should and shouldnt do.

Remember when savingsadvice used to be a place to discuss financial related topics without going off the rails? Been a while, I know.

Perhaps you could explain how the cost of child care for 3 small children is not a financial topic. Also, perhaps you could read the first sentence of the OP and explain why it came as a complete surprise to you that this thread would be covid related.

[ua_guy]

I'm sympathetic to my colleagues who have childcare expenses. A lot of them used to say "It feels like I'm working just so I can keep my kid in childcare". When you're young and trying to protect the nest, it's a formidable expense. The alternative is staying home and giving up 6-7 years of career experience, foregoing raises/promotions, maybe giving up 6-7 years retirement savings, 6-7 years kids' college savings, potential secondary healthcare coverage or fallback coverage if the primary earner becomes unemployed... I do not envy parents who have to make those decisions.

[Like2Plan]

1000%. Is one of those things where the light is just shown brighter during a crisis. We found it more financially sensible to just not to work (between daycare expenses and taxes).

In a high cost of living region, people have always managed with "nannies". Not in the upper class traditional sense, but just the more kids you have the more sensible it is to just hire one person to watch all the kids. Just extra so during a pandemic.

I have a friend with four kids who hires international nannies. & I mean, it was $1000/month daycare, 20 years ago. More today, I am sure. Anything is cheaper than $4K/month (for four kids!). With the international nannies, they mostly provide room and board. I am always thrown off by the nanny perception, accordingly. But for reference, these are school teachers who hacked childcare. My other friend who did this was a single mom.

Most everyone else I know with a "nanny" (anyone with more than one kid) just hired a teen or college student to pick up their kids and watch them a few hours after school. My employer did this during the pandemic, he has a couple of younger school-aged kids. Ended up pulling his kids out of school entirely (it was a cluster for his like Kinder & 1st grader) and hired an employee's teenage sister to watch his kids full-time.

& let's get real. Some of our "it's more financially sensible not to work" comes with some "like hell we would have ever hired a teenager to watch our small kids." I don't personally think it's a great solution. But it is a solution. (I am sure there are some very fine teenaged nannies, but we have firsthand witnessed a lot of not-so-great situations when it comes to our neighbors and their teenaged nannies). & really and truly, we don't have any family nearby whatsoever and we 100% put our kids in childcare. It just wasn't going to be hiring a teenager because they are cheap.

I have no doubt it's more challenging than ever. Good luck! I'd just think a little outside the box, scour the ads, talk to everyone you know where you live. I have no doubt you will figure it out because you have the means. We personally gave up when our "we struck childcare gold" daycare provider moved out of state. But we just didn't have the means. Childcare might have gone up from $1K to $2K per month (per child) during the housing bubble. Don't remember the exact numbers, but I do remember it was completely absurd. I guess also a good reminder that if you have an absurd year or two financially re: childcare, these things are temporary. Crazy economic factors (like recessions and pandemics) are generally pretty temporary, in addition to kids getting older.

What I was thinking about Kork's situation is maybe they have to hire a nanny for a couple of years while his wife finishes her schooling. Then, maybe she will have more flexibility in her schedule after she gets a job. Also, I "think" Kork had mentioned in another thread that he might take on a care taking role after he is retires--which IIRC is only 2 or 3(?) more years from now....

[rennigade]

Perhaps you could explain how the cost of child care for 3 small children is not a financial topic. Also, perhaps you could read the first sentence of the OP and explain why it came as a complete surprise to you that this thread would be covid related.

Perhaps you should go through the responses, again. The cost of 3 small children is a financial topic. Everyone commenting on covid stats, what people should do, links to covid resources is not. Dont confuse the two.

Also, who here has a child in daycare during these times? How bout a big ol thumbs up if you have a kid in daycare...