Childcare crisis?

[disneysteve]

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.

It is totally a financial topic, as is the pandemic itself. It would be tough to think of a financial issue that hasn’t been at least indirectly impacted by COVID. Child care is certainly no exception.

[Like2Plan]

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.

I am confused by this. There are protocols in place at child care centers that they are obligated to follow. Whether you are worried about it or not, if you enroll your child(ren) in one--you may find yourself scrambling at the last minute to find an alternate childcare arrangement. (Not just COVID, but any type of contagious illness that one of the kids may have). In the case of the OP, it might be less than ideal if he is deployed and his wife has a final exam she must take.

[Petunia 100]

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...

There are no off-topic comments or links in this thread, excepting your chastisement.

[Like2Plan]

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...

I do not have a child in daycare...but 2 of my nieces work in 2 different day care centers. ( I have no idea how the parents manage when there are quarantines-). It seems like it would be important to know the protocols that are in place when you sign up for child care at a child care center....

[disneysteve]

I do not have a child in daycare...but 2 of my nieces work in 2 different day care centers. ( I have no idea how the parents manage when there are quarantines-). It seems like it would be important to know the protocols that are in place when you sign up for child care at a child care center....

I don’t have a kid in child care but many of my coworkers do so this topic comes up regularly, and even more so the past 18 months due to all of the changes that have occurred.

[Petunia 100]

I don’t have a kid in child care but many of my coworkers do so this topic comes up regularly, and even more so the past 18 months due to all of the changes that have occurred.

Same.

[rennigade]

So on one here has a child in daycare except me? Glad we established that.

I am confused by this. There are protocols in place at child care centers that they are obligated to follow. Whether you are worried about it or not, if you enroll your child(ren) in one--you may find yourself scrambling at the last minute to find an alternate childcare arrangement. (Not just COVID, but any type of contagious illness that one of the kids may have). In the case of the OP, it might be less than ideal if he is deployed and his wife has a final exam she must take.

There hasnt been a single mention of our daycares shutting down due to any illness/virus/etc, but, we've only been in daycare for 6 months. Like I said earlier, its a daycare, its a gold mine for viruses. Daycares would not exist if they closed for viruses. You cannot stop transmission of viruses in a daycare setting. All the kids touch things, putting things in their mouth, crawl around where people have touched things, etc etc. If a parent is scared that their child will get sick, a daycare is the absolute last place you want to be around. Keep your child home, get a nanny, quite your job and be a stay at home parent. There's no in between. Take cover and be safe. Godspeed.

[Petunia 100]

So on one here has a child in daycare except me? Glad we established that.




There hasnt been a single mention of our daycares shutting down due to any illness/virus/etc, but, we've only been in daycare for 6 months. Like I said earlier, its a daycare, its a gold mine for viruses. Daycares would not exist if they closed for viruses. You cannot stop transmission of viruses in a daycare setting. All the kids touch things, putting things in their mouth, crawl around where people have touched things, etc etc. If a parent is scared that their child will get sick, a daycare is the absolute last place you want to be around. Keep your child home, get a nanny, quite your job and be a stay at home parent. There's no in between. Take cover and be safe. Godspeed.

Wow. It is the norm here.

[disneysteve]

Wow. It is the norm here.

Here too. If a kid or staff member gets COVID everyone is quarantined. The same in schools.

[Like2Plan]

There hasnt been a single mention of our daycares shutting down due to any illness/virus/etc, but, we've only been in daycare for 6 months. Like I said earlier, its a daycare, its a gold mine for viruses. Daycares would not exist if they closed for viruses. You cannot stop transmission of viruses in a daycare setting. All the kids touch things, putting things in their mouth, crawl around where people have touched things, etc etc. If a parent is scared that their child will get sick, a daycare is the absolute last place you want to be around. Keep your child home, get a nanny, quite your job and be a stay at home parent. There's no in between. Take cover and be safe. Godspeed.

You may have a child enrolled in a daycare, but I have my doubts that you are familiar with the policies in the day care in which your child is enrolled in.

They have policies in place so that not every one of the children get sick in care. Not only logistically (cleaning up vomit and changing the diapers/of multiple kids with explosive diarrhea for example), but also for the comfort of the poor kid who is not feeling well in the first place.

My sister told me that in the past 5 months--3 pods (which include 2 or 3 classrooms) have had to undergo quarantine at one of her daughter's child care centers. The other daughter has not, but they also don't accept any of the kids if they have any cold like symptoms. (Both of the nieces have had to get COVID tests due to exposure or if they have any symptoms. The kids have to be tested if they have symptoms and they can't come back unless they test negative).

[rennigade]

You may have a child enrolled in a daycare, but I have my doubts that you are familiar with the policies in the day care in which your child is enrolled in.

They have policies in place so that not every one of the children get sick in care. Not only logistically (cleaning up vomit and changing the diapers/of multiple kids with explosive diarrhea for example), but also for the comfort of the poor kid who is not feeling well in the first place.

My sister told me that in the past 5 months--3 pods (which include 2 or 3 classrooms) have had to undergo quarantine at one of her daughter's child care centers. The other daughter has not, but they also don't accept any of the kids if they have any cold like symptoms. (Both of the nieces have had to get COVID tests due to exposure or if they have any symptoms. The kids have to be tested if they have symptoms and they can't come back unless they test negative).

Im very familiar with the protocols. They remind us constantly, we have the sheets listing them. Im just saying our daycare has not shut down due to covid. Our child has missed a lot of time so far due to illness. Fever, puking, just feeling miserable. If your child has a fever you cant dump them off at daycare. Not only would it be terrible for the kid, but a nightmare for the teachers who are stretched thin to begin with.

Also, in terms of policies to prevent other kids from getting sick, thats a facade. Any parent that believes that needs a reality check. By the time anyone realizes a child is sick, its too late. I know for the hands foot mouth, the most contagious time to spread that is before symptoms even show. When you start seeing the bumps, its already on its way out. Like you said, those protocols are in place because a single teacher cannot dedicate all day to a single child. That child needs to go home so they can care for other ones.

If you have a child in daycare they are going to be sick, a lot. Unless you have a mutant, which would be kinda awesome.

In terms of the kids having to be tested in they have symptoms...your sister should try to find a new daycare. Our child has had covid symptoms almost every time he has been sick. Cough, fever, congestion or runny nose, vomiting. Its called being sick. This has gone on forever. Those symptoms are very generic.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

So on one here has a child in daycare except me? Glad we established that.




There hasnt been a single mention of our daycares shutting down due to any illness/virus/etc, but, we've only been in daycare for 6 months. Like I said earlier, its a daycare, its a gold mine for viruses. Daycares would not exist if they closed for viruses. You cannot stop transmission of viruses in a daycare setting. All the kids touch things, putting things in their mouth, crawl around where people have touched things, etc etc. If a parent is scared that their child will get sick, a daycare is the absolute last place you want to be around. Keep your child home, get a nanny, quite your job and be a stay at home parent. There's no in between. Take cover and be safe. Godspeed.

No my kids like MM are older 9 and 11. I am writing this as a I look at the clock about to bounce and pick up said kiddos. Why? Because they just quarantined 81 kids in 6th grade (unvaxx 11 year olds) because of 3 kids who were positive and we have 97 kids our bus route. My kid is sitting 3 to a seat, I made her ride it once to get familiar, but otherwise I am shuttling them around. We started school 9/1 so the exposure happened on Friday 9/3. Wee. This is going to be quite a year i can tell. So if they are exposed we have to quarantine and no school for 10 days. They need to wear masks.

Some people are using childcare but the number of places in business and number of kids taken are LOWER than before so spots are hard to come by. Also nannies are hard to come by. Here going rate is around $25/hr per kid. But then monthly cost of daycare is around $2500. Where we use to live it's around $4k. By 2 kids you get a nanny because it's cheaper. I stayed at home and recreated my work because it made more sense like fishingdude mentioned.

It's not one easy or straightforward choice. I've only lived in the highest places for childcare. When i had my kids, where we lived was in the NYT article as highest in country. In 2010 it was $2000-2500/month childcare. I made less than that. Sort of a no brainer to not work. But it's not a cut and dry thing. Had we been tight for money? Split shifts i could have seen myself getting a night job to make ends meet.

[kork13]

Oops, meant to respond back when it was just 2 replies & time got away from me.

The older two are in 1st grade & preschool ($450/mo on his own), so unfortunately no benefit of scale exists with hiring a nanny for only our 6mo old daughter.

But to rennigade's original point, we definitely didn't plan very well this time around, and should have gotten on wait lists months ago. We've honestly been kinda behind for everything with this child, simply because we've both been so busy. It's felt like we're moving from one crisis to the next for far too long.... The military ops tempo has not been kind to my family. Although I do love the idea of SAHD after I retire, that's nearly 7 years distant.

FWIW, I didn't mean to spin this around COVID. It's just been a factor lately, with daycares closing, schools going hybrid or closing entirely, and other stuff that all makes childcare a greater challenge.

I think the real underlying question is this: How could it be fixed? In my view, low pay for a job that can be emotionally draining is the biggest deterrent to having a greater quantity of providers. But as we're seeing elsewhere, simply increasing pay across the board wouldn't do much. I don't really know.

[Like2Plan]

Im very familiar with the protocols. They remind us constantly, we have the sheets listing them. Im just saying our daycare has not shut down due to covid. Our child has missed a lot of time so far due to illness. Fever, puking, just feeling miserable. If your child has a fever you cant dump them off at daycare. Not only would it be terrible for the kid, but a nightmare for the teachers who are stretched thin to begin with.

Also, in terms of policies to prevent other kids from getting sick, thats a facade. Any parent that believes that needs a reality check. By the time anyone realizes a child is sick, its too late. I know for the hands foot mouth, the most contagious time to spread that is before symptoms even show. When you start seeing the bumps, its already on its way out. Like you said, those protocols are in place because a single teacher cannot dedicate all day to a single child. That child needs to go home so they can care for other ones.

If you have a child in daycare they are going to be sick, a lot. Unless you have a mutant, which would be kinda awesome.

In terms of the kids having to be tested in they have symptoms...your sister should try to find a new daycare. Our child has had covid symptoms almost every time he has been sick. Cough, fever, congestion or runny nose, vomiting. Its called being sick. This has gone on forever. Those symptoms are very generic.

So, you of all people should know what everyone is talking about. A sick kid has to stay home. One parent has to stay with the sick kid. And, if you have 3 kids (one being 6 months old)--you run an even greater risk of having one of the kids sick at any given time-- and one of the parents having to stay home with the sick child. If one parent is deployed and the other parent has a final exam (or whatever), it is going to be a problem. Which is why most everyone in this thread has favored the nanny option (if available).

Another option might be home daycare (where we live, it is limited to 2 infants). Where my nieces provide care (in a center), it is 8 infants in one room with 2 care givers--that is a lot of babies. (Although, the one with stricter protocol actually has 3 caregivers to 8 infants--so, that is a little bit better).
Home daycare also has its limitations. The home daycare provider is one deep and if she(or he) gets sick, you again need to find back up care.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Oops, meant to respond back when it was just 2 replies & time got away from me.

The older two are in 1st grade & preschool ($450/mo on his own), so unfortunately no benefit of scale exists with hiring a nanny for only our 6mo old daughter.

But to rennigade's original point, we definitely didn't plan very well this time around, and should have gotten on wait lists months ago. We've honestly been kinda behind for everything with this child, simply because we've both been so busy. It's felt like we're moving from one crisis to the next for far too long.... The military ops tempo has not been kind to my family. Although I do love the idea of SAHD after I retire, that's nearly 7 years distant.

FWIW, I didn't mean to spin this around COVID. It's just been a factor lately, with daycares closing, schools going hybrid or closing entirely, and other stuff that all makes childcare a greater challenge.

I think the real underlying question is this: How could it be fixed? In my view, low pay for a job that can be emotionally draining is the biggest deterrent to having a greater quantity of providers. But as we're seeing elsewhere, simply increasing pay across the board wouldn't do much. I don't really know.

Well start by raising the amount of payment to the lowly paid child and see if people come back. If instead of making minimum wage $7 you paid $25 i wonder how many would come back? If you paid $30/hr? I'm not saying do it, but out here ice cream scooping and working retail is paying $18/hr now....it's definitely getting to living wage. I wonder if in other areas just going to $15/hr incentive people.