I was listening to NPR today and they are having these round table discussions about having kids and today's topic was daycare. The newslady was leading the discussion and asked, "Do childcare workers make enough money for what they do every day?".....the consensus was no. Then she flipped the question to, "Do you pay too much for childcare?".....the consensus was yes. I thought that was really interesting, especially the discussion that followed.
These people were in Washington DC and the costs they were quoting for daycare were astounding! One woman said she estimated $40,000 for a nanny! I have been listening to friends for some time now talk about daycare costs and my most recent quote I think I heard from someone was like $650/700 a month, which is a big chunk of a paycheck. The discussion also included the fact that a lot of families have to really lay out a detailed plan of their expenses to see if both parents working is more cost effective than one parent staying home. Plus throwing in the notion of spending those first few years at home with your kids and the impact that has. I've heard my friends talk about the same thing. There was also a grandma in the discussion who talked about how she watched her grandchild pretty much every day from breakfast through dinner. This led to the group talking about how fortunate people are who have an "infrastructure" of family and friends to provide care for children. The whole village raising a child idea. One guy said that his mom, who was in Illinois with all his siblings and other family, said she was worried about how he and his wife were going to raise kids without that network of support. I guess this was the part of the discussion that really struck me. Growing up, I was able to be raised through that family infrastructure. If I was sick, my aunt or grandma would pick me up from school if my mom couldn't. I always had people around who would help take care of me and my brother. I feel really fortunate having had that experience. Especially now as I think about these logistical questions of daycare. I am really lucky that my mom is going to be my daycare "provider". I also have wonderful friends who would help me out whenever they could too. And my dad is only 90 minutes away, although I'm not sure he wants to be in charge of a baby..... maybe once it's older..... =)
Plus having summers off and Brian's always weird and changing schedule, I am cautiously optimistic that daycare should not be the cause of a massive amount of stress. I do wish I were closer (in proximity) to family, but traveling for holidays and during the summer will just be part of the deal. Just a contemplation I was having today. I'm sure it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Daycare is the single worst part of being a working mom. We've gone through out share of providers over the past seven years, and now that both girls are in school I'm not sad that for the most part the daycare days are behind us. We were very lucky in that Dave was able to stay home with the girls during the morning which drastically cut down on childcare costs for us. That was a secondary bonus though, the primary one being that both girls had some precious time alone with each parent every day. You are very lucky that your baby will have such an amazing daycare provider in the form of their very loving, doting grandma!
ReplyDeleteI am a big believer in the idea of "it takes a village," and you'll be surprised how quickly your village rallies around you. My guess is that they already have. ;)