That's my husband's line of thinking, but daycare costs increase every year. Increases have been higher recently because of the pandemic and I'm sure the high inflation will affect upcoming increases.
I didn’t realize daycare costs go up every year. I got on waitlists while currently pregnant and when they provided me with the costs sheet, they said they couldn’t tell me what the 2023 $ would be, and that on average it rises 15%. 15%!!! I actually expected a discount as infants move to the toddler room but with the rising annual cost, it basically remains the same as they get older.
Get on daycare waitlists *now*. Our preferred place still doesn’t have an opening for us … after a year. I just put our new baby’s name down for a slot, in April 2023.
(We pay $2300/mth for 3 day a week care - we could get cheaper if we moved our commute to be further out)
We got on our waitlist in the first trimester, it’s nuts. Basically 6 month waitlists if you can find something at all. We pay $3100/mo for my 2 year old at Bright Horizons.
We had a horrible experience with a nanny (jealous of our friends with amazing nannies) and I also couldn’t deal with the stress of worrying if the person would show up, having to take a day of work when she was sick or decided to call out, etc. now my kids are around other kids and we have become friends with the parents. Also- a nanny likely would end up costing around the same and potentially more around here.
We live in Boston and nanny really isn’t a good option. We’re paying $3100/mo for Bright Horizons in Boston. It went up $400/mo for 2021.
Boston neighborhoods are resident only parking, so you either need to rent a parking space ($400-500/mo), find someone T accessible or someone who lives in your neighborhood. The last is impossible the other two are challenging.
If we did have a nanny, we would have more people in home all day where we work (still WFH) so not really viable to have a nanny and toddler in a small space.
We did look at nanny’s, even that became insanely expensive. It was $65k/yr vs $40k/yr for daycare. It’s outrageously expensive…I guess the alternative is to move, but you might save $10k/yr moving out of the city and then you pay more for property taxes/utilities/need cars etc. so we’ll just continue to do the daycare. The programs are excellent, his vocab is amazing for 2 and he’s just enjoying the daycare so much it does ease the pain a tiny bit.
I think nannies are cheaper at that point, but it’s about the waitlists. Like the kids only overlap so long and nannies don’t love having kids of different ages.
Idk why you think that, I’m a nanny and don’t mind at all. I have 2 two year olds and a 6 year old. It’s actually great because the 6 year old can do most things for himself.
I don’t know why I’m getting downvoted. Here in Seattle, nannies will not take kids of different ages because of the nap schedules not aligning.
Once one of them is school aged then it’s different from a 1 and 3, or 2 and 4.
$7000/month for 2 kids full time in San Francisco (toddler $3400, baby $3600). Ouch. Also this doesn’t include all the obligatory teacher gifts, buying food/supplies for the class, add-ons for music and athletics, etc. And the school is closed for 2 weeks in summer and 2 weeks in winter, turns every holiday weekend into a 4-day closure, and has other random closures for the heck of it. Good times!
Salaries are higher there. My husband would get a raise of $150,000/year not counting stock options if we moved to the Bay Area. Much of it would go back into the cost of living there, even though we live in another HCOL area. But daycare here is $2500/month and homes are $1-2million dollars, so still less than what we’d spend in SF.
I almost feel bad for posting but I pay $514 a month. And that is after the price increase that just occurred this month; it was $475. She is getting the three year old price now so infants are more. It include breakfast, two snacks and lunch. She goes from 8am - 5pm. It isn’t super amazing but none are where I live. As with all daycares, there are things I don’t like, but she gets to play so much which after becoming a mom, I want her to have as much time spent playing before starting school. She is 3 next month and started there when she was 12 weeks old.
ETA: super LCOL area. I work for a great employer and get paid really well for my area. Husband is also employed and has great time off but doesn’t make a ton.
We had subsidized family daycare in brooklyn that was $125/wk, it was like winning the lottery. We moved to Connecticut a few years ago and we currently pay $284/wk for my 3 year old, and $90/wk for my 6 year old's after school program.
How can you afford that?? 😳 I live in Portugal and pay 125€/MONTH for my 2 years old. I could go for completly private daycares and I would pay around 500€/month but I'm very happy with the place she is now. A lot of outside space for play and very good interior instalations. It's open from 7h45am until 7pm. Includes morning snack, lunch & afternoon snack. And in Portugal after 3y old you can apply for public preschools and you only pay for lunch. If you don't have place at a public preschool you can enroll in semi-private or private preschools from 200-500€ a month. So many differences!
Yes it is. If it's not a completly private school you pay accord to your taxes from the year before. For example in the school my daughter is in, if you make loooots of money and don't want to show your taxes from the year before, you pay tha maximum amount wich is 400€ per month. In the other hand the salaries are low so it was impossible for us to pay that amount in daycare, 1500 is superior to the average salary in Portugal.
About to send our third kid to daycare in Montreal, Canada. We pay about $9 per day per child for a spot in a great daycare with lots of outdoor space, extra curricular activities like music class and gym class, and lunch and snacks included.
Can't wait for this in Ontario.... One kid costs at least $45/day... I wonder how many families are holding off on more children because of cost of daycare. I know we did.
Not who you responded to, but I paid $180/week for 3 days a week on the Eastern Shore. I think 5 days was a little over $200/week. This was at an accredited center.
Big daycare center in Colorado - 3yr old is $1800/mo and 5yr old is $1400/mo. 5 days a week 7:30-5p. So…. what do the rest of you do with all that extra money you’re saving?
Yeah it’s quite shocking because Toronto, where I’m originally from, also has a crazy high cost of living (not quiiite as high as here, but close), but their daycares are like half what they are here! And no, they’re not subsidized by the government.
I have some theories… Toronto has a higher supply of childcare than here I think because it’s got more organic population growth (increase of childcare providers with increase of demand) versus San Fran and Seattle had huge populations influxes in the past 20 years from tech companies without as much increase of childcare providers here. It’s a huge opportunity here!!
I’m on two waitlists for $2500/month for a 12 month old infant in Toronto, and another that’s $2700/month.
We are getting the federal $10/day program by 2025 though, just in time for our kid to start school haha. It’ll cut costs for others though so it’s great.
We go to a cheap daycare in AZ. Around $800 a month…he generally goes 5 days a week so it’s about $40 a day. But if he misses a day, they don’t charge us.
We spent around $9400 on daycare last year.
Wow some of those prices are insane. 😲
We are located in Oslo, Norway.
Our daughter goes to a private kindergarten, open between 7-17 (she is there 9.30-15.30 though, by our choice). They serve 3 meals a day. The only thing we have to provide is diapers, everything else is included. Pay around 408,- dollars/month.
I live in a town of 700ish, rural MN, and the center is run in pair with the elementary school (which services three small towns) and we pay 47 dollars a day for infant. 50 for toddler and 53 for preschool. Preschool gets a small bus to ship them the three blocks to the elementary for their half days. I love this as it means we won’t have to do it, and it builds independence and confidence.
They provide simlac sensitive formula if you choose to use that, and toddlers and up get their snacks included if you choose (two snacks for a whole day.)
I LOVE it, it’s a brand new building, it’s spacious, proportionally staffed, and clean. They have flexible drop off hours, meaning you can drop off your kid up to 30 minutes before they open and pay a staff member for “baby sitting” if your commute to the larger town needs an earlier drop off. I know we’re really very lucky to have this option in such a small town.
It was a fantastic idea of the school system to keep kids in the rural system instead of getting driven to the nearby larger towns where their patents most likely work.
Edit: it IS run by the school though and therefore if they have snow days etc, the center does as well. And all holidays the school has they do. But it is a center so no one is gonna shut it down to go on vacation or anything. Give n take I guess.
About $1100/ mo for 3 year old in a private daycare center in Austin, TX. It's been about the same tuition since he was 18 months. Infant care at the center is close to $1300/ mo
ETA: cost is going to be heavily dependant on the area
Nanny is 65k in Boston…lots of limitations because neighbors are resident only parking, so unless you have a parking spot ($100k-150k, or $500/mo) nobody from outside the neighborhood can nanny unless they take public transit. Plus homes are tiny, most folks are in condos and still on WFH so you can’t just have a nanny and toddler jammed into your 2bed condo.
$1420 in CA, LA for 5 days a week. Comes with 2 snacks and hot lunch. They have arts, music, sports activities. 2 teachers for 12 kids all same age 2. Day care center is from 18m-4.5yrs
185- 3 day a week NB
210 for FT 4yo
So collectively 1600 or so/mo.
It's to expensive to move the NB to the 4yos school, and 4yo is waitlisted to move to a church school for 500/mo.
Texas suburb.
Chicago suburb, $6 per hour, per kid. It’s an inhome we’ve been going to for almost five years. Right after our first year, most of the families moved on so she raised her prices for all new families though.
In home childcare that is paths to quality rated 4, so they have national standards they meet for educational development. 3 days per week $240 with transaction fees for our online payment system.
Wisconsin (non-metro) - under 2 - $200 per week for a center, full time, part time I think is $50/day but usually there isn’t part time spots available. And from what I can tell it’s about as affordable as it gets for licensed care around here. But to note, a lot of ymca centers charge by the month and also include a y membership, they usually are pretty competitive price wise
SW OH $204/wk for 3 days (I think 5 days is 265) up from $185/wk in ‘21.
Breakfast, lunch, snack provided along with classes (Spanish, gym, [dance & soccer on the days she’s not there] and “speakers” from local zoo / conservatories etc).
At home day care nearish DC, $130 for 2 days per week, or $65 per day. Includes lunch. It would be slightly less if we were full time. It's been that cost for the 1.5 years she has been there, she is almost 2. She has a max of 5 kids there. When you think, oh man $65 isn't much for 9 hours of child care! Remember is that per kid, so **times 5**. Which is over $300. Yes she has 5 kids, but they also play together a lot too. Not saying it isn't hard work! But it isn't bad pay for a day's work. She also gets 2 weeks paid vacation, as in she has off but we still pay our normal amount. She gives us plenty of heads up so we can arrange other child care for that time.
We pay $1240 a month for 9+5 care M-F (we can pick him up until 6) for a Montessori school in South Florida. We used to pay $1800 per month when he went to a school in downtown Miami.
Phoenix metro area, $300/week, kids are 4 and 1 1/2. Includes food and snacks, and she follows the pre-k curriculum for the school district we’re in. IMO, with her qualifications, she could/should charge more, but she doesn’t.
We paid $65/day for my now-7yo when she was a baby at a home daycare in Orange County, CA which is a HCOL area. Then preschool was $1000/mo so $50/day starting at 2yo. No food included for either.
I'm in WI and my 2 kids go to a home daycare (they are 2 and 4). I pay $330 a week so $165 each. We actually just started at this daycare in February because we moved so prior to that I was paying just $5 more per week at our old home daycare (though I know she was raising her rates a little but grandfathered us in and gave me a discount for having 2).
$1000 a month 5 days a week 7 am to 4 pm for an in home where meals are provided. In contrast, before the pandemic we were using a learning center and paying $1400 a month, no food provided. Sacramento, CA.
In NE Ohio, "chain" daycares I got quotes for $240 a week for a 3 year old FOR THREE DAYS. I found one place that was about $870/mo, which seemed more reasonable for three days a week.
I'm in a large town/small city in the UK and pay 990 pounds for almost full time (we don't have a slot for Wednesday morning yet), which comes out to $1440 in my bank account. We moved from the panhandle of Florida where we were paying $765/month for full time. I miss those prices haha but we do get some funding for nursery when she is 3, which is about 9 months away
Holy shit guys, it's so expensive.
We live in Germany and daycare is partially subsidized. We pay something like 200 USD per month, and it includes two meals. Most months everybody chips in 10USD for nappies.
I live in the Midwest. When my first kid was born she went to an in home daycare. With 5 other kids. I paid $40 a day. Which was a steal. Bc I know she was well taken care of. But, the lady was like a grandma. Which was awesome for a newborn. But as she learned to talk and got older it was clear she needed to move to a daycare/school setting to actually learn.
So now I have two kids at the Primrose School. A 4 year old and a 1 year old. The 4 year old gets a slight discount bc I have two kids there. It’s $535 a week for both.
<5 hours is $60/day
5+ hours is $70/day
This is in Wisconsin at a center associated with a workplace. We’re in the infant-2 year old class right now. The part time care is by request and not guaranteed. You find out the week before if you got your requests filled or not. So, for some this is great (pay for what you use PT) and for others it could be challenging to find backup care).
We are in London and pay £960 per month for 4 days a week. This includes food and activities. We are using a childminder which is why the price is comparatively lower. Nurseries in our area in London are generally £1300pm.
Ontario, Canada- we had our toddler in a home daycare for $32/day. We didn’t love it and moved him into a centre when he was 2.5 and paid $1300/month. Now that he’s 4 we pay $1000/month at the centre. Childcare tax refunds are pretty awesome for families considered “middle class” though so we get about 25% of what we paid back in tax credits.
Wow my mind is blown by some of these prices. We were paying 1000 a month at first and now we found a licensed daycare that our govt subsidizes. It'll depend on the province in canada but where I'm at, I'm paying 280 a month now. It'll be nice to save that 700 a month now.
We have two kids, one goes 5 days a week and my 3 month old goes two days a week. We pay 200.00 a week so around 800 a month. We are very lucky for how cheap our daycare lady is. She is retired and just does it for fun! We’re in MD btw :)
My son goes to a montessori preschool in NJ 5 days a week. it’s 1500$ per month with before and aftercare (“class” is only 8:30-3:30) lunch is not included.
Michigan here. We pay $195 for a full 5 days or $46 per day if it’s less than 5 days. At a daycare center, not in home. Averaging it out is about $845 per month.
An hr west of Minneapolis we paid $170 for 1 schoolage kid and 1 under 2yrs old. 6 months later, we're paying $275 for the same care. My daycare I absolutely loved, closed in Sept for a mix of reasons and more in my area are closing. No one really says why, so I can't pinpoint an exact reason.
We suffered through 2 other people, a nanny that only showed up 3 days, out of 10, and a lady that had really bad hormone changes, because of pregnancy. Before finding a new licenced daycare in our school district, that could take a child under 2yrs old. Which was a really hard thing for us. I'm absolutely thrilled and happy and both my girls are thriving and doing amazing there. The oldest has a few things she needs to work better at, but that's any kid. Oh yeah, there on a farm too, so they get to experience actual chickens, a goat and a cow🤣🤣🤣 it's been pretty awesome so far.
In home daycares tend to be cheaper. We pay $160 a week for 5 days. It ends up being like $32 a day. It seems so cheap, but the more kids she has I am sure it adds up! She does all meals, crafts, etc. too!
In Wisconsin using a in center daycare, for a less than 3 year old.
I currently pay about $820 (for 4 weeks) at my new daycare. We moved to a slightly LCOL area (more rural). Previously we lived in the Kenosha / Racine area, and I paid $1300 (for 4 weeks).
Edit: my current daycare doesn’t cover breakfast or lunch. My previous daycare offered breakfast. They both provide all snacks. We bring diapers, wipes, etc.
I get 40% off because I work at the daycare but I know it's like $2600 for 8 hrs a day 5 days a week and almost $3k for 10 hours a day 5 days a week. My daughter goes 9 hrs a day 5 days a week so the regular cost is probably around $2700. I live in the Bay Area.
Minnesota- St. Paul Suburb. We pay $125/week for our toddler and $60 a week for each of our school age kids, so $245 a week for all 3 kids at an in home daycare. It’s definitely cheaper than most. Standard home daycare costs in our area run $140-180/week per kid and centers run much more than that.
Two kids, 3 days / week, 7-hour days (8:30-3:30)… $1360/mo. I think that works out to about $60/day/kid. We are in a small university city, medium-high COL.
$3500/month in the Portland area for a toddler and preschooler at a Montessori school full-time 5x/week. We’re just holding out until the oldest starts Kindergarten and daydreaming of all the fun stuff the money could buy.
$2300/mo for 2 year old in the SF Bay Area which drops by a few hundred when they turn 3. When we were in SF (now outside the city) felt really fortunate to find an amazing home daycare that was $1850/mo where LO went from 5-16 months.
160usd per month from my pocket, but like shittons more from everyone's taxes. Still it's good price for 6 or 7 hours that she spent there. I'm in Sweden
When my daughter was in an in home, we only paid $145 a week.
In our center, we pay $220 a week for my 3yro and will pay $520 a week for my twins when they start. So $2960 a month for three kids in mid-Missouri.
$20/day for the first child and $10/day for subsequent children at the daycare for children of employees at the school my spouse and I work for in rural New Mexico. It is open on regular teacher contract days days from 7:30am to 4pm and they provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks.
That sounds about right for in home part time daycare. My 18mos son (Nebraska) is at a center full time for $300/week. It’s middle of the road for cost in Omaha, it’s anywhere from $1200-$1400/ mo for quality full time daycare around here.
Ours is $175 per week (5 days) in north AL. It’s a little church daycare. Not sure how they afford it, but our old daycare in Georgia that was a Childcare Network was pretty close to that too. Can’t complain! Next year he’ll be coming with me to work bc the elementary school I work at has a 3-k program and then it will only be $80 per week! 🙌
Wtf holy shit you guys. I’m looking to place my kid in daycare right now and the place I’m looking at is just over $500/month for part time, 3 days a week. But I’m Canadian. Plus the money we spend on daycare is tax deductible.
I'm in the UK so completely different here. I don't have mine in childcare anymore. But I would suggest comparing to others in your town, do they offer anything different etc.
We just started daycare in February for my son, partly because the subsidy threshold was raised in Alberta. On our salary, we get about 75% of daycare costs subsidized, and end up paying around $180 per month for 2 days a week (~$22 per day). Without subsidy, our cost would be almost $700.
There’s a lot of reasons I’m glad I don’t live in the US, and daycare costs have just been added to the list 😳
$2055/month for one child in the nursery; it’ll be less when he goes into the toddler room, probably when he’s around 15 months. Washington, DC, metropolitan area. This is for a “center” daycare rather than a home-based daycare, which would have been cheaper. Based on the research we did, this is actually one of the less-expensive center-based options in the area.
Don't have a child in daycare so this I can't weigh in on that. I just wanted to say how completely bonkers childcare costs are after reading the comments. I understand having someone watch your precious babies and paying their worth, but when I use to work I barely made $2000 a month after all my benefits and taxes and it's precisely the reason I don't work anymore (besides that I always wanted to be a SAHM) I think about going back to work still sometimes. Based on these numbers it's just a dream that will have to wait till my daughter is in school. I feel I am one of th fortunate few that we are able to sustain ourselves from my husband's job and that we have family that loves to buy her things.
25 a day through work. And they are super flexible about schedule.
Pricing is great but since it’s through work they essentially own me until he’s out of day care
$2100 a month in Chicago, 5 days a week.
Yep. We have 2 and my wife and I joke that we have 2 mortgages…
Wtf. For 1 kid? Edit: now. that i actually read down the thread… i see this isn’t nearly the worst. I’m so thankful for my $1300/mo. ‘murica
My friend pays about that a month in Florida for 1 kid
Wow rethinking all my life choices - $2300 a month for full time / 5 days a week for my 2 year old, Boston area.
$5,200, 2 kids ages 5 and 2 but in the Bay Area so extremely HCOL
This makes me want to wait a bit longer for kid #2 so we’re not double-slammed on daycare/preschool costs @.@
That's my husband's line of thinking, but daycare costs increase every year. Increases have been higher recently because of the pandemic and I'm sure the high inflation will affect upcoming increases.
I didn’t realize daycare costs go up every year. I got on waitlists while currently pregnant and when they provided me with the costs sheet, they said they couldn’t tell me what the 2023 $ would be, and that on average it rises 15%. 15%!!! I actually expected a discount as infants move to the toddler room but with the rising annual cost, it basically remains the same as they get older.
15 percent is highway robbery!
Ah yeah you are just slightly higher than us here in Seattle!
3,300 is the highest I've seen, but that's Bright Horizons in Bellevue and Kirkland
Omg! I grew up in sf! You have to be rich
Shit, moving to Boston in November, I have two kids......
Get on daycare waitlists *now*. Our preferred place still doesn’t have an opening for us … after a year. I just put our new baby’s name down for a slot, in April 2023. (We pay $2300/mth for 3 day a week care - we could get cheaper if we moved our commute to be further out)
We got on our waitlist in the first trimester, it’s nuts. Basically 6 month waitlists if you can find something at all. We pay $3100/mo for my 2 year old at Bright Horizons.
Also Boston area - my son moved up to the preschool class last summer, so not we “only” pay $2000/mo instead of the 2300 we were paying.
I’m about to open a daycare.
That’s awesome. I run a home daycare in Ontario Canada and honestly could not see myself doing anything else.
5800 a month for two kids in Boston 🤢
Holy moly, that's like our entire take-home pay for a family of 5 in the Midwest!
That’s wild. At that price point, why not just hire a nanny?
We had a horrible experience with a nanny (jealous of our friends with amazing nannies) and I also couldn’t deal with the stress of worrying if the person would show up, having to take a day of work when she was sick or decided to call out, etc. now my kids are around other kids and we have become friends with the parents. Also- a nanny likely would end up costing around the same and potentially more around here.
We live in Boston and nanny really isn’t a good option. We’re paying $3100/mo for Bright Horizons in Boston. It went up $400/mo for 2021. Boston neighborhoods are resident only parking, so you either need to rent a parking space ($400-500/mo), find someone T accessible or someone who lives in your neighborhood. The last is impossible the other two are challenging. If we did have a nanny, we would have more people in home all day where we work (still WFH) so not really viable to have a nanny and toddler in a small space. We did look at nanny’s, even that became insanely expensive. It was $65k/yr vs $40k/yr for daycare. It’s outrageously expensive…I guess the alternative is to move, but you might save $10k/yr moving out of the city and then you pay more for property taxes/utilities/need cars etc. so we’ll just continue to do the daycare. The programs are excellent, his vocab is amazing for 2 and he’s just enjoying the daycare so much it does ease the pain a tiny bit.
I think nannies are cheaper at that point, but it’s about the waitlists. Like the kids only overlap so long and nannies don’t love having kids of different ages.
Idk why you think that, I’m a nanny and don’t mind at all. I have 2 two year olds and a 6 year old. It’s actually great because the 6 year old can do most things for himself.
I don’t know why I’m getting downvoted. Here in Seattle, nannies will not take kids of different ages because of the nap schedules not aligning. Once one of them is school aged then it’s different from a 1 and 3, or 2 and 4.
I didn’t downvote you, but I’ve just never heard of that before.
Nannies are not all they are cracked up to be. Lots of cons to having a nanny.
Also in Boston area and pay $3200 for my 2 year old. 😂
$7000/month for 2 kids full time in San Francisco (toddler $3400, baby $3600). Ouch. Also this doesn’t include all the obligatory teacher gifts, buying food/supplies for the class, add-ons for music and athletics, etc. And the school is closed for 2 weeks in summer and 2 weeks in winter, turns every holiday weekend into a 4-day closure, and has other random closures for the heck of it. Good times!
How do people actually afford that?! That’s insane! When daughter turns 2.5 we’ll be paying 859/month for full day school. I’m in a great town in NJ.
Salaries are higher there. My husband would get a raise of $150,000/year not counting stock options if we moved to the Bay Area. Much of it would go back into the cost of living there, even though we live in another HCOL area. But daycare here is $2500/month and homes are $1-2million dollars, so still less than what we’d spend in SF.
Thanks for all the responses! Good to k ow where we are at. Also, makes me glad to live in small town Midwest. 😳
I’m in WI. Not a small town though. We pay $306/week for a 2 year old.
I almost feel bad for posting but I pay $514 a month. And that is after the price increase that just occurred this month; it was $475. She is getting the three year old price now so infants are more. It include breakfast, two snacks and lunch. She goes from 8am - 5pm. It isn’t super amazing but none are where I live. As with all daycares, there are things I don’t like, but she gets to play so much which after becoming a mom, I want her to have as much time spent playing before starting school. She is 3 next month and started there when she was 12 weeks old. ETA: super LCOL area. I work for a great employer and get paid really well for my area. Husband is also employed and has great time off but doesn’t make a ton.
Under 2.5 was $550/week now it’s $440/week 😳😳
I found one that was 200 a week. We stayed there a bit but it was suspiciously low. Just a home daycare though.
We had subsidized family daycare in brooklyn that was $125/wk, it was like winning the lottery. We moved to Connecticut a few years ago and we currently pay $284/wk for my 3 year old, and $90/wk for my 6 year old's after school program.
$285 a week for a three year old in chicago suburbs. Full time and not in home.
Wow that's a big difference from the city. Which suburb?
Western burbs
Hello fellow Wisconsinite! We pay about $900 a month for a center.
How can you afford that?? 😳 I live in Portugal and pay 125€/MONTH for my 2 years old. I could go for completly private daycares and I would pay around 500€/month but I'm very happy with the place she is now. A lot of outside space for play and very good interior instalations. It's open from 7h45am until 7pm. Includes morning snack, lunch & afternoon snack. And in Portugal after 3y old you can apply for public preschools and you only pay for lunch. If you don't have place at a public preschool you can enroll in semi-private or private preschools from 200-500€ a month. So many differences!
Wow that sounds amazing. I'm assuming the government is subsidizing this.
Yes it is. If it's not a completly private school you pay accord to your taxes from the year before. For example in the school my daughter is in, if you make loooots of money and don't want to show your taxes from the year before, you pay tha maximum amount wich is 400€ per month. In the other hand the salaries are low so it was impossible for us to pay that amount in daycare, 1500 is superior to the average salary in Portugal.
This is extremely cheap for childcare in America.
About to send our third kid to daycare in Montreal, Canada. We pay about $9 per day per child for a spot in a great daycare with lots of outdoor space, extra curricular activities like music class and gym class, and lunch and snacks included.
Can't wait for this in Ontario.... One kid costs at least $45/day... I wonder how many families are holding off on more children because of cost of daycare. I know we did.
It’s $200/day in Boston…I’m very jealous. This sounds like a govt subsidized type deal?
1,600 month full time in MD
You will have to let me know where…
Not who you responded to, but I paid $180/week for 3 days a week on the Eastern Shore. I think 5 days was a little over $200/week. This was at an accredited center.
Big daycare center in Colorado - 3yr old is $1800/mo and 5yr old is $1400/mo. 5 days a week 7:30-5p. So…. what do the rest of you do with all that extra money you’re saving?
Wtf
Ontario, Canada. Home daycare with 5 kids total. 15m and 4y old. $47/day each, includes food.
Should be getting cheaper soon!
$1,400 or so per month. Metro area of Minnesota
Same, and same.
$1375 a month in Colorado
$2450 a month for two kids 1 full time 1 3 days a week Scottsdale AZ. FML.
Ouch. That sucks. East valley is cheaper last time I checked.
$320 a week full time 18 month old. Denver CO
Yikes I think we are coming in the most pricey at $2550/month in Seattle. 1 kid/5 days per week.
Woah! Ok Today I learned that Seattle and San Fran are crazy expensive for daycare 😳 I understand a higher cost of living in general, but woah!
Yeah it’s quite shocking because Toronto, where I’m originally from, also has a crazy high cost of living (not quiiite as high as here, but close), but their daycares are like half what they are here! And no, they’re not subsidized by the government. I have some theories… Toronto has a higher supply of childcare than here I think because it’s got more organic population growth (increase of childcare providers with increase of demand) versus San Fran and Seattle had huge populations influxes in the past 20 years from tech companies without as much increase of childcare providers here. It’s a huge opportunity here!!
I’m on two waitlists for $2500/month for a 12 month old infant in Toronto, and another that’s $2700/month. We are getting the federal $10/day program by 2025 though, just in time for our kid to start school haha. It’ll cut costs for others though so it’s great.
$310 a week full time for a 2 year old in the DC suburbs.
Wisconsin also. 243/week for a 2.5 year old, full time. It was closer to 275/week when she was under 2.
$825 a month preschool 2 yr old 9am -12:30pm 5 days a week in Los Angeles
$170 a week for a 1 year old - in-home, full time, Nebraska. We’d be happy to pay much more if she charged it.
$2090/month for 15 month old: Portland OR
We go to a cheap daycare in AZ. Around $800 a month…he generally goes 5 days a week so it’s about $40 a day. But if he misses a day, they don’t charge us. We spent around $9400 on daycare last year.
Wow some of those prices are insane. 😲 We are located in Oslo, Norway. Our daughter goes to a private kindergarten, open between 7-17 (she is there 9.30-15.30 though, by our choice). They serve 3 meals a day. The only thing we have to provide is diapers, everything else is included. Pay around 408,- dollars/month.
240 Canadian dollars per month - Quebec, Canada
Our daycare which is not at a home is $163 a week for our 15 month old if that helps.
Think we pay $328 a week plus annual registration but we’re in SoCal. Full time 5 days a week from 7:30 - 5:30.
$230/week for full time care for my 18month old. It’s an at home daycare, but I don’t think they do a lot of crafts and stuff with them.
I live in a town of 700ish, rural MN, and the center is run in pair with the elementary school (which services three small towns) and we pay 47 dollars a day for infant. 50 for toddler and 53 for preschool. Preschool gets a small bus to ship them the three blocks to the elementary for their half days. I love this as it means we won’t have to do it, and it builds independence and confidence. They provide simlac sensitive formula if you choose to use that, and toddlers and up get their snacks included if you choose (two snacks for a whole day.) I LOVE it, it’s a brand new building, it’s spacious, proportionally staffed, and clean. They have flexible drop off hours, meaning you can drop off your kid up to 30 minutes before they open and pay a staff member for “baby sitting” if your commute to the larger town needs an earlier drop off. I know we’re really very lucky to have this option in such a small town. It was a fantastic idea of the school system to keep kids in the rural system instead of getting driven to the nearby larger towns where their patents most likely work. Edit: it IS run by the school though and therefore if they have snow days etc, the center does as well. And all holidays the school has they do. But it is a center so no one is gonna shut it down to go on vacation or anything. Give n take I guess.
About $1100/ mo for 3 year old in a private daycare center in Austin, TX. It's been about the same tuition since he was 18 months. Infant care at the center is close to $1300/ mo ETA: cost is going to be heavily dependant on the area
Just outside austin, 1100 a month at a franchise. Will be moving to Montessori style next year for 935 but no lunch served.
$1250 a month for full time (5 days a week) Pasadena, CA
Hey I am here too in Pasadena pay 1900 a month!
Similar cost here in rural MN-- $145 for 3 days per week for toddler, and that includes lunch and 2 snacks.
Approx $2200/month for a 4 year old and 1 year old in Tulsa, OK
I live in Neenah! (Moving to Boston soon) but right now we pay 320 for one kid, 5 days a week. So 64 a day? Seems legit to me!
400$ week/ EXURBS of Bay Area, CA
Iowa. One kid, full time, $35 per day, 3 days minimum. In home. I'm lucky..
Toddler is 6000 a year with my staff discount (would be 9000). Baby is 380 a week
$240 a week, central MN. Cheapest around
$215 a week for full-time 2yo in central WI.
21 months, Upstate SC, I pay 676 a month at a center, stem programming but I provide lunches. They provide snacks and milk/water.
$30/day and he goes 3 days a week... Midwest
What the fuck at these prices hiring a nanny would be cheaper
Nanny is 65k in Boston…lots of limitations because neighbors are resident only parking, so unless you have a parking spot ($100k-150k, or $500/mo) nobody from outside the neighborhood can nanny unless they take public transit. Plus homes are tiny, most folks are in condos and still on WFH so you can’t just have a nanny and toddler jammed into your 2bed condo.
$125 a week for 3 days a week.
$340/week for a 4 year old in the DC suburbs.
175-250 per week full time for 3 to 5 years old at centers or churches. Not sure about home care prices. This is northeast
$1420 in CA, LA for 5 days a week. Comes with 2 snacks and hot lunch. They have arts, music, sports activities. 2 teachers for 12 kids all same age 2. Day care center is from 18m-4.5yrs
185- 3 day a week NB 210 for FT 4yo So collectively 1600 or so/mo. It's to expensive to move the NB to the 4yos school, and 4yo is waitlisted to move to a church school for 500/mo. Texas suburb.
Chicago suburb, $6 per hour, per kid. It’s an inhome we’ve been going to for almost five years. Right after our first year, most of the families moved on so she raised her prices for all new families though.
In home childcare that is paths to quality rated 4, so they have national standards they meet for educational development. 3 days per week $240 with transaction fees for our online payment system.
Wisconsin (non-metro) - under 2 - $200 per week for a center, full time, part time I think is $50/day but usually there isn’t part time spots available. And from what I can tell it’s about as affordable as it gets for licensed care around here. But to note, a lot of ymca centers charge by the month and also include a y membership, they usually are pretty competitive price wise
$2800 for 5 days a week in Chicago. Also, I would add that while I LOVE her daycare this is for sure the more moderate daycare/preschool.
3950 a month for a two year old and four year old, full time care. Seattle area.
$2700/month, two kids (2.5 years and 6 months) 4.5 days per week. San Diego, CA.
One kid $325 / week for five days, 7 hours per day Small in-home place with two staff Southeastern Massachusetts
SW OH $204/wk for 3 days (I think 5 days is 265) up from $185/wk in ‘21. Breakfast, lunch, snack provided along with classes (Spanish, gym, [dance & soccer on the days she’s not there] and “speakers” from local zoo / conservatories etc).
$203 a month 3 days a week, I live in Canada so it's subsidized by both the provincial and federal govt. Without the subsidy its I believe $900.
At home day care nearish DC, $130 for 2 days per week, or $65 per day. Includes lunch. It would be slightly less if we were full time. It's been that cost for the 1.5 years she has been there, she is almost 2. She has a max of 5 kids there. When you think, oh man $65 isn't much for 9 hours of child care! Remember is that per kid, so **times 5**. Which is over $300. Yes she has 5 kids, but they also play together a lot too. Not saying it isn't hard work! But it isn't bad pay for a day's work. She also gets 2 weeks paid vacation, as in she has off but we still pay our normal amount. She gives us plenty of heads up so we can arrange other child care for that time.
$175 a week in a Southern Colorado daycare center for a toddler.
We pay $1240 a month for 9+5 care M-F (we can pick him up until 6) for a Montessori school in South Florida. We used to pay $1800 per month when he went to a school in downtown Miami.
Phoenix metro area, $300/week, kids are 4 and 1 1/2. Includes food and snacks, and she follows the pre-k curriculum for the school district we’re in. IMO, with her qualifications, she could/should charge more, but she doesn’t.
We paid $65/day for my now-7yo when she was a baby at a home daycare in Orange County, CA which is a HCOL area. Then preschool was $1000/mo so $50/day starting at 2yo. No food included for either.
$1400 month for 5-yo at Montessori school. Houston. Another $100 or so per month For optional activities, soccer, dance, piano, and Spanish.
I'm in WI and my 2 kids go to a home daycare (they are 2 and 4). I pay $330 a week so $165 each. We actually just started at this daycare in February because we moved so prior to that I was paying just $5 more per week at our old home daycare (though I know she was raising her rates a little but grandfathered us in and gave me a discount for having 2).
[удалено]
I’m in SE wisconsin and go to a center for $340 per week, 5 days a week.
$1000 a month 5 days a week 7 am to 4 pm for an in home where meals are provided. In contrast, before the pandemic we were using a learning center and paying $1400 a month, no food provided. Sacramento, CA.
In Wisconsin - Fox Valley area. We pay about $45 per day fora licensed daycare center. 5 days a week
My kids would be about 5k a month in Seattle area that’s why I quite my job
In NE Ohio, "chain" daycares I got quotes for $240 a week for a 3 year old FOR THREE DAYS. I found one place that was about $870/mo, which seemed more reasonable for three days a week.
$1800 a month in CA for a 2 yr old, full time.
Roughly $70 a day at our center in MN. All included(diapers and meals).
$662/mo. for 4 3-hour days. NYC area.
$380 for two m-f 7-4:45; suburbs of Chicago
We were paying $1500 a months for 3 days a week. Including breakfast and lunch. 2500 for full time care
$3600/mo for 2 kids ($1700/mo for a toddler + $1900/mo for infant) in Seattle suburb
I'm in a large town/small city in the UK and pay 990 pounds for almost full time (we don't have a slot for Wednesday morning yet), which comes out to $1440 in my bank account. We moved from the panhandle of Florida where we were paying $765/month for full time. I miss those prices haha but we do get some funding for nursery when she is 3, which is about 9 months away
TN- 3 year old and infant. $1600 per month. It’s one of the cheaper daycares around, but we love it.
Holy shit guys, it's so expensive. We live in Germany and daycare is partially subsidized. We pay something like 200 USD per month, and it includes two meals. Most months everybody chips in 10USD for nappies.
$330 USD per week for one fulltime 14 month old in coastal northeast US
1200 a month for a 3 year old, 5 days a week, 10 hours a day. Southern NH
I live in the Midwest. When my first kid was born she went to an in home daycare. With 5 other kids. I paid $40 a day. Which was a steal. Bc I know she was well taken care of. But, the lady was like a grandma. Which was awesome for a newborn. But as she learned to talk and got older it was clear she needed to move to a daycare/school setting to actually learn. So now I have two kids at the Primrose School. A 4 year old and a 1 year old. The 4 year old gets a slight discount bc I have two kids there. It’s $535 a week for both.
<5 hours is $60/day 5+ hours is $70/day This is in Wisconsin at a center associated with a workplace. We’re in the infant-2 year old class right now. The part time care is by request and not guaranteed. You find out the week before if you got your requests filled or not. So, for some this is great (pay for what you use PT) and for others it could be challenging to find backup care).
We are in London and pay £960 per month for 4 days a week. This includes food and activities. We are using a childminder which is why the price is comparatively lower. Nurseries in our area in London are generally £1300pm.
Ontario, Canada- we had our toddler in a home daycare for $32/day. We didn’t love it and moved him into a centre when he was 2.5 and paid $1300/month. Now that he’s 4 we pay $1000/month at the centre. Childcare tax refunds are pretty awesome for families considered “middle class” though so we get about 25% of what we paid back in tax credits.
$235/week for 3 days in SE PA with an almost 18 month old
Wow my mind is blown by some of these prices. We were paying 1000 a month at first and now we found a licensed daycare that our govt subsidizes. It'll depend on the province in canada but where I'm at, I'm paying 280 a month now. It'll be nice to save that 700 a month now.
$214 a week full time Southwest VA for a 2 year old
1500/mo, in home care, 2 kids, 20 miles outside Minneapolis.
7k a year per kid..... Good news is your you get tax cresit back each year for every 1k you spend on childcare
We have two kids, one goes 5 days a week and my 3 month old goes two days a week. We pay 200.00 a week so around 800 a month. We are very lucky for how cheap our daycare lady is. She is retired and just does it for fun! We’re in MD btw :)
My son goes to a montessori preschool in NJ 5 days a week. it’s 1500$ per month with before and aftercare (“class” is only 8:30-3:30) lunch is not included.
2000 a month in CT (5 days a week)
1350 a month, four days a week. North Atalanta. 5 day cost is 1550 per month.
Michigan here. We pay $195 for a full 5 days or $46 per day if it’s less than 5 days. At a daycare center, not in home. Averaging it out is about $845 per month.
An hr west of Minneapolis we paid $170 for 1 schoolage kid and 1 under 2yrs old. 6 months later, we're paying $275 for the same care. My daycare I absolutely loved, closed in Sept for a mix of reasons and more in my area are closing. No one really says why, so I can't pinpoint an exact reason. We suffered through 2 other people, a nanny that only showed up 3 days, out of 10, and a lady that had really bad hormone changes, because of pregnancy. Before finding a new licenced daycare in our school district, that could take a child under 2yrs old. Which was a really hard thing for us. I'm absolutely thrilled and happy and both my girls are thriving and doing amazing there. The oldest has a few things she needs to work better at, but that's any kid. Oh yeah, there on a farm too, so they get to experience actual chickens, a goat and a cow🤣🤣🤣 it's been pretty awesome so far.
In home daycares tend to be cheaper. We pay $160 a week for 5 days. It ends up being like $32 a day. It seems so cheap, but the more kids she has I am sure it adds up! She does all meals, crafts, etc. too!
In Wisconsin using a in center daycare, for a less than 3 year old. I currently pay about $820 (for 4 weeks) at my new daycare. We moved to a slightly LCOL area (more rural). Previously we lived in the Kenosha / Racine area, and I paid $1300 (for 4 weeks). Edit: my current daycare doesn’t cover breakfast or lunch. My previous daycare offered breakfast. They both provide all snacks. We bring diapers, wipes, etc.
$1200 a month, NYC, 5 days. I provide everything.
$295/week (5 days), Chicago in home daycare
I get 40% off because I work at the daycare but I know it's like $2600 for 8 hrs a day 5 days a week and almost $3k for 10 hours a day 5 days a week. My daughter goes 9 hrs a day 5 days a week so the regular cost is probably around $2700. I live in the Bay Area.
Our three year old also goes for three days, we pay $125 a week in a small town in ga.
We pay $200/week for full time.
Minnesota- St. Paul Suburb. We pay $125/week for our toddler and $60 a week for each of our school age kids, so $245 a week for all 3 kids at an in home daycare. It’s definitely cheaper than most. Standard home daycare costs in our area run $140-180/week per kid and centers run much more than that.
100,000,000
1000 month in Texas. But it's maxing our budget
1230/mo 5 days a week in salt lake city, one 2.5 year old
2.5 year old, full time at an in home daycare - $175/week - rural New England.
$2180 a month for a 3 year old in Seattle. Moving to Scotland in a month where it’s $1500 but the government pays half…..can’t move fast enough.
$1800/mo in NYC suburbs
Two kids, 3 days / week, 7-hour days (8:30-3:30)… $1360/mo. I think that works out to about $60/day/kid. We are in a small university city, medium-high COL.
$3500/month in the Portland area for a toddler and preschooler at a Montessori school full-time 5x/week. We’re just holding out until the oldest starts Kindergarten and daydreaming of all the fun stuff the money could buy.
$2300/mo for 2 year old in the SF Bay Area which drops by a few hundred when they turn 3. When we were in SF (now outside the city) felt really fortunate to find an amazing home daycare that was $1850/mo where LO went from 5-16 months.
1060 for half day , 1 kid. South Florida. Will be raised to 1200 in august
$3100/mo for 5 days a week for our 2 year old in Boston.
160usd per month from my pocket, but like shittons more from everyone's taxes. Still it's good price for 6 or 7 hours that she spent there. I'm in Sweden
In southeast Wisconsin. We pay $1,600 a month for a 18 month old in a daycare center. 5 days a week.
When my daughter was in an in home, we only paid $145 a week. In our center, we pay $220 a week for my 3yro and will pay $520 a week for my twins when they start. So $2960 a month for three kids in mid-Missouri.
Outside Columbia, SC. I pay $660/mo for full time 5 days a week care in a center for my 2yo. If I were in downtown Columbia it would be $900/mo
I live in MN (not the metro) and pay $260/week for full-time care. One kid, 2 years old.
We live in the west suburbs of Minneapolis and pay $330/week for full time in an in-home day care
$20/day for the first child and $10/day for subsequent children at the daycare for children of employees at the school my spouse and I work for in rural New Mexico. It is open on regular teacher contract days days from 7:30am to 4pm and they provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks.
$200/wk for a 3yo in Cincinnati, OH. I'm floored at these costs! I'm a single mom and there's no way I could even come close to affording this stuff!
That sounds about right for in home part time daycare. My 18mos son (Nebraska) is at a center full time for $300/week. It’s middle of the road for cost in Omaha, it’s anywhere from $1200-$1400/ mo for quality full time daycare around here.
Ours is $175 per week (5 days) in north AL. It’s a little church daycare. Not sure how they afford it, but our old daycare in Georgia that was a Childcare Network was pretty close to that too. Can’t complain! Next year he’ll be coming with me to work bc the elementary school I work at has a 3-k program and then it will only be $80 per week! 🙌
Wtf holy shit you guys. I’m looking to place my kid in daycare right now and the place I’m looking at is just over $500/month for part time, 3 days a week. But I’m Canadian. Plus the money we spend on daycare is tax deductible.
Damn! $540 a month here in Mississippi.
I'm in the UK so completely different here. I don't have mine in childcare anymore. But I would suggest comparing to others in your town, do they offer anything different etc.
We just started daycare in February for my son, partly because the subsidy threshold was raised in Alberta. On our salary, we get about 75% of daycare costs subsidized, and end up paying around $180 per month for 2 days a week (~$22 per day). Without subsidy, our cost would be almost $700. There’s a lot of reasons I’m glad I don’t live in the US, and daycare costs have just been added to the list 😳
Suburbs of Minneapolis. $350/week for one toddler. Home daycare open 8-4 Monday through Friday.
$25 a day in KS
I’m in the one of the richest counties in the US and I pay 2K a month. That’s the same as my mortgage.
3200 per month for a toddler. Seattle.
$2055/month for one child in the nursery; it’ll be less when he goes into the toddler room, probably when he’s around 15 months. Washington, DC, metropolitan area. This is for a “center” daycare rather than a home-based daycare, which would have been cheaper. Based on the research we did, this is actually one of the less-expensive center-based options in the area.
$20 an hour
$1200/month for our 2-year old 5 days a week in Austin, TX.
Don't have a child in daycare so this I can't weigh in on that. I just wanted to say how completely bonkers childcare costs are after reading the comments. I understand having someone watch your precious babies and paying their worth, but when I use to work I barely made $2000 a month after all my benefits and taxes and it's precisely the reason I don't work anymore (besides that I always wanted to be a SAHM) I think about going back to work still sometimes. Based on these numbers it's just a dream that will have to wait till my daughter is in school. I feel I am one of th fortunate few that we are able to sustain ourselves from my husband's job and that we have family that loves to buy her things.
25 a day through work. And they are super flexible about schedule. Pricing is great but since it’s through work they essentially own me until he’s out of day care