DayCare Question - I think people are nuts

I know some of us do childcare in our homes. I only have one child I sit for. I was just curious for those of you that do childcare - what are your rates?? I know prices will be different depending on the area of the country.

I think I get paid fairly well for what I do - I keep one little girl that is here from 7:15 - 3:45, her mother provides lunch for her and even brings juice once a week, and of course her diapers. She even bought me a car sear to keep in my car so we can go grocery shopping or the library. I get paid $25 a day ($125 weekly).

The reason I am wondering is because I have been seeing some insane people on craigslist looking for childcare and wonder if that is the norm. For instance I just came across an ad from a single mom of two kids ages 5 & 7 who wants basically child care from 1:30pm on Saturday until noon on Sunday and she wants only to provide the food and not pay at all!! That is just nuts to think you can drop your kid off at someone's home for nothing! She was complaining that people want to charge for keepign a kid overnight. In her ad she states that she isn't even going to work during those hours - she just wants someone to watch her kids to she can have alone time and relax. Uh huh. For free.

I've seen other ads that want to pay $15 a day for the hours of 6:30am - 6:30 pm. There is no freaking way I'd watch someone else's child for 12 hours, feed them and everything for $15 a day.

Am I crazy or are these people crazy?

 

Keeping in mind that I'm totally clueless when it comes to childcare rates... wouldn't you at least charge minimum wage for the first child and a little less for additional children?? I always pay babysitters $8-10/hr, but then I rarely use one. I dunno! A kid at church told me she'd keep my kids for $2/hr. I thought that was insane, but she's only 13. Who knows?

 

There is a big difference between licensed daycare and a "babysitter". There is also a big geographical factor also.... I make 80.00 a week for kids from 18 months to kindergarten age thats hours from 8-5. That is the norm around here.... I charge 95.00 a week for 17 months and younger. I only get 1.70 per HOUR for state assisted children. I live in central Kansas in a town about 7000 people and thats the norm for rates here. This is also a usually by the week rate. I charge regardless whether they are here or not. The parent is paying to keep the spot not the child actually.

The craigslist with the lady just wanting to provide food....I have ran into some of those.. LOL... I had a couple call and they had a 4 month old...the child would have been here from 9ish pm to 7:15 am the next morning M-Thurs and they wanted to pay me 5.00 a day...:shock::roll: I laughed and said no thanks...

 

Yes I would think paying babysitter say for a Friday night out with the hubby would be a different pay rate than a regular all day sitter. If I charged $8 - $10 an hour they'd have to pay me $320 - $400 per week and nobody can afford that.

Well I am glad I'm not the only one who has come across people wanting something for nothing.

 

Around here rates go like this:

Rates are for a 10 hour day with an additional $5 per hour per child fee.

0-12 months: $30 a day
12 months - potty trained: $25 a day
potty trained and up- $20 a day

Parents are only expected to bring formula for under 12 mo. and diapers. No food is expected. Day care providers are also required by law to give solids at meal time to any child over 6 months (so if you believe in delaying solids, you're out of luck).

Anyhow, I have lots of friends who do in home day care. Oddly enough, the rates are identical for in home as they are for in a center. I'd expect to pay more for in home, but that is not the case around here.

 

Gee, I'd love to find someone who would take my kids for free overnight on a regular basis so I could "just relax". GET REAL!!! Talk about a person who is totally clueless!!!

 

man, I feel sorry for those poor kids being raised my crazies!

I charged $95 a week for children...flat weeky rate. If you come one day or all five I get $95. I even got paid holidays. When I was hourly it was a pain in the rear.

 

That is how I do it too.... plus I get 1 weeks paid vacation.

 

Well now I really feel like I am getting paid good. At $125 per week and I really don't have to provide anything! Actually I have told the grandmother (baby girl lives with her grandparents) that I would be happy to provide lunches and drinks and she still brings stuff. Now sometimes she wants what Grace has for lunch so I make her the same thing.

I also see people's ads that want to provide childcare charging incredibly low rates. I see ads every now and again for a full weeks care for $65. Now that is low. Really low for Houston. I'm wondering what is wrong with someone who would watch a child for 9 hours a day for that kind of money. I dunno maybe that is just me but I wouldn't do it for that little.

 

Oh I forgot to mention that I don't charge for days I cancel but I do charge for days they cancel. If I am sick and can't watch their child they don't have to pay me but if for whatever reason they miss a day they do have to pay me.

 

i have 5 "sick" days in my yearly contract...anything over 5 days sick for me i dont charge for but im rarely ever sick so I havent ran into that problem.

Im on the noahs Arc food program for daycares so im reimbursed almost 5.00 PER child PER day for a whole month.. so that definely helps too. My average check is 600-650.00 a month. Our cost of living here is pretty darn cheap though.

 

I charge one lady $75 a week, she works all different times and mostly on week ends. the other I charge $ 60 a week for M- F. The norm in this small town is 60 to 85 or more. I am not charging enough I know, but I do feel bad for single mothers working mim wage jobs to provide for their childern, so I just charge very little. I only have 2 but the next child I get I am charging at lest 80.

 

I closed my daycare a little over a year ago; but rates haven't changed much since then. I charged a weekly rate between $100-$125 depending on age. They paid even if they missed a day, etc. If I'm sick, I reduced the rate. I didn't charge during my vacation week, but most in-home daycares do.
I was having a problem with parents leaving the kids with me for more than 45 hours a week. Took care of that by charging an additional $5.00 for every 15 minutes a parent was late without justifiable cause. Never had late pick-ups again!
Parents had to provide diapers, wipes, and an extra set of clothes as needed. I provided all meals as I would get partially reimbursed through the state food program.
My daycare was always full with a waiting list; so my rates weren't considered too high.

 

I love that I only have the one child. We are able to still live our lives the way we normally would - yesterday we went to the grocery store in the morning and this morning we went to the library. Afternoons the baby takes a nap and Grace does her lessons. I couldn't be so free if I had more kids here to watch and then I'd get stressed. Nobody wants momma to be stressed! lol!

I felt like going on craigslist and responding to that lady wanting childcare for free. I do understand that single mothers don't have it easy. I used to be a single mom and worked 3 jobs but I certainly did not expect free childcare - especially just so I could go hang out and relax.

 

I have no clue what it's like in CA but I can't imagine that it's super as inexpensive like the rest of you are saying it is in your area. I know a friend of mine was looking at daycare in her area (New Mexico) and she was looking at about $140 I think for the week for her youngest. I remember looking into it years ago when my youngest daughter was young and they wanted $250 for the week for three days. That was crazy!!

 

I have a friend who puts his child in daycare (big well known place with several locations) and he is charged $240 a week and that is where he found it the cheapest. He doesn't have to provide anything, but his child is 4yo. He looked into daycare at homes, and he found it was more expensive. I know that when we were hurting for money and thought I might have to work we looked into daycare and found that even with the discount of multiple siblings and only having the older kids after school, it would still run us around $3000 a month. Needless to say I stayed home. Childcare is soooooooo expensive around here. I honestly don't know how people do it.

 

Wow that is just insane. Nobody around here could afford those prices. My friend in St.Paul has two girls ages 1 & 3 and he pays $300 a week.

 

When I read "Women Leaving the Workplace", it talked about the myth of not being able to live on one income. One thing mentioned was the high cost of a woman working, child care being probably the number one issue. By the time a woman pays for childcare, transportation, professional clothing, etc., her entire paycheck is used up so the family isn't coming ahead by much.

 

Not only that Jackie but in my opinion they arecoming in behind becuase the mother isn't home to be a wife and mother. I have an old fashioned view of the home I know but I strongly feel that the whole family benefits from the mom staying home to tend to the house and family. That alone makes up for the very small amount the family might make if she did work.

 

Two years ago (before my oldest was school-aged) a friend said, "I don't know how you afford to stay home. What's the secret?" I said, "I can afford it because it's cheaper." If I'd have put all three boys in childcare at that time, it would have cost us about $350 a week. Because of the super low cost of living in our area, the 'good paying' entry level jobs were only paying around $300 a week.

The crazy thing is that so many people, convinved that you always come out ahead when you work, can't seem to accept basic math. They refuse to believe that 300 - 350 = $50 negative. It's weird. They say things like, "but youre husband's income would cover the other $50." Well, yeah, but then what's the point of me working? "Because you'd be making more money" Huh? I've honestly had that conversation a couple of times.