[MrsJohnson]

I am doing my homework early. I had a really great interview with a woman today who runs a daycare out of her home. She wants $200/week under 12 months and $175 for babies over a year old. I felt this to be a bit much for someone who is doing daycare out of their home. I am in North Eastern Ohio. I'm going to stay home for a while with baby - but wanted to at least start networking.

Please state what region you are in and how much the avg. daycare costs in your area.

Thanks!

[TKbunny]

I didn't think about that yet. But then I have 2 sets of very eager grandparents both in a few minutes drive so I'm thinking we might get off a bit on the cheap side.

[AllyssaM]

Is she CPR/First Aid/ect certified? Is she certified through the state? If she's through the state - Then that is about average for in home day care providers. It's different then just being a baby sitter.

[20ghanover]

Here, daycare ranges from $800 a month to $1750 a month depending on the place. We sent my DS to a place that was $1490 a month between ages 4 months and 12 months and then finally decided to hire a nanny. The nanny was more expensive for sure ($500 a week) but now that we have two, it is better for us. Daycare at his school would have been $3000 a month for the two children, now we are paying the nanny $600 a week, so it's $2400 a month. Plus all the benefits of not having to leave the house every morning while they're sleeping, packing bottles and diapers, etc.

I am in the city of Atlanta, though - so it's on the higher end of national averages I'm sure! I never found any inhome situations here like you are talking about, but a friend in San Francisco did and loved it. She paid $2500 a month I think.

[magz88]

I think in-home is about $150 per week here. Daycare are much more expensive.

[Pinkhighheels27]

Daycare and in home care ranges from $1,000-$2,000 per month per child. Also, you can be on a year long waiting list!

[newmommysarah]

that is a bit much - i worked as a live-in au pair for 4 years in London and i got Ł100 a week but all my expenses were covered by that - food, internet, travel (including overseas) etc. I only worked 11am-6pm mon-fri and was paid extra for weekends and holidays, i also made an extra Ł100 on monday, tuesday and wednesday mornings by helping out a family down the road from 8:30-10:30am.

Have you considered getting an au pair? - it doesn't have to be live-in, if you know anyone in your area with an aupair - you could ask to share her for certain days/hours a week - i was very grateful for the extra work and you have the added comfort of getting childcare recommended from friend.

[Blessed.Life]

it is insane here!! low end home day care is about $875 and Day cares goes up to about $2000. Thats California by the beach for ya! Luckily the military has child care development centers that are highly subsidized but it takes over a year to get into them. I put our name on the waiting list the week I found out I was pregnant and have to email them every month to stay on the wait list. After he is born we will still have about a 6 month (or more) wait. We actually have one of the shortest wait times as well since he has 2 full time working parents. I don't know what we will do when DH gets out which is why we are not having #2 for a while! Childcare is just to expensive here!!

[Mrs.Julie]

There is a huge range here in dallas. I work at a church based preschool, there is a baby room. Good luck getting in. You have to pay to get on the waiting list! People get on the list before they conceive! It is a pretty decent school at only $200 a week for babies. There are places much more prestigious that are way more expensive. There are places only $90 a week (you do NOT want your kid in one of those places). And with the in home thing, it ranges greatly. They all have to have special licencing but a lot do not offer any "activities" or learning curriculum.(and obviously a lot work illegally without a license) Its basically a babysitter. Usually you can find these for $100 a week or so. But the nice in home centers run by a degreed professional with facilities for a more school like environment and weekly curriculum can be more expensive than $200 a week, but usually not much more.

[~~Que~~]

I don't really use childcare around here, and neither do many of my friends. From what I understand, it's about $150-250 per week for an in home day care, about 250-450/week for a private or church run day care, and about 400-500/week for general day care.

I am in downtown Atlanta. There are places for super cheap, but they'd be really run down yucky city places.

Whenever we are in a season where we need help with childcare, we usually do a childcare in exchange for free rent or some other barter like that.

[afwifey09]

On base in Florida, they had crazy cheap daycare, it ended up only being like $20 a day, but they charged by the hour so you didn't have to deal with the stupid daycares that charge the same for part and full time. The center also got rave reviews.

Thankfully I'm not working here because the daycares in town are podunk and the one on base is MUCH smaller and MUCH more expensive (compared to our last base) and charge about $1000 a month. They really push in home daycare FCC providers here, but that makes me pretty uncomfortable.

I just can't fathom paying those prices for daycare. By the time you pay for gas to get you to work and baby to daycare and home, there's hardly any sense working to give up all those hours with your baby. Then when you count for multiple kiddos.. yikes.. that makes my head spin!

[mzshell13]

I live in an expensive suburb outside of DC in Northern Virginia. When my son was in an in home daycare she charged $200/week and that was because she gave me a discount because of a referral. My son's center he attends now is $317/week for infants, $275 for toddlers, and that's pretty much standard around here. Reason #245 why I'm taking a leave of absence this year, although we'll actually be losing money it makes me feel good not to pad someone elses pockets for a year.

[Nikke2527]

I live in Tennessee right outside of the military base. To put the baby on military daycare CDC (Child Development Center) would cost be around 550 a month. I love the daycare on the military base and never worried about my kids while they were there. Right now we are looking at having a nanny because it would be cheaper since DD2 is starting Kindergarten and needs either someone to be home when he gets off the bus or I would have to pay for before and after school care. In addition I would like someone to make sure my oldest does his homework as soon as he gets home from school. I am going to play it by ear

[2pinks&ablue]

It's about $20-$25/day for a sitter here, $30/day here for daycare (but you provide snacks/lunches, and they don't accept anyone under 18 months). That being said, I'm in a really small town, and it's more expensive in the cities about an hour away.

[ufmelissa824]

I live in North Florida and the cost for regular daycare is about $800 - $1000 a month. In-home is typically a little cheaper, probably around $600 - $800 but I don't know anyone that uses it so I haven't really looked into it much. We're just hoping that since DH is a full-time student, we can use the on-campus daycare which is $400/month. We just have to wait until the end of July and find out if we got off the waitlist.

[MrsJohnson]

Thanks for your input ladies. I am going to shop around and do my homework. The thing that sucks is my husband is a Marine and we normally live by a base...but we are currently stationed in the middle of nowhere not near a base so I have to go with people 'in town' as opposed to finding someone on a base.

[Sherry777]

We pay our sitter $50 a week each for Christian and Jessica in the summer. She will charge us slightly more for a newborn. Private daycares and other home daycares range from $120 to $200 per week. Anything more that that would be ludicrous for this area. Memphis is one of the poorest cities in the entire U.S.

In Minnesota, we paid $300 a week for Christian to attend a home daycare. He was potty-trained and 3 years old. That only covered Monday through Thursday, and they closed at 4:00, even though I did not get off work until 5:30.

[K.A.T]

$200 and up is about what I would pay for an in home day care in NYC. If I was going to go with a center, it could be up to $400 a week depending on the level of care the infant would get. The younger the child the more expensive the care is here. I believe I was paying about $800 give or take a month for Kev when he was 10 months old. I had him there over 40 hours. It was a reputable center that I did send him to long term since it was educational. However, I had to provide the formula, wipes, diapers and cereal. They did give snacks if I recall correctly but nothing big. The provided breakfast, lunch and snack once they moved to the toddler rooms.