Let’s say, for sake of argument that the government decides to give a tax break to families like yours. (Or are you simply arguing that the tax break for families like MINE should be eliminated? I think they call those sour grapes.) How would such a break be determined. How much money would you get to save? After all, if I get a really cheap daycare, I would get to save less than someone who has to pay more. And how would Uncle Sam determine if mom is staying home with the kids because they can truly afford to do so because dad makes a good wage, or if they are struggling to pay the bills but feel it is very important for mom (or dad) to be home all day. Or, for that matter, if both parents are indeed employed full time and so making lots of money, but they happen to have been able to take advantage of a free child care provider. (After all, hardly seems right that YOU should get a $500 tax break while paying nothing at all but making two incomes while I get a $500 tax break for paying $2500 a year for child care.)
You have also avoided one other point that I have had in earlier posts. The government allows us to deduct many expenses that are necessary for work. I am partially self employed as a writer. The government allows me to deduct the costs of postage stamps that I use to send out my work, and of professional books and journals. If I wanted to keep track of it, I could even deduct the mileage for every trip to the post office and the electricity and ink I use to run my computer and print things out. They RECOGNIZE that these expenses are necessary for my work; therefore I do not have to pay taxes on that money. Now I COULD decide to have a job that has no overhead. Poor me …. I couldn’t deduct ANYTHING on my Schedule C. Or I could rent a private office for $500 a month and stick my computer in it. Then I could deduct $6000 a year! But since I don’t make anywhere near that amount off my writing that would be a bit silly. (But, as long as I make a profit at least 3 years out of 5 (meaning I would only be able to deduct a portion of that rent), the government wouldn’t care. They would accept that I need an office to do my job. It is a necessary expense.
The Family Income Report provides color pictures showing trends of real median family incomes to increase awareness. Incomes have hardly improved past 2 1/2 decades, especially compared to the rate of improvement for prior generations – - especially for families with children – - while their tax rates for homes, FICA, etc. are much higher than prior generations. It is understandable such places economic stress on many families, forcing more mothers to seek work outside the home than might otherwise be the case – - and getting others to help pay day care cost is of interest to them.
You are the one having to pay $100 a week for approximately 2 1/2 hours of childcare a week. BUT, if looked at from the daycare provider’s POV, it’s a whole different kettle of fish. In a lot of areas, there is a limit as to how many children you can be responsible for at one time. The last time I used childcare, it was 6 children per adult. So, if there is one person there, they can only have 6 children at a time. That half hour of daycare after school is most likely actually taking up a whole slot for the entire day. So, from the daycare provider’s POV, you will have to pay for the entire slot for the entire day, even if you don’t use all of tho should have explained better what meant by “subsidized” before/afterschool care—you have to refer entire not-for-profit programs that benefit from subsidized supports and thus do not charge “market childcare jobs rates” (such as programs run by the schools themselves, which are great if the school offers them!). I’m intimately familiar with the need-based child care subsidy programs, but no longer qualify.
Transcribing is not as easy a solution as I thought it would be. The childcare jobs must be turned over in 24 hours. I would have to work all night to get them done. And if I work while Emma is asleep I chance waking her up (we currently live in a one room house). It’s hard to work during naptime since Emma wakes up whenever I work the transcriber. Since we’ve been living off of my savings all this time we’ve gotten a little rhythm going that’s been great for us on all possible levels except, obviously, financially. I’m having a hard time being a stay-at-home mom under my current circumstances and am feeling too pathetic to continue living in such poverty.
Sounds like you are becoming unhappy and distrustful of the day care staff, or at least with some of the staff and/or management of the staff. Just based on that info you probably want to look into a new daycare situation. I know it is hard to do things like that. If you have other ‘commercial’ day care centers in your area might want to look into them. Also if you have not ruled out home daycare I encourage you to look into it as well. Lastly – don’t rule out ‘church’ based childcare jobs programs simply because you are not of that faith.
If one thinks doing home daycare would be good for her then that might be an option. You can make quite a bit of money while being able to stay home with your children. And since, her kids would be playing with the other kids; her job wouldn’t take her away from being with her own children. For me, this has been the ideal job. Who knows, when my children are in school full time, I may return to work outside of the home, but for now, we are quite happy with this arrangement and it may work for your friend also. Presently, I have 4 full time daycare children. Potential $100.00 per day!! ($500.00) a week!! I couldn’t make that working out of the home and having pay $1000.00 per month for my two children to be in daycare. Mention it to her. You do have to be cut out for this type of work, though. It isn’t for everyone.
Well I stay at home with my son who is 14 months old and I cannot imagine leaving him in the “care” of a stranger. I do, however, understand that single mothers do not have many choices in their child care arrangements and have to make do with what they can get. And I do feel for those mothers. But for those two parent families who make good money and choose daycare for an infant rather than having someone stay home, I say shame on you.
Specific kinds of educational experiences provided for children by both parents and teachers, from preschool through high school, can make a significant difference in their reading ability as young adults. Two national studies have recently confirmed the particular home, school, childcare jobs and extracurricular experiences that impact an individual’s reading achievement over the course of development. These studies analyzed comprehensive data gathered from 3,959 high school students in 24 school districts across the U.S. The first study, the Kindergarten Reading Follow-up (KRF) Study, examined the long-term effects on children of being taught to read in kindergarten (Hanson and Siegel, 1988; 1991.)
In 21st century India, spaces at even ordinary preschools are far fewer than the demand. But now a child would have to take an exam to get into a neighborhood preschool. Many parents were sending their children to rigorous cram schools. The tots were memorizing poetry and learning the proper way to walk, all to prepare for the preschool tests. a child of small age should not be bothered with all this. It’s useless information they expect them to learn, and it’s harmful for the child to undergo this stress. And if a child is supposed to know everything, then why are we sending her to school? There is a high demand of preschools than childcare jobs.
My sister went to Colorado(from Texas) with a family when she was just a little bit younger than that. I think that they just paid her expenses (all of them except spending money). I tend to think that you should pay all her expenses and, if you can afford it, pay her something during the times when she really is babysitting when you go out. She is going to lose out on childcare jobs while she is away from home. It worked out well for my sister. She said that most of the time she was just a member of the family, like an older sister. She and the adults worked together to take care of the kids and had lots of fun. She was only expected to take total care of the kids once in a while – at nap time for example (the adults would go to the pool or shopping) and once in a while in the evening.
