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.
Price does not equal better care. Just because the price is higher does not mean the care is better. Nor can you depend on the appearance of the facility. Of course you want a clean and safe facility but the most important factor is the care giver. You can’t judge a care giver on a short question and answer visit. Nor can you depend on government worker to screen care providers for you. After you narrow your list down you need to take time to drop in at busy hours and observe. Don’t take your child to a facility that won’t allow these parents should always be welcome. Also don’t expect parents using a facility to look at it with a critical eye. Lastly talk about cost. There are many way to reduce cost. If you have a flexible job sometimes you can do some work in trade? Your husband or you might trade some yard or house work to reduce cost. Sometime you can watch the care givers children at nights and weekends in trade.
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.
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.
The parents determine the quality of the school. All of our teachers have degrees in early childhood education; most of them has a master. We have ratio of 4:1 in the toddler room (age 18 mo to 3) and 6:1 in the preschool room (age 3-5). Other than the professional teachers, we get interns who are in early childhood education majors in colleges. So the ratio is actually somewhere liked 3:1 and 4:1. We pay our teachers very well. During the 3 years we have been with the school, only 2 teachers left in the whole school. One left to go to medical school, the other left to be a better paying kindergarten teacher in a public school. Each class gets new toys on the on going basis. Every few weeks, the parents are organized to fix any broken or need to be painted or need to be replaced things in the classrooms. It is a very tide circle among the families involved in the school. We often spend the weekend with one or more families from the school.
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.
Childcare jobs shouldn’t have to “haggle” for a salary she is MORE than worth. You have the money; She needs it, stop being so damn stingy. If you can’t stay home and take care of your child yourself, and you’ve found someone who CAN and Does – Well, I assume – then you should compensate her accordingly. Yes, women who get into this line of work do so because they love children, or they’re good at being a nanny, they bring all kinds of good things to the table, etc… But they ALSO need the $$$$! They are not just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.
