Time. Now for stretching your dollar where we give
you changeable tips to help you make the most of
your money. And today we're talking about child care
. So for families, it's become very expensive to
say the least, especially in the pandemic. A
recent study found that child care costs in 41 states
including the district of Columbia for two Children surpasses annual
mortgage payments by 1 to 53%. And in all
50 states in DC costs exceed annual rent payments by
24 to 100%. Yikes. Well, the report
by first five years Fund says since the 19 nineties
, child care costs have outpaced household expenses by more
than 200%. So joining me now is the parenting
expert, Don Alcott on ways that parents can save
on child care cost. Don It's great to have
you on the show and for parents watching. How
do they do this? Hey, thank you so
much for having me. Um Yeah, as a
parent myself who had to do it, I now
have a 12 and 14 year old who are um
I'm proud to say relatively self sufficient. Um It's
not easy and it's even harder with multiple kids um
to piggyback on the study that you shared. Um
the median price for one child for child care in
the country right now is between 22,000 annually. So
you can see that, yeah, in some places
it's going to exceed your mortgage payment. Um and
it makes up 8% to 19% of the median income
in the US. So it is a big chunk
of a lot of family budgets. And fortunately,
there are ways and even ways that people have devised
since the pandemic to save on the cost. Ok
, so let's walk through some of those ways.
Don, how can people save? Um, well
, one of the things that we started seeing a
lot, especially during the pandemic is sharing a nanny
because in home child care is gonna tend to cost
less than if you're sending them to a daycare center
with, with all, you know, all that
that entails if you have, you know, one
kid or even two kids and you can share a
nanny with another family. It's gonna significantly um save
you money and it's, it's a great idea because
your kids also still get that socialization of being around
other Children um while getting the care that they need
and you can have peace of mind knowing that there's
someone either in your home or a neighbor's home watching
your kids. Um And the other thing that,
that I was just gonna note na nanny share obviously
, I think is a good one and as it
sounds John obviously beneficial for the kids. Um what
are some other ways too? And when parents think
about budgeting, right, how does that factor in
? Um I think it's it's really a matter of
being prepared even before you have your Children to know
how much day care is going to cost and how
much you can spend. An ideal situation. At
least for the parents is to have a grandparent in
good health who can take over some of the duties
for at least a couple of days a week.
So maybe you only are paying for day care three
days a week. Um Another thing you can do
to position yourself is negotiate with your boss for some
work at home time. I'm not gonna say you're
gonna be able to do your job with your Children
underfoot and take care of them. But you can
maybe get a mommy's helper in during the summer,
which would be like a teenage girl who can watch
the kids while you're working and you're still there.
So you can pay them a lot less. That's
, that's one thing that I actually did when my
Children were younger because as a freelance writer, I'm
a business owner, I work from home. I
brought in Mommy's helpers all the time, uh to
just help out. Ok, so we've got nanny
Cher. Uh, we've got Mommy's helpers done.
Uh Any other solutions or options that parents can consider
? Um, there are always gonna be solutions of
some sort when there's, when there's a will,
there's a way and sometimes it takes creativity for parents
who are really, um, middle to lower income
, there might be subsidized child care programs available.
So I would urge people to, to check that
out. Um, just out of curiosity, I
googled subsidized child care and what came up programs came
up for New York, especially if you're on wick
or snap. Um, you may qualify in your
state for some sort of subsidized child care that can
really, really help out. I see some parents
coming together to form these child care villages. Kind
of sounds like a nanny share, don. But
do you know much about that topic? And if
so how does it potentially differ from a nanny share
? I think that's, that was actually one of
the other tips on my list. It would differ
from a nanny share because it would not be bringing
in an outsider that you're paying. These were actually
introduced when everyone was trying to home school during the
pandemic while doing our jobs from home as well.
Um I think I still have some post traumatic stress
from that whole situation, having the kids at home
because my kids were younger then. Um I would
, it's, it's basically forming a community with your
neighbors, with Children of the same ages And then
again, this is going to require support from your
boss to possibly change your working schedule. But basically
each parent takes a day or a week or a
time where they're watching a group of kids in the
neighborhood. Um So it, it's really that community
spirit and bonding and village that sort of started during
the pandemic because we realized we can't live in isolation
, we need other people. So of course,
we rely on the people closest to us and develop
these little pods and our kids got the socialization they
needed and we got the help and support that we
needed. All right, parenting expert, Don Don
. Thank you so much for sharing your tips and
solutions with us on stretching your dollar.