Is quality affordable childcare an oxymoron (sp). I live in NJ, my daughter is 2. I have to switch her over to a daycare center(I'm not comfortable with a family care type of situation) and all the centers in my area are at least $800 the ones I really like are $1000. How can a single parent afford this? not only that they want a security deposit of a month so thats $1600 up front plus a $50 registration fee. This is too crazy. I'm applying now for Catholic Charities but we will see how far that goes- I'll probably be in the same pocket as I was when she was born- too poor to afford anything but to rich to receive help.

Have you looked into any help thru Human Services? I know that here in Oklahoma the max income for daycare assistance is pretty high, more than 2000.00 a month.
Good Luck, and I hope you find some help!!

Wow 800 dollars, gesshh and 2000.00 a month. I must be way behind on the costs of child care. I am so lucky to have my mom to help me out. Good Luck, hope you get help with it!

I pay over $600 a month for my two and my daughter goes to school part time. That's a liscened in home provider, but we went through a bunch of them prior to this one that I adore.

In my state, unless you collect unemployment, you can't get daycare assistance. Supposedly, its to get the unemployed back to work - but in my opinion...everybody regardless of work status that makes a low income should qualify on a 1st come 1st serve basis. This is a major issue in all states because most of the laws are Federally mandated. I know you hear it all the time, but write to your senators....they have to listen eventually.

Also, my state keeps records on all the daycares that are liscensed and even posts inspection reports on them. Your state may have that information online as well, and its a good way to verify that even a center is doing what they should.

In Illinois there is a specific program for daycare assistance and it pays for any daycare you want to go to whether its home daycare or a center. You choose. It is a goverment program. I'm on it and thank God I am. I was paying 1300 a month for 2 kids to be in daycare 4 days a week. Now that I got on that program, I pay 400 a month. For a family of 3(thats with parent included) you have to make less than 2800 a month to qualify. You might want to look into it because usually the amount of earnings to qualify is higher for daycare assistance since daycare is so expensive.

oooo...I have some nightmare stories that'll make sure you never want to use a home provider, lol.

I had the sitter that called me 10 minutes before I had to be out the door claming she was sick...with the sound of a bong and coughing fits in the background.

Then a home daycare where the woman left the baby with her husband that "didn't do diapers" without my knowledge. My mom senses made me leave class in the middle of the day (something I never do) and go pick up the baby..who was sitting in the middle of the floor with a soaked diaper and had obviously been screaming ignored for quite a long time because her voice was hoarse and she just sounded desperate..I didn't even know my baby could sound like that. Never mind that the older kids (age 4) were half way down a cliff unsupervised in the back.

Then I had one that was wonderful..until the baby started solids. Turns out she didn't want to feed the baby baby food because it "made a mess". She lasted about 2 minutes after I realized I was leaving school early to go feed a baby that I was paying someone else to care for. That one tried to pull a guilt trip on me about "how my children knew her and I would be harming them by taking them away", like I was married to her and she was a screwed up ex or something.

It's been a joy..lol...I've come to love daycare centers with their snot nosed kids spreading pink eye and the flu on a dialy basis.

It is outrageous how much childcare is. I am glad that my oldest son is now 17 and he helps take care of my 7 year old if I have to leave.
I know I had to get two jobs just to get enough money to pay for childcare.

But then can you really put a price tag on your childs safety?

SavingAmyRose : Got you one "upped" my home care provider took my kids to the jail to go bail out her live-in boyfriend and didn't even have permission to leave the house with them, then when they didn't let him out earlier in the day - she left my children with a total stranger who wasn't liscensed and I'd never met and went to get her bf from jail again. We were gone as fast as I could find another babysitter!

I know it really does feel like a no win situation. I live in Ontario and I receive a daycare subsidy. This means that my daycare fees are based on my 'available income' which sounds great but still poses some problems. For example in order to receive my subsidy they want me to persue child support from my ex who was convicted of assaulting me when I was pregnant. Hmmmmm lets think about this for a second or two. He hasn't seen the baby... he hasn't asked to see the baby, he has been leaving us alone until now. So lets take him to court for child support! That makes sense! FFS!

ms. anne..
dont know about canada but in the US there's a little known form at the child support office that states something along the lines of "don't pursue this matter because the childs father is a danger" that the mom needs to sign and will satisfy the requirement for "pursuing child support". You might want to call child support annonymously (sp?) and see if they have that option there.

Over here they wouldn't allow me childcare for the the first 6 months because until the baby was half a year they had a requirement that they needed a copy of the fathers electric bill at his seperate address. I really don't think he was paying the electric bill at whatever crack house he was in...so I got to suffer yet again because he's irresponsible..agh.

Hey Blind
..you win.
lol

SavingAmy - just thought I'd give a good laugh. I wasn't laughing at the time...but what a moron!

I am in ONtario as well and when I was subsidized (I now pay $420 a month for b4 and after school care for my 7 year old) it was helpful cost wise but it still sucked as I had to provide a copy of my support order, a copy of my lease, a copy of my phone bill, and a copy of my bank statement. I felt like I was on welfare. I hated that I had to answer to them over all of it. It is almost worth paying full price not to answer to anyone.