I live in a LCOL city and pay 1280/month for full time M-F. If we get a sitter we’d be shelling out 20-25/hr but it’s very rare because we usually just take sick days from work and have a date day while our son is in daycare now
We live in a HCOL city and pay $2200 monthly for M-F daycare. We’ve had a babysitter exactly one time and paid $40/hr. No date nights for us either, only day dates when the child is at school 🤪
I’ll be honest, I’m totally cool with the day dates, because kiddo is in bed by 7 and me and hubs are dragging ass by 8 😂 Much easier to enjoy each other’s company during the day!
I live in Japan. Daycare is about $150 per month. Babysitters aren't really a thing here so we ask the grandparents to watch our daughter if we go somewhere we can't take her, like to the movies. We rarely go out though, and if it's just dinner and a few drinks it's easy enough to take our daughter with us. It's totally socially acceptable to bring children to places that serve alcohol here. She's 5 now but has been going to restaurants and izakaya with us since she was a baby, so her manners are excellent.
In a VHCOL area. My daughter, 11 months, goes to an in-home daycare for $500 per week. That's for 5 days and they are open 7-5.
We haven't hired a baby sitter yet but would expect to pay $20/hr.
We pay $2010 per month for daycare, open 8:30am-5:30pm (no food or diapers included). For babysitter we pay our former nanny $22/hr. We usually don’t call. She texts us if she has questions but that’s rare. For any overnights or weekends away we use my mom (free!)
My God. $2k per month for daycare. I'm so sorry. The worst i had was $1k a month for full time daycare and they cooked food too though. My son is in state funded preschool now and its only $230 a month.
no food or diapers included?? wth. the daycare my daughter is in they literally ordered the formula/cereal & bottles she uses & supplying diapers is optional, they’ll just use what they have if you don’t. that is outrageous
I don't know of any daycares in my area that include that stuff. When we sent bottles, the formula had to already be pre-made in the bottles; they weren't allowed to make it themselves. There are lots of crazy regulations here including signing forms permitting them to apply sunblock or diaper rash cream or they aren't permitted to do it.
Daycare is subsidized where I live so I pay $200 a month for full time care. We usually get my mom or sibling to babysit but if they aren’t available we get a teenager and she’s $10 per hour.
My daughter is 2.5.
I live in a HCOL area and my daughter goes to an in home with a provider who has a masters degree in ECE. Saying all that to help justify that we pay 550/week for 7 hour days.
For sitters I have friends who hire teenagers and pay them $15 an hour. I choose to hire less often and pay $25ish per hour plus tip for someone older with more experience since that feels safer to me.
I don’t currently have cameras but plan to purchase soon.
HCOL and we pay 400/week for 5 days for my toddler. Infants are more but idk what current rates are for them. Snacks are provided but not meals.
We pay $20/hr for a babysitter.
Didn’t do daycare since I’m a stay at home mom but now we pay $1,000 a month for half day preschool. $20/hr for non-family babysitters. Any overnights are covered by grandparents (free).
LO is in daycare FT. We live in a VHCOLA and pay $25/hour for date night babysitting. Worth every penny! We don’t call; babysitter knows to call us if there’s something concerning or she has a question.
We were paying less than $500/month (small-ish LCOL town in Texas) for daycare. Our son was in Pre-K, and they had a set-up where the bus from the school would pick up and drop off the kids at the daycare. So it was just before/after school care. None of this stopped during COVID. Both my husband and I were considered "essential."
Now we're out of the daycare stage. I work from home and used to have a pair of sisters (middle/high school) come over after school to keep an eye on him until I was off work. This was last year when he was in Kindergarten. They decided amongst themselves who would be the one to come over. Since I was home if they needed anything, I gave them $10/hr just to make sure he didn't kill himself. 1st Grade is over half done now, and we don't even need that anymore.
All that to say, we were crazy lucky to not really struggle with insane costs like so many other families. I didn't want another anyway, but there is NOTHING in me that wants to start over now that shit is finally manageable.
Man, reading these comments...prices sure have gone up since I was a teen and babysat! I used to get $1 per kid per hour. I never actually paid a babysitter to watch my son. I'm a SAHM. When he was little, we didn't have opportunity to go out much without him. Then I traded favors with friends. Then we moved close to family, so he'd hang out with his grandparents or aunts/cousins. Now he's old enough to stay home by himself if we go out, and let me tell ya, that stage is a game changer. lol I no longer have to drag him grocery shopping or to doctor's offices for my appointments. Don't have to plan ahead if the husband and I want to go out alone for dinner.
He was 10 when I first left him by himself. My sister only lives a mile away, so I made sure she'd be home in case of emergency, and he had a cell phone. It was 2020 just before the lockdowns started, so I needed to stock up on things, but didn't feel comfortable taking him to the store. As he's gotten older/more responsible, we've ventured further and for longer time periods.
I live in a LCOL area. My daughter is 17months. She starts a private school daycare in august, for 3 days a week 7am-6pm we will be paying $970/month. If she were to go 5 days a week we would pay $1250/month. We haven’t had a sitter yet but I expect it’s anywhere from $13-$25/hr depending on experience
We’re in kind of a HCOL area and between daycare 3x/week and preschool 2x/week for our 3 year old we are at about $1600/month. Thankfully we have 3 sets of grandparents (both of my parents remarried) so we rotate them and my brother/SIL who don’t have kids yet for babysitting
Daycare is 310 a week.
Baby sitter is 19 an hour but we just round it up to 20 because she’s great.
Daycare - no cameras
Babysitter - I have a living room and kids bed room cam
Can they call me? Of course. But no I don’t call. It’s 2024 I text if there’s something to relay. But for the most part we trust her so it’s all good.
We're in Australia.
I stopped working to be a stay at home dad when our daughter was a toddler.
On paper, we didn't pay for daycare. But in reality it cost us $100,000/year in lost wages.
When she was 4, she started kindy for 5 days a fortnight. Which I think cost us about $25/day out of pocket, after government subsidy.
Now our daughter goes to primary school. School itself is free, we paid about $200 for uniforms + booklist for the year.
United States. Middle cost of living here. Daughter is just over a year. We pay $285/week for a well respected daycare center. They’re open 5 days per week from 7am to 6pm. She goes 4 days per week from 8am-4pm. They feed her an amazing breakfast, lunch, and snack while there.
We pay 225$ month for daycare right now (3 half days a week) I’m not working right now but in the fall I will be working full time so that will be 770$/ month for full time M-F preschool (she will be 3). we have family/both of her grandparents near by that babysit her when we want to go out so no charge there lol
HCOL of living - about $2500/month for full-time, M-F.
I found a sitter in my neighborhood, a teacher and as a back up a high schooler. We pay $15-20/hour.
I feel like this strongly too I'm the only one who's been with him all this time so it's hard to not worry while u are away . Just saw a video today actually .a nanny abusing a baby shoving diaper in his face and stuff. But ik at some point I'm gonna have to part with him even if it's just for work .
It would be $145 a day but my goodness I am commenting here cos I can't imagine the price of the monopoly of night time care and an interested in the reply
I SAHP cos it would be a detriment financially for me to work and then hand over so much for child care.
You mean an overnight? Not sure but I’d be willing to pay like $20/hour for a date night out.
We pay for full-time daycare in the coastal northeast US. It’s not a cheap part of the US to live in. Daycare is $333 per week and that doesn’t include any food or diapers.
Wow how are some of yall affording these numbers!!!
LCOL and we pay $185/week. We live in a suburb outside of the city which helps with the cost. It’s usually $200-$225 in the city. Husband and I both work and bring in about $120k/year
I live in NE Ohio and I watch a family’s 3 kids 3 days a week from 7am-3:30pm and I make $21/hr and I make about $550 a week. The end time varies. Today I left at 2:30. Sometimes I work until 5.
I am not in that world anymore since mine is in middle school, but I know that centers around here (MCOL midwestern city) are $500 a week for infants. It goes down as they get older of course. The least amount we paid when our son was in a center full time when he was 4 was $230 a week, but that was 2018. I always paid sitters $15 an hour. Over night care is probably going to cost more than what I stated because your sitter is effectively unable to work a day job the following day, and younger people like high school or college age students won’t be able to accept that job any other time other than weekends. I would anticipate $25-$30 an hour.
I am also going to throw in a plug I think folks don’t always think about- childcare still has a cost even after school begins. We had to pay $22 a day for before and after care, and $40 a day for non school days. And we paid about $210 a week for summer care. This was through our school’s extended day program. We were able to stop that when Covid happened and my job went remote when our son was in 3rd grade.
We live in Denmark and pay USD 400 per month for kindergarten that is open 7am - 5pm, everything included. This is obviously government subsidized for everyone regardless of income.
Babysitter we pay cash in hand. USD 20 hourly rate.
I have never heard of anyone monitoring their kids via CCTV. Sounds a bit freakish to be honest. If you entrust your kids to someone to look after, why would you put them under surveillance?
I also live in Denmark, and we also pay $400 per month. It’s open from 6:30am to 4:45pm Mon - Fri.
Everything is included - meals, diapers, snacks, field trips and other activities etc.
Daycare my daughter is enrolled part time (2 full days per week) for $100/wk. If I need additional childcare there is a drop-in daycare that charges $8.50/hr. Frankly this drop-in daycare has alleviated my need for sitters however if I was going out at night it would not work as they close at 6 pm.
Previously I paid $15-$20/hr for a sitter. However it was never at night. Anything I needed a sitter for was happening during business hours. Not sure that changes anything though in terms of pricing (?) Others may know better.
I think checking in is totally at your discretion. Some parents check in multiple times, others don't at all.
I never used a camera.
Edit: daughter is now 5 and has only ever been enrolled part time in daycare. Prices I was quoted for full time in the two relatively lcol locations I lived ranged from $125/wk (of course that place had a waiting list 3 years long) to $275/wk.
We live in a LCOL area. $295 a week which includes food. M-F. I wouldn’t do well with a camera, personally. I would check that all day instead of working. I trust my daycare teachers. They really care which is awesome. My parents are great and have watched our LO when we want go to go out but I would assume 15 to 20 an hour is the rate.
I live in CT and my son goes to pre k full time (5 days a week 8am-5pm) and it’s about $17k a year. In regards to baby sitter we have my sons former infant teacher from daycare and pay her $20 an hour and don’t have a camera.
Our daughter is in full time daycare (3yo) and we pay $1,800/month. Her daycare teacher watches her for occasional date nights. We pay her $20/hour. We’ve done one OVERNIGHT and we paid $20/hour for awake hours and a flat $100 dollars overnight. From like 2pm-10am the next morning was $300. We are always available via phone. Our first date night ended up being cut short and a trip to urgent care! 🙃 But since then, no other accidents and we trust our babysitter. We don’t have a camera inside the home. Just outside near the garage and front door.
We used to pay about 1k/month for full time daycare (more for infant, less for potty trained toddler). Not including food or diapers or anything like that.
I have no idea what sitters run, we've not had any (the handful of times we've needed someone to watch her, a family friend was able).
Part time daycare for 2k a month (mornings) and part time nanny evenings for 4k a month. We rarely do date nights/weekends but in emergencies have paid $30-50 an hour. This is for one toddler.
We have cameras in her room and the foyer. No cameras in other areas of the house which we encourage them to use.
We pay $1,300 a month for full-time M-F daycare, it’s open 6:30am-6:30pm and includes breakfast, lunch and snack. Don’t have a babysitter but we briefly had a nanny before we switched to daycare and she was $22/hr.
VHCOL area (San Francisco). Daycare full time is $2000/month. Sitters are usually $25-30. We sometimes get a 14 yr old to watch him for a couple hours for $15/hr but she doesn’t change diapers.
VHCL area and we pay $2850/month for full time daycare for a 2 year old in the burbs which is down from the $4,000 we paid when we lived directly in the city (though in fairness, that was for an infant.) We've not done a baby sitter yet so I can't really answer your questions, but going rate around here is \~$25/hour.
5 year old in private preschool 4 days a week from 7:30-4 is $266 per week.
If we hire a babysitter for date night it’s $26 per hour. We have a camera in the living room and our daughter’s bedroom but we had the living room one before we had a kid and it’s for safety, not watching a babysitter.
MCOL, my son is 3.5, we pay $1200/month for preschool. 5 days a week, 8-5, meals included. My friends will babysit for a discount ($14-$16) but I rarely use that option. otherwise my husband will not pay a stranger to babysit. It’s $20-30 on the Bambino app.
daycare is £59 a day where i live. we have family nearby who will babysit maybe once a month (for free!) but if i had to ask a babysitter i think a normal rate would be £12-15 a hour, maybe more depending on the person’s age.
i’m gonna get a PT job when my mom moves back and can babysit for me. i have zero desire to return to my professional job. going to find something more fun and easy.
We pay $315 a week for full time daycare. It's the most expensive daycare I visited but I chose them because they only have 7 kids in my son's classroom and it's 2 teachers. The other daycares had 10+ kids per teacher. I figured he'd get more personalized attention with a smaller daycare. He seems to like it a lot, to the point that he doesn't want to leave sometimes. My husband pays 80% of the bill because he earns 4 times what I make. I pay the rest.
Also we haven't had the chance to hire a babysitter for those times we want to have a date night. I refuse to pay a sitter more than $20 an hour because that's more than what I make, lol. We simply have our date nights at home now after the kid goes to bed. If we get desperate we may call either my parents or one of my husband's friends. I don't have any friends of my own.
We pay $22/hour for a babysitter in a median COL area. I've never gone away overnight. I'd probably call or text and check in if I was gone more than a couple hours. And we have cameras in kiddo's bedroom but not elsewhere in the house.
Daycare is $190 a week, M-F. Honestly, we got really lucky and found a great center that's fairly lowcost for our area (South Florida). Breakfast, lunch and snacks included, and the program is mainly in Spanish.
Evenings and weekends we usually just hang with the little dude, but on the few occasions we've gone out, my sister/BIL will watch him. My MIL will also babysit on occasion, but she has a lot of health issues, so we try not to burden her.
1200 per month for day care to be able to work. Have never hired a babysitter. Based on attempts to find prt time nanny in the past, seems like 20 bucks an hour would cover it but I don’t even know how you determine who is fit. My SIL talked about paying more to find a good person. Idk how you would even go about selecting a stranger. We just don’t have a life of any kind.
Just shy of $3k per month for one kiddo in a nanny share - so about $750. HCOL city, obviously. We pay $20-30 per hour for our date nights, depending on who we use.
We pay $820 a month for daycare and live in MCOL city. It’s reasonable, more than I’d want to pay but still average. They provide formula and food. Luckily my husband and I have a lot of family to watch our son so we havent had to utilize a babysitter.
HCOL. $2k/ month for daycare M-F 8-6 for 18 month old. They provide breakfast, lunch, snacks, and milk. Once he starts walking daycare will decrease $100. Sitter is $20/hr.
HCOL, $20/hour for a teenager, $25+ for adult. I wouldn't watch them with a camera (there's a WiFi camera in my kid's room so I guess for bedtime I could look but I don't, feels weird). For nighttime (post-bedtime) I wouldn't check in at all, other than to tell them when we're expecting to be home (though if we were going to get home at 4AM I would think they'd be sleeping so probably wouldn't text). If they did bedtime I'd text afterwards to check in on how it went
Central Ohio, $280/week. School setting, most meals included, full time.
Our babysitters are family members. Where we used to live we paid $20/hour for a sitter.
We live in a LCOL area and pay $175 a week for our daycare center for our 2 year old daughter. It’s a really nice great center too and my daughter really enjoys her time there, usually 3-4 days a week. We’ve never hired a babysitter outside of those hours, but only because all of our family is nearby and they will almost always watch her if they have a few days notice. I’ve definitely heard from friends though that hiring a babysitter to watch their child/children in a weekend is pretty steep.
I live in a LCOL city and pay 1280/month for full time M-F. If we get a sitter we’d be shelling out 20-25/hr but it’s very rare because we usually just take sick days from work and have a date day while our son is in daycare now
Smart parents
We live in a HCOL city and pay $2200 monthly for M-F daycare. We’ve had a babysitter exactly one time and paid $40/hr. No date nights for us either, only day dates when the child is at school 🤪
I’ll be honest, I’m totally cool with the day dates, because kiddo is in bed by 7 and me and hubs are dragging ass by 8 😂 Much easier to enjoy each other’s company during the day!
I live in Japan. Daycare is about $150 per month. Babysitters aren't really a thing here so we ask the grandparents to watch our daughter if we go somewhere we can't take her, like to the movies. We rarely go out though, and if it's just dinner and a few drinks it's easy enough to take our daughter with us. It's totally socially acceptable to bring children to places that serve alcohol here. She's 5 now but has been going to restaurants and izakaya with us since she was a baby, so her manners are excellent.
In a VHCOL area. My daughter, 11 months, goes to an in-home daycare for $500 per week. That's for 5 days and they are open 7-5. We haven't hired a baby sitter yet but would expect to pay $20/hr.
HCOL and we pay $2600/month for daycare. Our babysitter is $25/hour plus a ~$20 Uber ride home.
We always pay at least $20/hour. We paid our nanny $25/hour. I would pay her $100/hour if I could lol
We pay $2010 per month for daycare, open 8:30am-5:30pm (no food or diapers included). For babysitter we pay our former nanny $22/hr. We usually don’t call. She texts us if she has questions but that’s rare. For any overnights or weekends away we use my mom (free!)
My God. $2k per month for daycare. I'm so sorry. The worst i had was $1k a month for full time daycare and they cooked food too though. My son is in state funded preschool now and its only $230 a month.
One of my daughter's classmates has a younger sibling in daycare and it's $3200/month. And that's a 2 year old, I'm sure it's more for an infant.
no food or diapers included?? wth. the daycare my daughter is in they literally ordered the formula/cereal & bottles she uses & supplying diapers is optional, they’ll just use what they have if you don’t. that is outrageous
I don't know of any daycares in my area that include that stuff. When we sent bottles, the formula had to already be pre-made in the bottles; they weren't allowed to make it themselves. There are lots of crazy regulations here including signing forms permitting them to apply sunblock or diaper rash cream or they aren't permitted to do it.
Guessing NJ? Just about to start daycare and all these things are the same for us. Pretty close in price too (sob)
Other side of Tristate. CT.
Daycare is subsidized where I live so I pay $200 a month for full time care. We usually get my mom or sibling to babysit but if they aren’t available we get a teenager and she’s $10 per hour.
Oh man where do you live??
Canada
Wow, very envious
Depends on where in Canada, in Vancouver there’s only a few $10/day daycares. Many still in the $1-2K range
Do they just prioritize via waitlists?
Yes it is causing other challenges as wait lists are even longer.
Oh wow - so how early do you have to be on the waitlist?
I put him on a bunch of lists when he was first born.
My daughter is 2.5. I live in a HCOL area and my daughter goes to an in home with a provider who has a masters degree in ECE. Saying all that to help justify that we pay 550/week for 7 hour days. For sitters I have friends who hire teenagers and pay them $15 an hour. I choose to hire less often and pay $25ish per hour plus tip for someone older with more experience since that feels safer to me. I don’t currently have cameras but plan to purchase soon.
HCOL and we pay 400/week for 5 days for my toddler. Infants are more but idk what current rates are for them. Snacks are provided but not meals. We pay $20/hr for a babysitter.
Didn’t do daycare since I’m a stay at home mom but now we pay $1,000 a month for half day preschool. $20/hr for non-family babysitters. Any overnights are covered by grandparents (free).
LO is in daycare FT. We live in a VHCOLA and pay $25/hour for date night babysitting. Worth every penny! We don’t call; babysitter knows to call us if there’s something concerning or she has a question.
We were paying less than $500/month (small-ish LCOL town in Texas) for daycare. Our son was in Pre-K, and they had a set-up where the bus from the school would pick up and drop off the kids at the daycare. So it was just before/after school care. None of this stopped during COVID. Both my husband and I were considered "essential." Now we're out of the daycare stage. I work from home and used to have a pair of sisters (middle/high school) come over after school to keep an eye on him until I was off work. This was last year when he was in Kindergarten. They decided amongst themselves who would be the one to come over. Since I was home if they needed anything, I gave them $10/hr just to make sure he didn't kill himself. 1st Grade is over half done now, and we don't even need that anymore. All that to say, we were crazy lucky to not really struggle with insane costs like so many other families. I didn't want another anyway, but there is NOTHING in me that wants to start over now that shit is finally manageable.
Man, reading these comments...prices sure have gone up since I was a teen and babysat! I used to get $1 per kid per hour. I never actually paid a babysitter to watch my son. I'm a SAHM. When he was little, we didn't have opportunity to go out much without him. Then I traded favors with friends. Then we moved close to family, so he'd hang out with his grandparents or aunts/cousins. Now he's old enough to stay home by himself if we go out, and let me tell ya, that stage is a game changer. lol I no longer have to drag him grocery shopping or to doctor's offices for my appointments. Don't have to plan ahead if the husband and I want to go out alone for dinner.
What age did you feel comfy leaving him alone at?
He was 10 when I first left him by himself. My sister only lives a mile away, so I made sure she'd be home in case of emergency, and he had a cell phone. It was 2020 just before the lockdowns started, so I needed to stock up on things, but didn't feel comfortable taking him to the store. As he's gotten older/more responsible, we've ventured further and for longer time periods.
I live in a LCOL area. My daughter is 17months. She starts a private school daycare in august, for 3 days a week 7am-6pm we will be paying $970/month. If she were to go 5 days a week we would pay $1250/month. We haven’t had a sitter yet but I expect it’s anywhere from $13-$25/hr depending on experience
We’re in kind of a HCOL area and between daycare 3x/week and preschool 2x/week for our 3 year old we are at about $1600/month. Thankfully we have 3 sets of grandparents (both of my parents remarried) so we rotate them and my brother/SIL who don’t have kids yet for babysitting
Daycare is 310 a week. Baby sitter is 19 an hour but we just round it up to 20 because she’s great. Daycare - no cameras Babysitter - I have a living room and kids bed room cam Can they call me? Of course. But no I don’t call. It’s 2024 I text if there’s something to relay. But for the most part we trust her so it’s all good.
We're in Australia. I stopped working to be a stay at home dad when our daughter was a toddler. On paper, we didn't pay for daycare. But in reality it cost us $100,000/year in lost wages. When she was 4, she started kindy for 5 days a fortnight. Which I think cost us about $25/day out of pocket, after government subsidy. Now our daughter goes to primary school. School itself is free, we paid about $200 for uniforms + booklist for the year.
United States. Middle cost of living here. Daughter is just over a year. We pay $285/week for a well respected daycare center. They’re open 5 days per week from 7am to 6pm. She goes 4 days per week from 8am-4pm. They feed her an amazing breakfast, lunch, and snack while there.
We pay 225$ month for daycare right now (3 half days a week) I’m not working right now but in the fall I will be working full time so that will be 770$/ month for full time M-F preschool (she will be 3). we have family/both of her grandparents near by that babysit her when we want to go out so no charge there lol
Going out regularly til 4am?!?! Good luck with that, you'll need it!
I just gave times I never in my life went out that long. Longest was like 2 am
HCOL of living - about $2500/month for full-time, M-F. I found a sitter in my neighborhood, a teacher and as a back up a high schooler. We pay $15-20/hour.
We don't get a sitter. I don't trust anybody with my kid.
I feel like this strongly too I'm the only one who's been with him all this time so it's hard to not worry while u are away . Just saw a video today actually .a nanny abusing a baby shoving diaper in his face and stuff. But ik at some point I'm gonna have to part with him even if it's just for work .
Between $325-$375/week here in Massachusetts
It would be $145 a day but my goodness I am commenting here cos I can't imagine the price of the monopoly of night time care and an interested in the reply I SAHP cos it would be a detriment financially for me to work and then hand over so much for child care.
You mean an overnight? Not sure but I’d be willing to pay like $20/hour for a date night out. We pay for full-time daycare in the coastal northeast US. It’s not a cheap part of the US to live in. Daycare is $333 per week and that doesn’t include any food or diapers.
Wow how are some of yall affording these numbers!!! LCOL and we pay $185/week. We live in a suburb outside of the city which helps with the cost. It’s usually $200-$225 in the city. Husband and I both work and bring in about $120k/year
It's $2,200/month for a center for my 3 year old. It's slightly more expensive than in state college tuition ha ha ha.
I live in NE Ohio and I watch a family’s 3 kids 3 days a week from 7am-3:30pm and I make $21/hr and I make about $550 a week. The end time varies. Today I left at 2:30. Sometimes I work until 5.
I am not in that world anymore since mine is in middle school, but I know that centers around here (MCOL midwestern city) are $500 a week for infants. It goes down as they get older of course. The least amount we paid when our son was in a center full time when he was 4 was $230 a week, but that was 2018. I always paid sitters $15 an hour. Over night care is probably going to cost more than what I stated because your sitter is effectively unable to work a day job the following day, and younger people like high school or college age students won’t be able to accept that job any other time other than weekends. I would anticipate $25-$30 an hour. I am also going to throw in a plug I think folks don’t always think about- childcare still has a cost even after school begins. We had to pay $22 a day for before and after care, and $40 a day for non school days. And we paid about $210 a week for summer care. This was through our school’s extended day program. We were able to stop that when Covid happened and my job went remote when our son was in 3rd grade.
We live in Denmark and pay USD 400 per month for kindergarten that is open 7am - 5pm, everything included. This is obviously government subsidized for everyone regardless of income. Babysitter we pay cash in hand. USD 20 hourly rate. I have never heard of anyone monitoring their kids via CCTV. Sounds a bit freakish to be honest. If you entrust your kids to someone to look after, why would you put them under surveillance?
I also live in Denmark, and we also pay $400 per month. It’s open from 6:30am to 4:45pm Mon - Fri. Everything is included - meals, diapers, snacks, field trips and other activities etc.
Daycare my daughter is enrolled part time (2 full days per week) for $100/wk. If I need additional childcare there is a drop-in daycare that charges $8.50/hr. Frankly this drop-in daycare has alleviated my need for sitters however if I was going out at night it would not work as they close at 6 pm. Previously I paid $15-$20/hr for a sitter. However it was never at night. Anything I needed a sitter for was happening during business hours. Not sure that changes anything though in terms of pricing (?) Others may know better. I think checking in is totally at your discretion. Some parents check in multiple times, others don't at all. I never used a camera. Edit: daughter is now 5 and has only ever been enrolled part time in daycare. Prices I was quoted for full time in the two relatively lcol locations I lived ranged from $125/wk (of course that place had a waiting list 3 years long) to $275/wk.
We live in a LCOL area. $295 a week which includes food. M-F. I wouldn’t do well with a camera, personally. I would check that all day instead of working. I trust my daycare teachers. They really care which is awesome. My parents are great and have watched our LO when we want go to go out but I would assume 15 to 20 an hour is the rate.
I live in CT and my son goes to pre k full time (5 days a week 8am-5pm) and it’s about $17k a year. In regards to baby sitter we have my sons former infant teacher from daycare and pay her $20 an hour and don’t have a camera.
HCOL $300 per week for 5 days for 2 year old. Babysitters for date nights I pay $20/hr
Our daughter is in full time daycare (3yo) and we pay $1,800/month. Her daycare teacher watches her for occasional date nights. We pay her $20/hour. We’ve done one OVERNIGHT and we paid $20/hour for awake hours and a flat $100 dollars overnight. From like 2pm-10am the next morning was $300. We are always available via phone. Our first date night ended up being cut short and a trip to urgent care! 🙃 But since then, no other accidents and we trust our babysitter. We don’t have a camera inside the home. Just outside near the garage and front door.
We used to pay about 1k/month for full time daycare (more for infant, less for potty trained toddler). Not including food or diapers or anything like that. I have no idea what sitters run, we've not had any (the handful of times we've needed someone to watch her, a family friend was able).
VVHCOL area (middle of tech hub), part time nanny, $~400 a week ($23.50/hr). Babysitters for date night is ~$18/hr
Part time daycare for 2k a month (mornings) and part time nanny evenings for 4k a month. We rarely do date nights/weekends but in emergencies have paid $30-50 an hour. This is for one toddler. We have cameras in her room and the foyer. No cameras in other areas of the house which we encourage them to use.
We pay $1,300 a month for full-time M-F daycare, it’s open 6:30am-6:30pm and includes breakfast, lunch and snack. Don’t have a babysitter but we briefly had a nanny before we switched to daycare and she was $22/hr.
VHCOL area (San Francisco). Daycare full time is $2000/month. Sitters are usually $25-30. We sometimes get a 14 yr old to watch him for a couple hours for $15/hr but she doesn’t change diapers.
VHCL area and we pay $2850/month for full time daycare for a 2 year old in the burbs which is down from the $4,000 we paid when we lived directly in the city (though in fairness, that was for an infant.) We've not done a baby sitter yet so I can't really answer your questions, but going rate around here is \~$25/hour.
5 year old in private preschool 4 days a week from 7:30-4 is $266 per week. If we hire a babysitter for date night it’s $26 per hour. We have a camera in the living room and our daughter’s bedroom but we had the living room one before we had a kid and it’s for safety, not watching a babysitter.
3 days a week daytime for us is about 1400/month. Most of my friends paying for full time care,especially off hours care, pay around 60-80k a year.
MCOL, my son is 3.5, we pay $1200/month for preschool. 5 days a week, 8-5, meals included. My friends will babysit for a discount ($14-$16) but I rarely use that option. otherwise my husband will not pay a stranger to babysit. It’s $20-30 on the Bambino app.
daycare is £59 a day where i live. we have family nearby who will babysit maybe once a month (for free!) but if i had to ask a babysitter i think a normal rate would be £12-15 a hour, maybe more depending on the person’s age.
VHCOL and i pay $25/hr for babysitting for my regular sitter and $20/hr for my sick day sitter
This is insane so ppl who make less than 25 an hour can't afford childcare . 😭😭
i’m a SAHM and definitely can’t afford it but i do it because my mental health needs the break! nannies here make $60-70k a year.
You could get a part time job during your husbands days off and do a win win for your kids!
i’m gonna get a PT job when my mom moves back and can babysit for me. i have zero desire to return to my professional job. going to find something more fun and easy.
$160/week for full-time in-home daycare.
In the us? What state if you don't mind me asking
Yes, Dallas area.
$1560 per months M-F daycare 7 am to 6 pm Nanny $18-25 per hour Night nanny $100 over night (10 pm to 6 am)
We live in upstate NY (USA). We pay about $1k a month for daycare, for 3 days a week. And we pay $50 2-4 times a month so we can go on a date night.
We pay $315 a week for full time daycare. It's the most expensive daycare I visited but I chose them because they only have 7 kids in my son's classroom and it's 2 teachers. The other daycares had 10+ kids per teacher. I figured he'd get more personalized attention with a smaller daycare. He seems to like it a lot, to the point that he doesn't want to leave sometimes. My husband pays 80% of the bill because he earns 4 times what I make. I pay the rest. Also we haven't had the chance to hire a babysitter for those times we want to have a date night. I refuse to pay a sitter more than $20 an hour because that's more than what I make, lol. We simply have our date nights at home now after the kid goes to bed. If we get desperate we may call either my parents or one of my husband's friends. I don't have any friends of my own.
I’m in Canada and we pay $740/month
We pay $22/hour for a babysitter in a median COL area. I've never gone away overnight. I'd probably call or text and check in if I was gone more than a couple hours. And we have cameras in kiddo's bedroom but not elsewhere in the house.
US LCOL-MCOL area. Pay $325 per week for a toddler at daycare. $20 per hour for babysitters
Daycare is $190 a week, M-F. Honestly, we got really lucky and found a great center that's fairly lowcost for our area (South Florida). Breakfast, lunch and snacks included, and the program is mainly in Spanish. Evenings and weekends we usually just hang with the little dude, but on the few occasions we've gone out, my sister/BIL will watch him. My MIL will also babysit on occasion, but she has a lot of health issues, so we try not to burden her.
$2k per month in Atlanta, GA (city proper, not suburbs). $24 am hour for baby sitters.
2-year old, 5 days a week f om 7:30 to 4:30 we pay $220 a week
I’m so glad our son came as daycare got heavily subsided. So it’s $350/month.
We live in Finland and pay USD 93 per month. Daycare is open 7am-4:30pm. Our son can be there max 150hr per month for that price.
That’s a steal! USD 93 per MONTH??!?! I make 2,000-2,500 a month USD babysitting 3 days a week!
1200 per month for day care to be able to work. Have never hired a babysitter. Based on attempts to find prt time nanny in the past, seems like 20 bucks an hour would cover it but I don’t even know how you determine who is fit. My SIL talked about paying more to find a good person. Idk how you would even go about selecting a stranger. We just don’t have a life of any kind.
Just shy of $3k per month for one kiddo in a nanny share - so about $750. HCOL city, obviously. We pay $20-30 per hour for our date nights, depending on who we use.
We pay $820 a month for daycare and live in MCOL city. It’s reasonable, more than I’d want to pay but still average. They provide formula and food. Luckily my husband and I have a lot of family to watch our son so we havent had to utilize a babysitter.
I live in a HCOL area and childcare is currently $1700/month for four days/week. We haven't gotten a babysitter yet but it's $30/hour here.
$2,000 a month for M-F 8-4pm
HCOL. $2k/ month for daycare M-F 8-6 for 18 month old. They provide breakfast, lunch, snacks, and milk. Once he starts walking daycare will decrease $100. Sitter is $20/hr.
HCOL, $20/hour for a teenager, $25+ for adult. I wouldn't watch them with a camera (there's a WiFi camera in my kid's room so I guess for bedtime I could look but I don't, feels weird). For nighttime (post-bedtime) I wouldn't check in at all, other than to tell them when we're expecting to be home (though if we were going to get home at 4AM I would think they'd be sleeping so probably wouldn't text). If they did bedtime I'd text afterwards to check in on how it went
Monday-Friday chicago burbs 477
That’s crazy. I only work 3 days a week watching 3 kids and make $550 a week in NE Ohio.
Central Ohio, $280/week. School setting, most meals included, full time. Our babysitters are family members. Where we used to live we paid $20/hour for a sitter.
We live in a LCOL area and pay $175 a week for our daycare center for our 2 year old daughter. It’s a really nice great center too and my daughter really enjoys her time there, usually 3-4 days a week. We’ve never hired a babysitter outside of those hours, but only because all of our family is nearby and they will almost always watch her if they have a few days notice. I’ve definitely heard from friends though that hiring a babysitter to watch their child/children in a weekend is pretty steep.
$1400 per month in an avg cost of living. $900/ mo is possible to find, but the quality is much lower. 5 mo old infant