My wife was considering watching a couple of the neighbor kids while the single mom worked. It would be 3 days one week and 5 the next. Two children, ages 4 (girl) and 7 (boy). We also have three kids ages 4, 6, and 7 (g, b, g).
The mom would drop the kids off at 8 am and then return to get them anywhere between 12:45 - 2:45. My wife has no idea what to even suggest as the fee.
The mom has trouble coming up with a number too. It’s like they both are embarrassed to even suggest a number out of fear they will offend the other.
I’m thinking the mom is going to want the lowest number and the wife will shoot for the higher end of the spectrum, but neither really knows what the going rate is for this type of arrangement. That’s where you guys come in.
Mom insists that payments be equal every week so she can budget it out of her check. Her hours will range from 12-18 hours on the short week and 20-30 hours on the five day work week. She makes about $16.50/hr if that matters. She says she receives no child support or help with day care. She does get food stamps though and help with utility payments and medical for the kids.
She wants to keep the kids out of professional day-care centers for various reasons.
What do you charge/pay for child care?
Thanks much!
Also, is liability an issue when you are doing day-care such as this?
Is it different than simply having a play-date if a child under your care gets hurt?
Wow, with those hours and that pay rate, I don’t see how she could afford a day-care center. I paid $175 a week for my boy, even though the entire school year the sitter’s job was largely a chauffeuring one. Even when he was at school all day and the sitter only saw him ~two hours, I was paying for him to be taken care of whether there was a holiday, or sick day, or summer break or whatever needed doing. I equate paying a sitter with paying for a replacement me, he gets homework help, encouragement, discipline, medical care, etc. And I felt lucky getting all that for $175 a week, considering what day cares cost.
I don’t know about liability, my sitters and I always treated the medical stuff fairly simply. If they’d give their kids something for the same symptom, cough medicine or ibuprofen or whatever, then treat mine the same. If it’s an actual emergency, the ERs will treat first and fill out paperwork later, anything in between can be handled by calling me home.
Good luck finding something both your wife and the neighbor can agree on.
Liability is a huge issue depending on where you are. Unlicensed day care can get you in all sorts of trouble in certain areas, and there are all sorts of regulations and inspections required for licensed day care. For example, you need to maintain a certain child-to-adult ratio, have certain foods in the house, have emrgency contacts and medical info, etc.
We pay about 35 dollars a day for one kid. I don’t know if there’s a “multiple kid discount” or not.
That’s not a bad idea, but I’d still like to hear from others that actually are in this situation and hear what they pay. It’ll help in coming up with a ballpark figure.
Its HIGHLY variable depending on location. We pay $1600 for two kids in a center in the Twin Cities, home daycare would be much cheaper. But the Twin Cities are an expensive daycare region. What someone is paying in Manhatten has little bearing on what daycare is worth in Milwaulkee.
Its also HIGHLY variable on what sort of issues (liability, etc.) you will have doing this depending on region. Some states really frown on unlicensed daycare. Other states barely have licensing.
It can be really high in some places. I am paying almost $2000 a month for my two kids to go full time. Of course, I’m in Chicago, and everything is expensive here…on another message board I participate on, the moms were FLOORED that I pay so much, but they mostly live in smaller towns, where housing costs are probably 1/2 of what they are in larger cities, as well.
We pay $125/week for a licensed, insured one-woman operation. Five days a week, up to eight hours a day (although the little one is only there for about six). I believe the State picks up a chunk of her bill for feeding the kids.
I just talked to my friend who ran a day home for years and years. Her rates were $5-$6/hour per child up to a maximum of the drop in day rate of $37 per child.
For the 7 year old, it’s probably only before/after school care (come September) which Vic has suggested should be about $250 - $350/month. The 4 year old would be at the full time rate which Vic has suggested should be about $600/ month. That’s about $950 a month which is going to be hard to pull off on $16.50 an hour, for sure…
Just to be fair, perhaps your wife could sugest a sliding scale - ie, start with a very low number and then when the woman’s wage increases, the amount she pays could increase?
On the liability front, if you’re seriously considering this, talk with your insurance agent. Some homeowner’s policies exclude coverage for at home businesses. When little Timmy trips over his shoe laces and breaks his arm you’d be surprised how fast the medical bills add up and how quickly your neighbor will get an attorney. Many insurers have an endorsement that extends coverage for home day care. These endorsements are relatively inexpensive and are usually limited people who care for a small number of children.
(Thanks for the $ info) That would make sense, that part about a sliding scale, except the wife only wants to do two kids max and if she picks up these kids it sort of cuts her off from any moms that would be willing to pay more.
On the other hand, this mom is a close neighbor and we would like to help her out, but the money needs to be there to offset any liability/insurance adders that we’d need to take out. So, basically, if she can only afford $200/month for both kids we may not be able to help her out. That’s the sad part. I wish she had a better job or had some child support coming in.
Well, as I said, it’s all a matter of the local economy. What I pay per month to my daycare provider probably just covers the rent on her house, which is a 6-room, 1-bath, older home. She has a slightly larger place to than she strictly needs for living, but she needs the extra bedroom & a decent-sized yard, because of her business. She typically has about 5-6 kids per day. So if you think of the old rule that housing costs should be 1/3 of your income, she is probably charging just the right amount, and is in no way getting rich off of it!
Yep. $35 CDN is the going rate per child, per day here in Ottawa. This is at someone’s home daycare. It’s more expensive at “real” daycares.
($35 x 2 kids x 5 days x 52 weeks)/12 = $1,517 per month average.
Now that the Loonie and Greenback are nearing par any conversion is essentially meaningless. (Conversion works out to $1,436 USD per month for 2 kids.)