dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Jan 13, 2018 6:49:03 GMT -6
We're in the middle of sorting out all of our end of year finance stuff. I did some math and we spent around $22k on childcare last year. We don't have a nanny or send our kids to some chichi put-this-on-your-college-applications preschool. I feel ill. If it makes you feel better, we paid $40k ish for two kids this last year we are counting down the days until DD1 starts k this fall!!! That's like what I made in a year as a teacher. One of many reasons I SAH (and I'm very blessed to be able to)
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Jan 13, 2018 6:51:06 GMT -6
We think big baby byjove has flu now too. It is seriously so bad in DC right now! I’m guessing I probably had it too, but it was more mild because I finished baby byjove‘s bottle of tamiflu :/
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Jan 13, 2018 6:52:16 GMT -6
If it makes you feel better, we paid $40k ish for two kids this last year we are counting down the days until DD1 starts k this fall!!! That's like what I made in a year as a teacher. One of many reasons I SAH (and I'm very blessed to be able to) It is insane!
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Jan 13, 2018 6:52:49 GMT -6
We think big baby byjove has flu now too. It is seriously so bad in DC right now! I’m guessing I probably had it too, but it was more mild because I finished baby byjove‘s bottle of tamiflu :/ Oh no Healthy vibes!!
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Post by Uncaripswife on Jan 13, 2018 6:58:47 GMT -6
byjove I hope you're all feeling better soon. I'm going to lock myself and DD in the house until April. DNW flu.
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crunch
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Post by crunch on Jan 13, 2018 7:00:31 GMT -6
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crunch
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Post by crunch on Jan 13, 2018 7:01:13 GMT -6
I wish there was a way to truly see how his base is feeling and thinking. I know a lot of my dads clients are trump voters and they are so sick of trump.
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ldubhawksfan
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Post by ldubhawksfan on Jan 13, 2018 7:01:45 GMT -6
We're in the middle of sorting out all of our end of year finance stuff. I did some math and we spent around $22k on childcare last year. We don't have a nanny or send our kids to some chichi put-this-on-your-college-applications preschool. I feel ill. Now that we have 2, this year will be about $26k. For a pretty middle of the line daycare/preschool. Awesome.and that is if I continue back to work 4 days a week. If they go FT, it will be another grand at least. Crazy
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Post by shadesofgold on Jan 13, 2018 7:21:23 GMT -6
From Fodor's official Facebook.
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Post by coconutbacon on Jan 13, 2018 7:27:11 GMT -6
I hope you all heal quickly, byjove!
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Post by mananana on Jan 13, 2018 7:34:12 GMT -6
I wish, but don't dare to hope...As someone who lives in the land of Grassley, Ernst, and King and has watched the moves of local government over the past year, I just can't bring myself to feel terribly hopeful. Grassley had a 56% approval and 30% disapproval in 2016 and it was about the same six years before that. I mean we've kept Steve King around FFS. There's a pediatrician who's running and coming for King head-on , but he's from the patch of blue that got stapled to King's red area in the last redistricing. It'll be interesting to see what the rest of Grassley's state tour brings...maybe things are more hopeful than I think.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2018 7:41:11 GMT -6
If you have Netflix I highly recommend watching Letterman’s interview with President Obama. It will make you sad but also hopeful, and the parts with John Lewis and listening to Barack talk about him are beyond moving.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Jan 13, 2018 7:42:45 GMT -6
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Post by shadesofgold on Jan 13, 2018 7:54:49 GMT -6
Warning: one of my hills. TL;DR: childcare is expensive and it should be.
We'll be paying close to $40k per year for 2 kids in a quality, licensed childcare center. That's only half of what we'd pay for one year of college for one. I'd argue that daycare should be more expensive than college. The learning fostered and care received in the first five years is way more critical to life success, they change diapers and clean bodily messes of all kinds, and there are 1:4 ratios staff instead of 1:250 lecture halls. Plus, I know our teachers make a living wage, so I'm reconciled to that cost.
I spend 40% of my work time advocating for increased public funding for the local childcare system to 1) improve access for low income families, and 2) try to increase teacher pay. We have done studies and surveys of childcare businesses to try to understand why costs are so high while pay is so low. Without linking and doxing myself, the tl;dr is that renting space and caring for kids at the mandated staff ratios and with tight regulations is expensive and sucks up a lot of revenue. That gets harder when serving kids who have are high need or with delays/disabilities. Most centers operate only hovering near breaking even, many in poorer neighborhoods operate at a loss. There is a very real chance that crazy amount you pay doesn't even really cover what you're getting. Especially a high enough salary for teachers. Something like 20%of local childcare teachers in DC work additional job(s) even with a high minimum wage.
One of our most difficult problems as a society is how to support the system to a) require high quality in daycare businesses, while b) offering affordability and subsidizing those who can't pay the full cost while also c) ensuring enough revenue is left at the end of the month to pay adequate wages to the women (95% of the workforce) who make it possible.
I'd argue that truly solving it starts when we truly value the work. I hear a lot of the arguments (not here, out in the world) about daycare costs with dismissive tones that devalue the work. What if we understood those working with 0-5 year olds as essential and highly skilled educators instead of sitters or baby holders? What if we didn't say "it costs as much as college!" as if college is the higher value proposition. I think rather than "that's crazy" the primary mantra should be "it's expensive and it's worth it and our community should make it easier for everyone to access."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2018 8:03:21 GMT -6
We spent $28k in 2016 and that was with DD in half-day free public preK for 4 months.
It was significantly less last year with full-day kindergarten. Praise the lord for August 31st birthdays.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2018 8:06:43 GMT -6
shadesofgold, I agree with all of that. Eta: and you may know this answer off-hand, our daycare works with a county program that provides a sliding scale linked to income and the county reimburses for the difference (maybe not the full difference, IDK). Do you know if licensed daycares are required to do that? Or can they not participate?
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cmb
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Post by cmb on Jan 13, 2018 8:12:21 GMT -6
We're in the middle of sorting out all of our end of year finance stuff. I did some math and we spent around $22k on childcare last year. We don't have a nanny or send our kids to some chichi put-this-on-your-college-applications preschool. I feel ill. This is accurate for me as well. Related to this, did you read the NYTimes piece about the wages and labor conditions for most preschool teachers in the US? Why Are Our Most Important Teachers Paid the Least? www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/magazine/why-are-our-most-important-teachers-paid-the-least.htmlIt will not make you feel better. It broke my heart and I just don’t understand why preschool and childcare are so expensive for so many of us, and yet the ones on the front line— the teachers— are so often not even paid a living wage. When DS1 was in the 24-30 month toddler room, he went through 3 head teachers. The two that left gave the same reason- better pay and a job with benefits; they only made about $10 an hour, had no benefits, and were not paid for days the daycare was closed or they were sick. It’s hard to resonate that when we pay over $500 a week for two kids ($250 for DS1 who is now in the preschool room, $300 for DS2 infant room), and this isn’t that high of living cost area. Granted, our ratios are 1:6 and 1:4, respectively, but mathematically, they should be paid more
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Jan 13, 2018 8:19:39 GMT -6
I just heard the transcript from the WH JCPOA conference call and they Rick Rolled the call?! 😂😂😂😂
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Post by shadesofgold on Jan 13, 2018 8:20:09 GMT -6
shadesofgold, I agree with all of that. Eta: and you may know this answer off-hand, our daycare works with a county program that provides a sliding scale linked to income and the county reimburses for the difference (maybe not the full difference, IDK). Do you know if licensed daycares are required to do that? Or can they not participate? Here, and I assume elsewhere, participation in the subsidy/voucher programs is totally voluntary. Usually driven by demand in the neighborhood. And in DC the subsidy covers only about 70% of the cost, so they literally lose money taking on poor children. If they can, they try to balance that with the cost of privately paying families.
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Post by Uncaripswife on Jan 13, 2018 8:20:43 GMT -6
To be fair, I believe this is a continuation of a waiver that was granted under the Obama admin.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Jan 13, 2018 8:23:35 GMT -6
To be fair, I believe this is a continuation of a waiver that was granted under the Obama admin. It is, but they should at least impose some kind of penalty considering the optics Actually no, I take that back. They can't go around making decisions like that bc of optics. I just would prefer we not have to look at EVERYTHING they do through the lens of how it benefits their wallets.
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Post by coconutbacon on Jan 13, 2018 8:24:30 GMT -6
shadesofgold, how much do your daycare teachers make? The Bright Horizons Center I sent my daughter to cost over 30,000/ yr full time, infant until 3, and then there is a marginal price drop. But the head teachers there are making 12-13/ hr. In NYC, that is not a living wage. Many have second jobs. The assistant teachers, of course, make less. I just don’t see the high cost of daycare actually being passed down to the teachers. It goes to cover space rental, insurance, administration, etc. I also was lucky to be in a position to be able to afford that (sort of— we kept her out of full time for as long as possible)— that was largely only because my husband left his job at a non profit museum, and went to work for a tech company. If we both were still in non profit arts, I don’t know how we would have been able to afford a licensed daycare in Brooklyn otherwise. There are not a lot of places that do sliding scale, or are otherwise affordable where we are. In September, MH and I traded places waiting overnight in a line to get a spot on the wait list for the Y daycare— which is sliding scale and goes up to about 1200/mo, which is what we would pay. We’ll find out this month if we got a spot for this coming September. There is so much wrong with this— the people who can probably least afford to wait over night in a line are the ones who most need this childcare. Why is affordable childcare (affordable meaning about 14K per year) so scarecrow that people will wait overnight for a spot on a waitlist? I definitely value early childcare/ preK as much as college, but, like college, it shouldn’t be only for the wealthy, and I also just don’t see the costs going to teacher.
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Post by numbears on Jan 13, 2018 8:45:27 GMT -6
Sorry everyone's recovering/suffering from the flu.
My hospital and most in the state have been at capacity for going on two weeks because of the flu. We're flying people to other states. It's scary how hard and fast it's hitting this year. Another, fuck you to 2017.
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Post by shadesofgold on Jan 13, 2018 8:45:53 GMT -6
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Post by Uncaripswife on Jan 13, 2018 8:45:58 GMT -6
To be fair, I believe this is a continuation of a waiver that was granted under the Obama admin. It is, but they should at least impose some kind of penalty considering the optics Actually no, I take that back. They can't go around making decisions like that bc of optics. I just would prefer we not have to look at EVERYTHING they do through the lens of how it benefits their wallets. They were already fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the DOJ and various other regulators. Plus the exemption only lasts 3 years and gets revoked if they do xyz bad things. I mean, I think 45 is corrupt and worthy of condemnation for a lot of things. I just disagree that this thing is one of them.
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Jan 13, 2018 8:45:58 GMT -6
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Jan 13, 2018 8:46:22 GMT -6
Seen On FB
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crunch
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Post by crunch on Jan 13, 2018 8:47:23 GMT -6
This is kinda the same but the amount a paraprofessional for prek3 and 4 in dc makes is SICK. I made $15 an hour last year and I did so. much. work. Seriously, I worked just as hard as a teacher. I had small groups too. I ran morning meeting a lot. I actually spent more waking time with the kids during the day than the teacher did. To put it in perspective, the teacher made over $70,000 a year. I made I think like $24,000 maybe?
The amount of work they expect for a para vs. the amount they are paid is sad and depressing.
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Post by shadesofgold on Jan 13, 2018 8:52:13 GMT -6
shadesofgold, how much do your daycare teachers make? The Bright Horizons Center I sent my daughter to cost over 30,000/ yr full time, infant until 3, and then there is a marginal price drop. But the head teachers there are making 12-13/ hr. In NYC, that is not a living wage. Many have second jobs. The assistant teachers, of course, make less. I just don’t see the high cost of daycare actually being passed down to the teachers. It goes to cover space rental, insurance, administration, etc. I also was lucky to be in a position to be able to afford that (sort of— we kept her out of full time for as long as possible)— that was largely only because my husband left his job at a non profit museum, and went to work for a tech company. If we both were still in non profit arts, I don’t know how we would have been able to afford a licensed daycare in Brooklyn otherwise. There are not a lot of places that do sliding scale, or are otherwise affordable where we are. In September, MH and I traded places waiting overnight in a line to get a spot on the wait list for the Y daycare— which is sliding scale and goes up to about 1200/mo, which is what we would pay. We’ll find out this month if we got a spot for this coming September. There is so much wrong with this— the people who can probably least afford to wait over night in a line are the ones who most need this childcare. Why is affordable childcare (affordable meaning about 14K per year) so scarecrow that people will wait overnight for a spot on a waitlist? I definitely value early childcare/ preK as much as college, but, like college, it shouldn’t be only for the wealthy, and I also just don’t see the costs going to teacher. Minimum wage here is rising to $15 per hour and my center's director has told me that her teachers make that as a floor with annual increases. Very few benefits, though. And I know that many many centers here are not paying more than $13 per hour. FWIW MH and I laughed ourselves out of the tour at the downtown Bright Horizons when they told us the cost. But they are offering lots of extras like guaranteed care on snow days. Wait lists are long for really basic economic reasons. It doesn't pay to operate childcare. There is no incentive aside from love and vocation to do it. For that reason, there are not enough to meet the need. Until it makes business sense to operate a center, the wait lists will persist. That isn't a fault of the providers, it's the result of a broken market and low public investment.
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Post by greykitty on Jan 13, 2018 9:00:06 GMT -6
Stories like this, and real people I've met in real life, remind me that, IMO, even just from a strategic POV, it's not wise of me to paint all Trump voters with one brush and just write them off - and to try not to get into discussions that end up putting everyone totally on the defensive and just digging in - on all sides. Maybe it's allowing saving face while changing their minds (and votes). It's often hard for me to allow for that in a 'debate'.
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