A Better Way To Do Daycare

"Workers get paid so little, around $11 an hour." Child Care Crisis: Finding solutions to cut costs KY3 (July, 2022)

This means that the person looking after your toddler, and roughly ten others at the same time, is getting paid $11 an hour! A ridiculous wage for one of the most critical jobs in the economy. If day care centers can't stay open because they're short of staff, then lots of mommies won't be able to go to work. And now companies are slashing parental leave to cut costs, which puts things back to how they were before the pandemic. So much for progress.

There are so many problems related to child care, and the pandemic brought it all to light. Daycare centers are struggling to keep their doors open because of things like inflation making prices higher. Another factor is that the low-paid workers who traditionally filled these jobs have found better paying jobs since the pandemic. Not to mention having to deal with all the parents' complaining and kids crying - it's a very tough job.

From what I can see, child care costs range from around $6K to $20K per child, depending on the state you live in. So if you have two toddlers in daycare that's a whopping $40K for both, and a huge chunk of Mommy's salary.

All of the above are very serious issues. But I wasn't planning on writing about this important topic until I saw a father post this report on his kid who isn't even two yet. Daycare being expensive is one thing. But what do they actually do there?

When we're talking about childcare all the focus is on the money. Not how your child is being treated, how workers are being taken advantage of, or what kind of values your child is absorbing there. Even with this annoying frame by frame report of what your child is doing - do you really have any idea what's going on? Absolutely not. And why should you need to? The whole point of putting your kid in childcare is to get some work done! So you can get paid! And be able to afford all this childcare.

My Recommendation: Self-Organized Child Care

The most ideal solution to this problem is for a few families to get together, find someone close to one of the families who would be happy to have an income, such as a relative or neighbor, and pay them to look after a small group of kids. There are so many benefits here, and mainly that parents will have a much more cost-effective solution and their kids will be better off. Toddlers don't need tons of stimulation. It's enough for them to be with another few kids to compare themselves to. As long as the kids are fed well, have plenty of time outdoors and nap time - that's all they really need. I've seen this done with great success here in Israel. It's a very good way for a mother who is already at home looking after her little ones to have an extra income.