Parents around the world are cutting corners these days due to the struggling economy. Some have restructured their household budgets to eliminate family vacations while others no longer go out to eat or have decided to give up their weekly trips to the movie theater. For other families, who have suffered layoffs or a reduction in work hours, the nation’s economic troubles have meant pulling their children out of daycare.
According to news reports, daycares are the latest causality of the financial crisis. One of the hardest hit childcare centers is in Rockford, Illinois, located about an hour northwest of Chicago. Employees there say dozens of parents have taken their children out of the facility because they’ve lost jobs.
Financial strains are prompting parents to rely more on grandparents and other relatives to watch their children. In other cases, parents are quitting their jobs because their paycheck is less than their daycare costs.
One news report highlighted the financial difficulties of a single mother of two young children who was forced to pull her 4-year-old out of daycare because her $38,000 office-job salary couldn’t cover her bills and the $6,900 she paid annually for daycare. In explaining her decision to abandon daycare, the cash-strapped mom revealed that she was simply paying more in daycare than she was making at work.
According to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, the average daycare cost in the United States ranges anywhere from $3,380 to $10,787 a year–for just one preschooler. The association goes on to say that the cost of daycare climbed 5.2 percent between 2006 and 2007, and in every state in the country the monthly childcare bill for two children is higher than median price of rent and as high or higher than a mortgage.
Childcare workers say when children are yanked from daycare kids on both sides suffer, those pulled out are “confused and upset by the change in routine,” and those left behind “act out more due to the abrupt loss of their playmates.”
But, childcare experts say the situation is even graver when you factor in the effects of financially desperate parents who turn to cheaper, unlicensed care. One news report cites an incident in New York where a mom, who reportedly couldn’t find anyone to care for her 4-year-old daughter while she went to work in a shoe store, simply left the girl outside in the family car with a sandwich and water, and checked on her periodically throughout the day. Someone eventually spotted the child and called the police. Authorities say the incident underscores the desperate choices facing a growing number of parents.
Has your childcare situation changed since the economy hit rock bottom? In what way?
Related Articles:
Bad Economy + Tooth Fairy = Unhappy Kids
Stay-at-Home-Mom Says Record Game Show Win “Lessens Guilt”