Hi everyone. I feel a little weird being on this site since my husband and I don't have children yet, but are looking into starting our family soon. Here is my question. Does anyone know how to go about finding home based child care? We just moved into our first home in a new area in November so we don't know anyone really. Neither one of us work in the area either. Daycares are sooo expensive and with our salaries combined we just don't know how we would really afford it with a mortgage and I'm still going to college. I would prefer to put my kids in a home based child care rather than a daycare facility. If anyone has any suggestions as to where I could start looking to get ideas on how much this would cost, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
P.S. Sorry my location isn't VA, I don't know why it listed that. Im actually from Stroudsburg, PA
Prices range depending on the area. I actualy run a family childcare in Rockville and for an infant the cost is $220.00 per week. But you can call me to discus the price. ###-###-####
Call up the Children and Youth dept. of Monroe County. I can't remember the phone number, so if you can't find it in the telephone book, call the court house. They will be able to tell you who to contact to get the official list of home child caretakers. They have a list of all the people that take care of children at their homes and all the daycare centers, that Monroe County has stamped their approval on. This is important, because people taking care of children at their home are only allowed to have 4.
Why would you not just stay at home with your child? If you have not had any yet, I would suggest you getting to a place where you can afford to stay at home and then have them. Child care is the worst thing you can do for your kids - we all should raise our own - I am not judging since I also work and am currently working towards staying at home. I really regret missing all the moments that they were at a care provider. Now they are with my monther in law when not in school and still feel like I am missing out on the most blessed part of life.
Here is a link to the Virginia Department of Social Services--it also has link for unlicensed facility listings (you may find more home-based care there)
http://www.dss.virginia.gov/facility/search/licensed.cgi
Daycare isn't the WORST thing that could happen to our kids, but I agree that if you can stay home for the first couple of years then you should. I'd love for it to be an option for my daughter.
My daughter is almost three and has been in two different centers. Both associated with a Christian church. They each have had their challenges, and it isn't cheap, but it is manageable.
Good luck.
Here's a web site I found when I googled cost of child care in Virginia. Infants are expensive. The baby room teacher can only have 4 infants per teacher and the owner has to pay overhead costs and the teacher a salary from that money. Since they only get a small amount, not like having 15 three year olds all paying $18.00 per day each, they have to charge more.
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ofc/Avcostcare.htm
Here is the website for Oklahoma where the state pays child care for individuals. If you scroll down about half way you can see the different graphs for amounts.
(Blended is for school age kids and means some days they are there all day and some days they are there only after school, blended means you get the same amount all the time and not one amount during the schoolyear and another during Summer break, it doesn't really apply to your question.)
It basically states that for an infant up to age 12 months they will pay anywhere from $15.50 up to $35.00 per day depending on the star level the center has and where it's located, whether a small town or big city. Home child providors get less but not much.
http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/2E81F###-###-####-487B-...
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I think that you are being very smart. Planning ahead about how you will handle child care and making a budget for that time is a good idea. Plus, factor in what you spend on your job each month. Dry cleaning, travel, extra insurance, eating out, make up, hiar care, etc...it can all add up and sometimes it's just more cost effective to not work. I know many friends who stay at home and have 5-10 kids each. Their husbands aren't the President or making those kinds of bucks either but they live in very nice homes ( all over 4-5 bedrooms with multiple living areas and land for the kids to play outside), with mulitple cars, and have plenty to eat and they may have to be frugal but they make it work.
contact your local health department they should be able to help you!
Both of my children are in an at home daycare environment and I love it - but in reality they aren't too much cheaper than regular daycare centers and you really do need to search until you find the right one for your family.
We did not end up using this service because we found our amazing provider through a friend, but we went to the orientation and they seemed very helpful.
Good luck!
In illinois you can get a list of licensed child care providers in your area from the ywca child care resource and referral. its probably the same there
If you live in MD, we used this service to find home-based care for our daughter:
http://www.mdchildcare.org/mdcfc/for_parents/finding.html
If the link doesn't work, just google "MD locate child care"
It was excellent!
If you do live in the Rockville/Twinbrook area, I can even recommend someone. She loved our daughter as if she was family - we had a wonderful experience. Feel free to send me a message.
Good luck!
