BAck To Work After Baby Daycare

I am interested to know how much you would pay for day care,what you expect of a care center/childminder and when you think it's time for you to go back to work,if at all.

I have no real idea as yet how much we are going to have to pay to take Theo to daycare but we will be using daycare for 2.5 days a week so it allows me to go back to work, I am very lucky in the fact that if I work longer than my core hours (8.30 - 5.20pm) the excess time mounts up and I can then use it to go home early or come in late so for at least 1 day a week I am going to try and get into work at 8am and always take half an hour lunch that way I will build up 1.5 hours a week allowing me to go home early one day a week saving money on childcare!!!!

I am going to need to do some research as places book up fast!!!! My plans are to go back after 1 year, that's the maximum time I can take off, I don't want to go back I would love to be a fulltime stay at home Mum but we just can't afford for me to do that, so I don't get much of a choice!!

I think most of the places in my area charge about $100 - $125 per week. If you have more than one child attending most places reduce the second child's fees.

I feel very fortunate that I am able to stay home with Owen. We have been married almost 9 years and we always put my paycheck in savings so we are used to not living on it.

I'm not sure right now if we will have more children and if so, when, but I know I'll be home with Owen at least until he starts school unless something weird happens. If we have another baby I'll be home for a while.

I'm an interior designer so I can always do freelance work to make a little extra money if I wanted to. I've also thought about teaching as an adjunct at one of our local colleges, really more so that I can just get out some! I'm in no rush right now.

I really admire anyone that has to go back after just 6 weeks! I honestly don't know how you do it!!!! Owen was only sleeping 3 hour stretches at that time!!!!

i went back to work when Kaydance was 5 weeks old. One week later i quit my job! lol, it was awful and i didnt want to go back in the first place (my boss actually called me in the hospital the day after i gave birth to ask me if i would come back to work early!!!!!). i was going to stay at home with kaydance even though we both knew we couldnt afford it, when i was offered a job at my FIL's company, where DF works. i was told to come to work and bring kaydance with me!!! so from the time she was 9 weeks old, until this past friday she has come to work with me every day, mon-fri, from 8-5! its been wonderful. She started daycare on monday this week because bringing her to work with me wasnt really safe anymore since she can pull up and crawl fast as lightning lol! we didnt want her getting hurt here, and i believe she may have been getting bored too lol. only so much an 8 month old can do in an office the daycare i found is $130.00 a week, but they provide her formula while she is there so its not really expensive at all, and its a 4 star rated daycare. she loves it too, she has a great time while shes there!!!

well as for costs, the daycare here is $12.50 per session which is either 8am-12.30pm or 12.30pm-5pm, if you only want a couple of hours is $5.00 p/h. I find this reasonably good, Jess is about to start going 3 times a week for 3 hours a time. "cant wait!"

OMG 24 Penguins, I can't believe your boss actually called you IN THE HOSPITAL!!! SO RUDE.

As for prices, I think it varies from state to state, what the average household earnings are greatly affect daycare costs.

However... I would be willing to pay more if I knew that there were very few kids in the daycare my child attended. I used to actually run a daycare in my home, and I had a few parents who paid me more so that I could afford to keep less children and have more one on one time with their babies. I advertised it as PRIVATE INFANT DAYCARE. I charged 150 dollars a week for kids under one. I charged 135 for kids older than 0ne. I charged more for a half day, by the hour if it was less than 5 hours.