private school for infants

[God or Mammon?]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2610358/The-New-York-private-school-BABIES-demanding-33-500-year-teach-napping-play.html

[God or Mammon?]

interestingly the 5 day/week option, from 8am to 6pm, comes to under $13/hr for babysitting - and it's clearly targeting working mothers (starts at 3m of age, right around when maternity leave ends?)

I guess it could make sense for a high earning dual income couple who values convenience/logistics?

[Gin1984]

Boston daycares average $25K for infants from what I found on the university daycares (and those are normally equal to the areas average).  Daycare is extremely expensive for working parents.  I pay over $1000/month for mine and as a grad student, I only make a little over $2000/month.

[MrsPete]

I don't think New York and Boston are indicative of the nation as a whole.  Those are high-priced pockets of the country. 

If you want to go into a lucrative business, build a day care center next to a hospital.  Nurses and other health care workers need 24-hour care, and they pay a big premium for those night shifts -- even though the kids are sleeping! 

[zhelud]

I've said it before in these forums, and I'll say it again- infant care is expensive no matter where you live. It is labor-intensive and always will be. I would not recommend putting an infant into a day care situation where the caregiver-baby ratio is worse than 1:3. And if you want to employ good people to take care of the babies, you have to pay them decent salaries and provide benefits.

[ruthiegirl]

I read that article as a mom who struggles to find childcare.    And you know I see there?  Well trained teachers who will spend the day with my kid doing age appropriate activities -- music, play, eating, napping...just another day in the life of a little one.  The price for such attention is high, but their target market is clearly the high earning New York professional.

And food for thought....I have a 2 year old and am on waiting lists for 2 daycare centers -- one has an 18 month waiting list, the other is 2 years.  The 3 other childcare centers I contacted have closed their waiting lists.  And this is for a 2 year old, infants childcare is even harder to find. 

So, I stay at home for another year or two.  Childcare folks, expensive and hard to find. 

[greenmimama]

Other than it being a lot of money, I think it's pretty great, parents know that the most learning happens before a child is 3, this is money well invest in their future if this school is as good as it's price makes it appear to be.

I used to work with infants in a nice daycare outside of Nashville, we had a lot of fun with them, but it was exhausting work, I tried my best to spend individual time with them and help them to learn and grow.

Idea for daycare by a hospital is great!

[kaizen]

Every day it seems I have a new reason to love my sweet, kind, caring and dedicated daycare provider, who costs less than a third of that place... and we live in LA! My toddler is getting preschool type learning, and when my infant joins her in the fall I know she'll be carried most of the day and loved on a ton.

[mrsggrowsveg]

That is so expensive.  However, we still paid a lot for our infant.  At our previous daycare, we paid $110 a week for an amazing corporate center.  When my husband got a new job, we had to switch to another place we really love for $150 a week.  This does get less expensive as he ages.  In total we are spending about $7,800 for the entire year for one of the very best centers in town.  I think things are much cheaper in our state than others.  That is a very good point that most learning occurs before three.  That is what stops me from switching to a cheaper home daycare that would not provide the same learning environment.

[RetiredAt63]

Québec - $7/day daycare.  Eat your hearts out.

I know, socialist state, etc., etc.  It came in after our DD was in school so we didn't benefit, but how I wish it had been around when we needed it.  At least my daycare costs were tax deductible.

[MayDay]

35k in manhattan doesn't sound that unreasonable.  I mean, obviously it is a huge amount of money. But given that I paid about 1500$ a month in Minneapolis, I can see how it would cost that much in Manhattan.  I mean, the rent alone would be insane, let alone paying teachers. 

I imagine the kind of parents who might use a daycare like this are also considering a nanny.  What does a nanny in manhattan cost?  I assume a legal white nanny (the best kind, right!?!) is 20$ an hour, and the rate goes down the browner the nanny is.  So this center sounds like it is about market rate for legal childcare in manhattan. 

[frugalmom]

35k in manhattan doesn't sound that unreasonable.  I mean, obviously it is a huge amount of money. But given that I paid about 1500$ a month in Minneapolis, I can see how it would cost that much in Manhattan.  I mean, the rent alone would be insane, let alone paying teachers. 

I imagine the kind of parents who might use a daycare like this are also considering a nanny.  What does a nanny in manhattan cost?  I assume a legal white nanny (the best kind, right!?!) is 20$ an hour, and the rate goes down the browner the nanny is.  So this center sounds like it is about market rate for legal childcare in manhattan.

Best nanny's (legal) in Manhattan are $100-150K

Normal nanny cash off the books is $800 a week, plus bonus so assume $50K cash

[ghatko]

Québec - $7/day daycare.  Eat your hearts out.

I know, socialist state, etc., etc.  It came in after our DD was in school so we didn't benefit, but how I wish it had been around when we needed it.  At least my daycare costs were tax deductible.

It is only great if you can get a spot :-P

We still don't have a spot for our almost 4 year old. We did find a pretty inexpensive home daycare for her, but it still doesn't compare at $30/day (we do get some back when filing our taxes but because we are higher earners but our income taxes in general are higher in QC). But it is great cheap care if you can find it.

[RetiredAt63]

I know, but it was almost as hard to get a spot before it came in, it is a labour intensive setup no matter who is paying.  We paid private rates, and it was tax deductible.  Our DD was in school before the $5 day daycare came in , so we didn't see it.

I know about the high income tax rates in Quebec, I lived in Quebec for over 30 years.  But here in Ontario the money I save with Ontario tax rates all goes to Hydro One, I think my net is about the same.

It is only great if you can get a spot :-P

We still don't have a spot for our almost 4 year old. We did find a pretty inexpensive home daycare for her, but it still doesn't compare at $30/day (we do get some back when filing our taxes but because we are higher earners but our income taxes in general are higher in QC). But it is great cheap care if you can find it.

[Nissykins2]

Watched a very entertaining documentary last night called Nursery University which covers this very subject. It made me feel sorry for my friends in New York City.

[Scandium]

We're in the MD suburbs and while not quite as much, infant care is about $20k per year. And yes it's starts at 3 months once leave ends, doesn't that make sense? (Drops by almost $5k after 2 years though. I can't wait. Yes it's a lot, but considering the work involved, for 12 hours of care per day I find it hard to be outraged by it. And since the option is for one of us to quit our $80k jobs (plus all other benefits) it really is a no-brainer IMO.