Anniversary

Monday, October 17, 2011

Daycare vs SAHM

So I started looking into daycare. Without my income things are going to be very, very tight. So I figured I would keep working at least part time.

Um, it's not going to happen. I've e-mailed and price checked a ton of daycares around our house. (both centers and in-home.) Most were out of our price range (Um, $325 per week?! No way.) All of the ones in our price range are booked until 2013 (or about 2 years from now) and have a long waiting list already in case a spot opens up.

So let me get this straight...I was supposed to get on the waiting list for daycare about 2 years before my baby is actually born? How is this possible?!

The daycare we can afford is full. The daycares with openings are too expensive. I'm 99% sure I'm going to stay-at-home. It's not the end of the world, who wouldn't want to stay with their baby? But I'm really nervous because money is going to be really, really tight. We are going to have no extra "fun"money. Tom was really stressing about being the sole bread-winner. But since looking into daycare some more, he's come to accept the fact that we might have no choice.

If things get really bad I could always get a night/weekend job. But I think I would rather scrape by than go that route. I would never see Tom that way and I don't think that added stress will be good for our marriage on top of a newborn.

I've recently picked up more shifts at work now in order to save up as much as I can before April. I just hope it's enough. I'm not anti-welfare at all. It is there for people in need, which was my own mother after she got divorced. We truly needed help. But it does get abused and it makes me mad that we are struggling to have ONE baby when we are responsible, working adults when there are people who have 4, 5, 6 babies and don't have to pay anything for them.

Rant over. :(


3 comments:

Christina said...

We had some of the same issues! I wanted the daycare directly next to my work but found out they had a 2 year waiting list! So we ended up our 2nd choice. Once Josh got laid off last year and then found another job we realized paying for daycare was impossible. Luckily he works nights and I work days now so we don't need daycare. It's hard but it works. We don't see each other for more than 2 minutes each day M-F and then get the entire weekends together but we don't have to worry about money or the $700 a month we paid for daycare.

Katie F said...

I am writing a post similar to this. I have a 3 month old and we had originally planned on me not working until she was a year. It was hard going down to one income but we figured it would be ok since the hubs would be reenlisting in the army this month. Now he has to wait until march and things are really right. But daycare is beyond expensive and we live in a really small town so I'd have to drive over a half hour to work. So gas an daycare alone would basically be all my paycheck covers. So I'm not going back to work but stressing over money is hard
I feel your pain

Meg said...

That is definitely hard. Luckily I work nights which means it is much easier to juggle childcare and for me to stay working.

If I were in your predicament I would definitely stay home also, those prices are outrageous!