One Mom's Journey

I have two children in daycare.  My monthly expenses for daycare are higher than my mortgage payment.  It is absurd.  I pay for quality daycare, and I think my children are benefiting from it...but am I?

I have done the math. After all my personal expenses plus my daycare costs, I personally bring in negative each and every month.  Yes, I contribute to the households expenses, but at what expense?  At the expense of someone else raising my child?  At the expense of only seeing my children for a total of 3 hours each day Monday to Friday?  At the expense of quality time that I will never get back.  What if I was a single mom, balancing a mortgage, car payment, child care, gas, groceries etc.  Would I still be able to afford daycare? Probably not.

Although Ontario offers subsidies for families to benefit from daycare and go back to work, it is very difficult to get approved.  It is a lengthy process of paper work and believe it or not - interviews!  An interesting PDF, although dated, shows great information about subsidy allocation for Canadian residents based on provinces http://www.childcarequality.ca/wdocs/QbD_FeeSubsidies_Canada.pdf .

Ontario's average licensed daycare costs per child are $918, the highest in the country followed by BC at $885. The lowest costs, supplemented entirely by the QC government and tax dollars at $7 per day...for a whopping $140 per month. Wouldn't that be nice. Source:http://bit.ly/1aT41Ks


In a dual income household, it is completely unfair to look at the expenses of daycare on the terms of one persons income (like the moms) only.  In this case, you would have to see if the total household income - expenses - childcare = a positive number.  If it is bringing in a negative number, then it is probably time to reconsider if both parents should be working full time.  Perhaps in a situation where the household income is in the negatives after all expenses, it is best to look at alternatives part-time employment for one parent that work around the families schedule, and avoids the need for daycare expenses.  I know, it is not ideal, but until they are off to school, the options really are limited.

In my case, it doesn't make sense for me to stay home from work. Even though, every ounce of my beating heart battles this every day, I know that my income matters, and I need to be back at work to provide for my family...at least until we win the lottery ;)

You may also want to read: The Struggle from One Working Mom to Another