re: “There is a childcare crisis in this country”

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This guy gets it. Thanks for chiming in. frickin old people and even some boomers in here trying to compare apples to carburetors and have no clue.

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My wife and I both make a good living. We haven't paid for a vacation for ourselves since we had kids. The only vacations we've been on have been with my family or hers and our parents paid for it. We basically never eat out. We have one car note, other car is paid for and 16 years old. We also waited to have kids until I was 36 years old, bought our starter home 4 years before we had kids, have outgrown it but have remained there because it would be financially stupid to assume a higher mortgage. It is what it is. We make sure we budget appropriately to be able to take care of our kids and put them in childcare so we can continue working to support them and provide for them. One of us stopping working would put us in a worse net position financially. That's just not a solution and certainly isn't for most middle class families. 10 years ago, we would have been fine on my income alone. But the cost of insurance, food, gas, and basically every living essential has skyrocketed. Again, it is what it is, but to pretend like childcare in this country isn't an issue is just head in the sand boomer bulshit

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My wife and I both make a good living. We haven't paid for a vacation for ourselves since we had kids. The only vacations we've been on have been with my family or hers and our parents paid for it. We basically never eat out. We have one car note, other car is paid for and 16 years old. We also waited to have kids until I was 36 years old, bought our starter home 4 years before we had kids, have outgrown it but have remained there because it would be financially stupid to assume a higher mortgage. It is what it is. We make sure we budget appropriately to be able to take care of our kids and put them in childcare so we can continue working to support them and provide for them. One of us stopping working would put us in a worse net position financially. That's just not a solution and certainly isn't for most middle class families. 10 years ago, we would have been fine on my income alone. But the cost of insurance, food, gas, and basically every living essential has skyrocketed. Again, it is what it is, but to pretend like childcare in this country isn't an issue is just head in the sand boomer bulshit

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It's not just that. We have convinced society that women working is a good and noble thing. And while it is not a terrible thing that women are in the workplace, we never once stopped and thought about the ramifications of that societal shift. Economically, we doubled the employee pool, which led to stagnate wages. In addition, we are now talking about paid Family and medical leave, which sounds great and all. It definitely falls in the category of a "moral and right thing to do." However, as an owner of a business, I shudder at the reality of paying someone 16 weeks for unproductive labor.

We need to get back to fundamentals as a country.

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Ding ding ding.

We need to find our way back to single-earner households. That is the answer. Everything else is socialism and "sharing the burden."

Which is fine, if we have to. And getting back to single-earner households is probably unrealistic. But it's the only real fix.

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I did it…

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I’m sure you did and I’m glad you were able to. You sound like you are closer to my age (51) than someone just starting a family today. I was able to as well, as I mentioned. It was about priorities for us as it sounds like it was for your family as well. I’m not sure as many families today have that option even if they prioritize it.
My son and his wife just had their first child. They are both 24. He is a plumber and makes about $50-60k a year. He may could. But take a man making $40k a year, I just don’t see how.

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The problem existed 25 years ago as well.

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bullshite. A little further back but in 1990, I was 5 and my sister 2.5. We both went to the most expensive private schools where we lived (Memphis), lived in a 3500 square foot home in a nice neighborhood, and mom didn't work. Dad earned about $75k/year at the time. Try doing anything remotely similar now, adjusting for inflation. You can't

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I was making 45K and somehow by the grace of God we made it

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Right, because $45k went A LOT further than it does today.

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Sure, we missed out on a lot of things our friends without kids or those that had higher incomes got to do

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how about missing out on all those things and still not being able to afford to have a stay at home parent. That's what many families of today face.

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But at no time at all did I feel it was somebody else's responsibility to pay for my kids to go to daycare.

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Most in here aren't either. most are simply saying childcare costs are out of control because they are. That's not saying someone else should foot the bill. It's identifying an issue in this country that affects a whole lot of people. But you have a bunch of boomers acting like there is no issue because 25+ years ago they did just fine as if everything in this world is linear

Many of us were latch key kids. That was from age 9 until I started high school. Even though my parents worked there was still parenting happening under our roof. The issue is that in many of these places the parents are 15-18 years older than their kids. There is no sense of parenting happening. These people aren't all working, but just not watching their kids.

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Many of us were latch key kids. That was from age 9 until I started high school.

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I don't know of any 9+ year olds that require fulltime childcare. When people talk abotu childcare, they are talking about babies and toddlers - kids that are too young for school. Summer camp is wildly expensive, too, but that's only for a few months, not year-round.

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don't know of any 9+ year olds that require fulltime childcare. When people talk abotu childcare, they are talking about babies and toddlers - kids that are too young for school.

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correct, infancy until kindergarten is what everyone ITT is talking about. Once they're in school, it's no so much an issue. The schools generally have affordable before-care and after-care options as well

I would like the people commenting about how they did it to also include the age of their children. The situation has changed drastically, even over the last 5 years. If your youngest child is 10 or older, your experience has very little in common with what parents are facing today.

I don't want childcare subsidized. It already is in some situations but that is income dependent, so it results in even more of the "benefit cliff" that discourages people from working their way up.

I would like school districts to stop touting "UNIVERSAL PRE-K" when what they actually mean is that poor children, homeless children and children who don't speak English can attend "free" pre-kindergarten from age 3-5, while the rest of us fund it through school taxes but our children cannot attend. Instead we must pay for private preschool.

I would also like the government to adjust the amount of the Child and Dependent Care Credit that hasn't been changed since 2001.
This is a NON-refundable credit that can only be claimed by those with earned income. It is and has been $3,000 for one child, $6,000 for two or more children. The average annual cost of childcare for one child is $11,543. The average benefit a family receives is a $547 reduction in their income tax owed.

I would also like the government to raise the allowed contribution to a Dependent Care Flexible Spending account. It is currently $5,000 of your own pre-tax dollars. Again, the average annual cost of childcare for one child is more than double that amount. Why are parents not allowed to contribute more of their own pre-tax dollars to pay for the actual cost of childcare?