A friend of mine is returning to work in Sept, and has asked me to help with childcare. We havent talked about money yet, and I was hoping to get some input from other moms, since I have no clue how much childcare costs.
Her baby will be about 3 months old when she returns to work.
She is a school teacher and will be leaving her baby will me from 7:45am - 3:30pm, 3 days a week.
What would be a fair price???
Thanks!!
The daycare I had my son for some time charged about 200 wk for infants that young, but that was 6am to 6pm every day. You might have to make the call for only 3 days per week.
Don't take my word on this; a friend of mine and I were just discussing this issue and she said that for infants most daycares and caretakers charge around $200 - $250 a week.
The other issue that you should also be thinking of is the fact that doing "business" with friends often leads to disaster and feelings getting hurt. She may even expect you to do favours for her, such as only charging her much less than the going rate.
I hope for the best for you and for her in any case.
A lot of it is regional. In my area 40 hours of infant care is 1600 a month (average, many goes MUCH higher, 2500+)... which is 400 a week... aka $10 per hour. The price stays the same until the kids are potty trained, and then the price drops to apx $1000 a month for full time care. In my area most of the SAHM's I have met are sah, because they plain and simple, cannot afford to work.
So for my area 24 hrs of care would = 240 a week, or apx $1000 per month.
You guys really need to talk about this as a business relationship first. Something most don't think about is liability - for example, what will happen if her child gets seriously hurt in your care. I know that would be awful, but it does happen and it could seriously affect your friendship and she would have a right to sue you depending on the circumstances. Also, I'm not sure how taxes come into play, but I believe you have will have to complete some form of tax if she is planning to use childcare as a deduction. Someone else mentioned once on this forum to come up with a contract to protect you both. Good Luck.
`
My neighbor asked me to watch their infant son when she returned to work 2-3 days a week from 6:30a-4pm. They paid $75 a day. I thought that was high but they said daycare would charge $230 a week.
To be really honest if you aren't a licensed child care provider you really shouldn't expect someone to pay you the same they would for professional child care. A babysitter makes less money than a child care worker and teachers don't make much more. I am sure you will provide a good environment for this baby and I don't mean to discount you in any way. Child care workers attend classes and have to pass tests to get their certification. Child care centers and child care homes have to go through many stages to get their license and they have to do lots of other things too.
I would say check around and see if you can find out what the child care centers in your area charge per day and then charge her about half to 3/4.
When I worked as a nanny I got $2.00 per hour per child. Minimum wage was just over $5.00 per hour at that time. I was not restricted in my daily activities, I was surrogate mom and took the kids where ever I went.
The money I made was just for me, it didn't go into the household budget and I enjoyed the time I spent in their home. I hope you and your friend can work out a good compromise.
I agree with Cheryl below about how much I would think is appropriate. If you are watching the child in your home you will need to make sure your liability insurance will cover any accidents of any children that are in your home. Any child that is injured, even if they are just visiting should be covered by your homeowners insurance.
As for taxes, the family filed my pay on their taxes and I claimed the income as wages. It didn't put us in another income bracket or anything but I was very honest about it. There were no issues.
Cost depends on wether you go inhome or center. Centers charge more. I would be paying like 125 a week for my newborn and 125 a week for my toddler if they went full time. they are in home from 6:30 to 4:30. Right now it works out to where they are there 3 days a week (tue-thur) and i pay 30 bucks per day per kid. I feel that is very fair as i know a lot of people who pay way more. Good luck!
I live in California and I am also a teacher. I will be paying my in-home daycare lady $100 for 3 days a week, which includes breakfast and lunch. I think anything from $100-$150 a week is fair.
it really depends on the area you live in so I would call around asking others what they charge for those hours at that age. here it's probably $200/wk (m-f) because of the age. I'm not sure what part-time would run.... here in texas childcare providers are listed on the states website with phone numbers. Not sure about CT, never been there but maybe it's the same.
When my son was in daycare about 2 years ago...as an infant we paid $140 a week or $5.00 and hour if we didn't do the weekly rate.
I would definitely talk about how she plans on raising her child...what you can and can't do...etc.
