What are child care options and how much do you pay? (San Jose: day cares, home)

[spacemom3]

Hi,

I have a girl going into Kindergarten next year and another who will be 3 and could go to pre-school. I've heard that the public schools have after-school care, but that it costs around $30/day. That seems pretty high. That means I would be paying around $600/month for just after-school care. Then of course there's the cost of pre-school and any after-school care or daycare. And then I'd also be looking for a daycare for my 5-month-old.

I'm looking around the Santa Clara/San Jose area. Anyone with some experience in how much all this will cost?

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Zero ... because ... we're DINKs. Why are we DINKs? For various reasons, but among the reasons, a desire to NOT have to live in a "newer" East Bay burb that's 40 miles out. Essentially, having kids, were it possible for us, would have meant either living here in the SF - SJ zone with kids and taking a de facto vow of poverty, or, moving way, way out.

[aklein]

That sounds about right ours is $500/month for after-school care. Preschools are probably about $1100 and up full-time, less if you want to do only partial days and you can probably expect to pay $70/day in childcare for your little one. Crazy expensive here for childcare, bigger expense than my mortgage!!

[bayarea-girl]

$1100 dollars for preschool is on the lower end. Depending if the child will be full time and partake in extended care (before regular hours usually 6 or 7 AM & after hours 12 or 2PM until 6PM). On the occassions you are late picking up your child be prepared to spend $1 a minute.

Care can be less if you take your child MWF, or T/TH options. Childcare is VERY ridiculous here. For my eldest daughter it does cost us a lot of money for aftercare (when her school lets out). It is so ridiculous that when I pay to have her in an afterschool activity then the extended care people still charge for an hour of time where my kid wasn't in their care. Oh, and I forgot to mention that most of these places charge you with ridiculous Admin fees and hit you up all year long. My daughter's preschool Admin fee was $250 (for what you ask, I have no idea). There was an admin fee for extended care which was like $60 o $80, for what, again I don't know? Paper does not cost that much.

[mrzod]

haven't you guys watched "Pursuit if Happyness"? Go find one of those Chinese day cares..

[bayarea-girl]

mrzod, you need to stop. Their day cares are high now too.

[flypnay704]

Originally Posted by mrzod

haven't you guys watched "Pursuit if Happyness"? Go find one of those Chinese day cares..

mrzod, did they mention how much daycare was in chinatown during the movie?

[flypnay704]

While my son was in daycare in SF (not after-school care), I paid about $180.00/week - when you do the math, depending on how many weeks there are in a month, it can cost UP TO $900.00/month. That's like 2 expensive car payments. Most of these places also are understaffed, underqualified and overworked.

My son goes to pre-school now (not in SF anymore), the cost is $175.00/week - that includes pre-school and before/after care as I work long hours and commute most of the time to the city. That is a steal, because most places I checked out only had what they call "traditional" school schedules. Meaning they're only in pre school from about 9am to noon or 1pm and anything after that is considered 'after school care' & most places in the bay area will charge you and arm and a leg for that. HELLO - not everyone is a stay at home parent, and most people need to work REGULAR hours in order to pay the stinkin' daycare what they're asking. All this traditional school schedule crap is bs and it's just a way to squeeze more $$ out of you.

Good luck