Infant Daycare (Denver, Colorado Springs, Arvada: 2013, apartment, rent)

[ClimborSki]

I'm not sure I have a question (unless someone knows of an opening for good quality infant daycare in the Arvada area for a reasonable price starting around March of next year). This is more of a rant and perhaps I'm missing something or I'm expecting too much (which by all means enlighten me!).

I called 10 different day cares and only one said they would have an opening for me if I reserved my spot within the next week. I was told the cost would be $400/ week (plus annual enrollment fee and whatever the February increase would be). They had me and my husband come down for an in person tour. They had 10 infants (under 1 year) in one room with 2 caregivers. My husband made the comment afterwards that the infants just looked sad. They were not receiving the attention they should. The caregivers were good caregivers and have been at that daycare for awhile, but taking care of that many infants at once, only 2 were getting attention at a time and when I walked in, they were all wanting attention. It just made me feel sad. Apperantly Colorado law is maximum of 1:5, but this just seems too high for infants! And with $400+/week, I would have thought that for that price, there would have been better quality.

I'm just bummed out on what I've been experiencing with the whole daycare search process.

Is this what infant daycare is like? Am I just over sensative and expecting too much?

[SkyDog77]

We sent both of our kids to the Denver JCC. I just checked the rates and ratios on their website and their infant program is from 8:30-3:30 and costs $1,500 a month. It is a 1:3 ratio. We were quite happy with this program.

https://www.jccdenver.org/wp-content...-Rate-Card.pdf

If you are full day, it sounds like $400 a week is a little cheap. Maybe that’s driving the ratio?

[abcdefg567]

Yep, this is why I became a stay at home mom. Does that even include before & after? Because most of them tack on another $200+ for 6-6 care. Can you raise your budget and find a better center?

Except when I became a mom it was $800 + $200 for care, then by the time I was looking at going back to work around his first birthday (late 2013) the same centers near the DTC were now $1200+ $200 a month, and our rent went from $735, to $1200, to $1800 for an apartment.

Our sub $300k housing budget on one income was also pretty much diminished, and I couldn't afford to work AND buy a $500-$600k house with the cost of childcare. Things changed extremely rapidly price wise here, it was hard to plan for that sort of increase.

Anyways, we moved to Colorado Springs 2 years ago. Daycare here is about the same cost from the 10+ quotes I've gotten. B&A care at school for one child in our district is around $400/month.

I figured our best bet was for me to stay home until they're both in K, except work part time from home at night when they're asleep if needed.

Sorry for the rant.

Anyways OP, many of my friends found home daycare providers (mixed results), sucked up the high costs or stopped their retirement contributions, healthcare, or cars, others looked for higher paying jobs, others moved to Texas or something, some stayed home, one found a nanny to watch 3 of her kids for $20/hr...a bargain, many rely on family.

I guess, you just do what you have to, to make it work. That's what we all do. Even if it's not ideal.

We were paying $300/month for 4 day a week preK at 3 hours a day in Highlands Ranch, that was a pretty good bargain I thought! It was 3+, but you could add a few more hours for around $200/month.

Oh, and I wouldn't be comfortable leaving my infant in that situation either, I know some absolutely have to though and it works out. I'd rather find a good stay at home mom to watch the baby at their house for the same cost or less.

Also, did you not look at costs before moving here or having a baby? Colorado is like the 4th or 5th highest cost of childcare for the past few years...

[emm74]

NAEYC accreditation (National Association for the Education of Young Children) has lower ratios, so you could check to see if one of these might be a good fit for you

Search NAEYC Accredited Programs | NAEYC For Families

However, as previously noted, daycare in the Denver metro area is quite pricey, well above what you might otherwise expect for where Denver falls in terms of overall cost of living. I moved here from Boston when my son was little and I was very unhappily surprised to find out that I really didn't save all that much in terms of daycare costs given how much lower things like housing costs and salaries were here compared to Boston.

And in reality, unless you have a 1 to 1 situation, there will ALWAYS be times where one child is getting attention and other children are not. And that's true for stay at home parents too, if they have more than one child. Actually, even if it's just one baby because even a parent has to do other things beside focus 100% of the time on the baby. So you may need to temper your expectations just a bit.

[davebarnes]

My daughter, son-in-law, and grandson like https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-learnin...er-westminster
I know the cost is $17K+

[ClimborSki]

Emm74 - The kindercare I checked out on your list was the one I was referring to originally with the 1:5 ratios. I agree 1:1 is not attainable. 10 infants (2 care providers) in a classroom just seems like too much to me (at least how I saw it being managed when I visited).

Thanks, davebarnes. Do you know what TLE ratios are? I know they are to open one in Arvda next year. They just told me it could be 1:5 ratios or whatever that center decided.

The Denver JCC would be a good option if it were closer.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by ClimborSki

Emm74 - The kindercare I checked out on your list was the one I was referring to originally with the 1:5 ratios. I agree 1:1 is not attainable. 10 infants (2 care providers) in a classroom just seems like too much to me (at least how I saw it being managed when I visited).

Thanks, davebarnes. Do you know what TLE ratios are? I know they are to open one in Arvda next year. They just told me it could be 1:5 ratios or whatever that center decided.

The Denver JCC would be a good option if it were closer.

Agree the J is too far, but wanted to throw it out there so you knew that the ratios you were looking for do exist.

[Aesop.]

This is why people aren't having kids these days.

[emm74]

Originally Posted by ClimborSki

Emm74 - The kindercare I checked out on your list was the one I was referring to originally with the 1:5 ratios. I agree 1:1 is not attainable. 10 infants (2 care providers) in a classroom just seems like too much to me (at least how I saw it being managed when I visited).

I'm surprised to hear that, unless it was a mixed age group with some toddlers too (sometimes they will combine ages at the beginning and end of the day) - otherwise they were out of compliance with NAEYC standards, which allows a group size up to 8 with 2 teachers for a 4:1 ratio for infants.

[ponyupgrl]

We hired a nanny for our baby - and I was shocked that it wasn't THAT much more expensive than some of the good day cares in the area.

Your other options would be an unlicensed daycare (usually a stay at home mom that takes on a few kids) or a nanny. I know some people do a nanny share to lower costs. When I was interviewing nannies, there were some that wanted to bring their own kid for a discounted rate - maybe something to also look into.