Childcare in Nassau County - $1200-$1300 ? (Huntington, Commack: mortgage, day cares, new home)

[Looking4MyHouse]

My wife and I are planning to have a child within the next year or so. One major roadblock is the cost of childcare though..we've looked at a few places - it seems like a freaking monthly mortgage payment! How do you guys (new homeowners that is) afford it? Any advice would be appreciated!

[eugenet]

Not to sound silly or mean but planning ahead and budgeting always helps.
Don't move to an area of you can't afford all your monthly expenses + some.

2k for mortgage + 1k Taxes + $600 bills + 1.5k day care + 1k other expenses...it's easy enough to do the math

[WJFM]

There are cheaper day cares in Queens and Commack. Tree of Life in Commack is only 700 a month. I have heard about people paying 800 a month in parts of Queens. But I pay 1300, so can't help you in Nassau.

[JonnyTrees]

$1200-1300/mo is the going rate in Huntington area for infants, toddler is slightly less.

OP, decide where you want to send your future child in advance of birth, and leave a deposit to hold their place, usually the desirable places have waiting lists.

Tree of Life in Commack looks interesting, does anyone send their child there? Reviews/opinions? long waiting list?
$700/mo seems to good to be true for certified NYS daycare, well at least for LI.

[AndreaII]

I don't know if it's doable for you, but the way we handled it was I stayed home full time with the kids, and we had zero spending money left over.

With me staying home we were in a lower tax bracket, I was a "dependent" on our taxes, plus we didn't have to pay for any child care. We also had lots of trouble finding a reliable babysitter for the occasional outing, so we didn't hire any and passed by a few things, so we saved there too.

Staying home being chief caretaker is a tough, monotonous, thankless job. Money was tight, but we managed to always be able to pay the bills. And the big bonus was I got to raise our kids - something I didn't want a stranger to do.

[azzurrony]

Andrea's right. Why make a quasi mortgage payment to a daycare if you can stay home yourself? Sure, you might in the end make slightly more than you spend on daycare, but is it really worth it to have strangers raising your kids?

I understand not everyone can do this financially, but if you can, I'd highly recommend letting mom stay home (or dad if he isn't the primary breadwinner).

[dman72]

The tutor times are around 1K a month or so, and I work with people who've sent multiple kids through there and love them. It's the major cost of having a child if you cant' afford to live here on one salary, and most people can't.

[DawnSells]

MY nephew goes to Tree of Life in Commack. Tuition is up to 750 now but it is still a bargain. The teachers stick around, not a big turnover rate. The facilities are not brand new state of the art like Tutortime but it is a great place that is caring and with a lto of learning going on.

My brothers sister-in-law uses a live-in nanny Monday-Fri. The pay her a very small salary due to the fact that she lives there for free. Weekends she goes from friend to friend. Her nanny before that stayed all week. Maybe this could be an option for you until your baby gets older. I know the tuition is more the younger they are.

[WJFM]

I read somewhere that the break-even point is about 60k salary for the mom. If the mom ( or dad) makes less than 60k, and the family has 2 young kids that need to be sent to day-care, its financially better for mom/dad to stay at home and take care of the kids. Stay-at-home parents can also take advantage of day-time library programs, nursery schools and play areas like the children's museum that charge very little membership fees and tons of other activities like mom's meetups etc.

Take a look at library programs for toddlers. There are few programs in weekends or evenings. Jericho library has about 4-5 programs every month that I could take my kid too.. but other libraries have none or just 1 a month.

[jmax]

Day care also kills you with the extratime fees - most standard rates that I looked at for my son applied to 8am - 5pm. If you need to drop off earlier or pick up later the extra charges add up to a couple thousand a year. Flexible job hours can help out big time.