Cost for in home infant care (required, toddler, pay)

[Yankeesfan]

With an in-home daycare with multiple children, the baby is sharing the caregiver's attention with other children, so the cost is lower. With a nanny situation like the OP described, the baby is getting the caregiver's fulltime attention so the cost should be higher.

[Denton56]

In Home is usually very expensive because that person has to get to your house and they can only take care of that one child. If you take the baby to the sitter's house, you can expect to pay $250 to $300 per week, per child. I would imagine that in home care, by someone who speaks English, would be at least $400 a week. That comes to about $20,000 a year which is pretty minimal. Someone who takes care of 4 to 6 children, in their own home, can easily make two to three times that amount.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by becwells

Ha! Touche.

I guess those of us that are transplants from Australia go for a higher rate.

In any event, if I could find in fulltime, in-home daycare (from someone who's native language is English) for $300 a week I'd be overjoyed.

My next door neighbor, who runs a daycare in Prince William County (and is not El Salvadoran), does not charge $300 per week for an infant.

The price is going to vary county-to-county and neighborhood-to-neighborhood.

[Samara11]

Yep, in-home care is definitely paid higher. I posted the daycare rate for comparison

From what I've read on another message board, nannies charge a minimum of $10 per hour in DC.... and it gets a bit lower as you move away from DC.
becwells said $300 per week, that sounds very reasonable to me for full-time in-home care.

[Skapov]

The OP is describing more of an informal-babysitter arrangement with a neighbor, NOT a truly "nanny-as-caregiver" situation. And so $300/wk seems way too high to charge, especially if she is already a stay-at-home mom taking care of her own children and just looking for a bit of cash on the side.

My home-based family caregiver charges only $225/wk, but she has 4 children in her care and thus still pulls down roughly $52,000/yr.! In addition, she is trained/licensed/insured, and has a Fairfax County permit to provide childcare, and so she is completely qualified.

The OP appears to be an unskilled "amateur-caregiver", she probably is not CPR-trained with Child Development classes under her belt, and has her Home even been inspected and Licensed/Insured by the County? If she is merely a "babysitter/childminder" then she should charge less.

[Yankeesfan]

That's the type of condescending, ignorant attitude that feeds the so-called "mommy wars." Fortunately most women, employed or at-home, are more mature than that toward each other. Taking care of a seven-month-old baby is a time-consuming and serious responsibility and not something that people just do on the side for "a bit of cash on the side." Show some respect, please.

[Samara11]

Not to get into a debate here, but I have been in the situation where I needed a caregiver for my infant (tough times) and frankly, if I could get someone I knew and trusted (neighbor, friend, etc.), I would gladly pay $300/week in NoVA even if they were not trained/licensed/certified or whatever. Its my child's safety, health and well-being I'm keeping in mind here, not what skills the caregiver is bringing to the table or how much money she is making overall.
Just my two cents

[HEATHER72]

Skapov - For starters I am NOT a stay at home mom looking for cash on the side. It would NOT be in my home. It would be in the baby's home for probably a 10 to 11 hour stretch each day.

I am EXTREMELY OFFENDED by "The OP appears to be an unskilled "amateur-caregiver". I speak fluent English and I have had classes and training beyond belief. I have been a nanny in the past, and I am in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. If you only knew the amount of training and classes I have gone through for the adoption! I just really wish you had asked rather than I assumed I was someone just looking to make cash! Jeez! All I wanted to do was help a neighbor and I wanted to be knowledgeable about what people were paid in the area.




To everyone else - THANKS FOR THE INFO!

[athousandlogins]

I would *absolutely* pay $300/week for someone reliable, trustworthy and with prior nanny experience to come to my home and take care of my child.

If I wanted to pay less or needed to pay less, I would use a daycare. There's nothing wrong with daycare, and in fact I'd prefer to have my toddler in a daycare for the social interaction and some of the early preschool stuff they do. But for an infant, the consistency of having one person - and always the same person - devoted to him all day, exclusively - IMO, that is totally worth the extra money if you can afford it.

[Yankeesfan]

Heather72, keep in mind that Skapov wanted to move her mother here to take care of her baby for free. But her mother helps take care of her nieces, so she wanted to move her sister and nieces here and put them in Section 8 housing at taxpayer expense. She wrote that "I have no interest in giving up my independence and identity as a working-woman" and that her child's caregiver "will pretty much be raising him during his formative years" but then wrote so condescendingly about women whose profession is taking care of other people's children. Plus she frequently accuses others of racism but wrote a thread that was bigoted toward women "from Phillipines, Hispanic, or Arab."