18 months-2 years.
I just want to get that out there. The current waitlist for any daycare is currently 18 months-2 years. Parents of young children may already be aware of that. If you weren’t, take just a second to let that sink in. This is life in a daycare desert.
I am a mother to three children. I first became a stay-at-home mom by choice. I wanted to stay home when my first baby was born, and then again with my second. I began entertaining the idea of going back to work when my second child was three-years-old. I started applying for jobs and calling my references. Then I found out I was pregnant with my third.
Not a problem, I thought. I was already planning to enroll my second-born in daycare, so I began researching daycares that my two youngest could attend together.
That was the first time I discovered the absolute nightmare that is finding daycare right now. I had no idea waitlists were almost two years long. I had no idea that it would cost $1200/month per child. I was so naïve to think that I could find a job and just…sign my kids up for daycare. You know, like the old days.
I ended up staying home for several more years. I put my third child on daycare waitlists and waited until my two older children were both in elementary school before I returned to work. For us, the timing worked out nicely that my baby got a daycare spot the same month I began my job. That “lucky timing” was not an accident; we spent over a year on the waitlist.
Parents everywhere are facing impossible challenges when it comes to childcare.
People are putting not-yet-conceived children on daycare waitlists in hopes that they will have a spot if they are able to get pregnant.
One friend of mine quit her job because her baby didn’t get a spot, despite having paid a deposit the very week she found out she was pregnant.
Another friend had a spot in a great daycare that her child loved. She had to quit her job and pull her son out of daycare when she gave birth to her second. It would cost more than her salary to pay for two children in daycare.
Another friend has been on waitlists for two years. She has continued working, but is literally day-to-day with childcare. A neighbor watches her kids one day, a college student the next. Maybe a babysitter from a Facebook page can take the end of the week. Can you even imagine the stress?
Another friend has been on waitlists for a year, but is able to afford a nanny. Unfortunately, the nannies all move on after a month or two. She is constantly on the hunt for her next nanny; her child reeling from the lack of continuity.
Don’t blame the daycares.
We have had the privilege of working with two local daycares for my son’s care. Both have been fabulous. Absolutely top-notch people and professionalism. It is not their fault.
They have ratio numbers that must be maintained, such as 6 toddlers to 1 teacher. It is crucial for the safety of the children in their care that they maintain these ratios. The ratios do allow more children per adult as the children get older, which is why it’s a little easier to get an older toddler into daycare compared to a newborn. Ratio is not a compromise they can make.
Daycares are also reeling from the rising cost of everything, just like the rest of us. They have staff to pay, supplies to purchase. Tuition rates have to cover these costs. Trust me when I say that no daycare owner is rolling in the profits from tuition. They’re just trying to stay open.
I really don’t know what the answer is.
So…where do we go from here? We need more daycares, yes. But are there any solutions in the short term? I really don’t know.
What I do know is that working parents are overwhelmed, scared, and stressed. How can people work if they don’t have childcare? How can people work if they can’t afford childcare? How is this even happening when our generation is having fewer babies than the generations before us?
While I don’t have any great solutions, I can humbly ask for help. If you are in a position to help a young parent, please do so. We don’t need thoughts and prayers. We need willing hands. We need people to stand in that gap while the daycare waitlist trudges on. We need people to remember that we’re doing our best with very little resources.
