Big Business

It’s early yet, but Tiffany and I have started to research daycare options. We have plenty of time, especially considering that TIffany will most likely be off from work for 2 months after the birth. When researching daycare options it doesn’t take long to figure that this is a big business. Options seems to range from $500-$1000 a month. Some have weekly prices, some offer three-day week options, one woman, who our neighbors use, is right around the corner. The choices seem almost endless.

Many of the larger daycares, not home daycare, have cameras installed so you can check in anytime. They also offer educational courses for children as young as 1 and publish weekly menus online that describe lunch and any snacks given to the children. It can be a little overwhelming trying to plow your way through all the information.

Of course another concern is that where there is money, there are always people trying to take advantage and obviously, we don’t want our child being cared for by people out for a quick buck. I’m not getting that impression from any of the places we’ve looked at online, but I’m sure they’re out there.

Another option would be for one of us to stay at home. Neither of us are against this option per say, but our income would be reduced and while we could manage, we’d also like to kick-in for the kids college someday too. That becomes less likely with a loss of a number of working years from one of us. Also, with the way the job market is, there’s no guarantee we could get another job when we were ready to go back to work.

The reason why daycare has taken off is pretty simple. A little research, and common sense, tells you that real wages (income adjusted with inflation) have remained stagnant for quite some time. (BTW it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon). This wouldn’t be a problem necessarily until you consider this: Since 1980, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has increased 67%, while median household income has only increased by 15%.

You don’t have to have a degree in economics to figure out that’s a problem. Here’s a better example. When I was in high school (1998), I routinely filled my mom’s Ford Taurus with unleaded priced at 99 cents a gallon. Remember that? Today I filled up at $2.51 a gallon (The bargain recession price!). In college (2001) I did a news report (I still have the video) of rising gas prices and outrage by consumers...the price? $1.53. That’s less than 10 years ago. Here’s another example.

Anyone planning to send their kid to college? Unless you’re living under a rock you’re aware of rising tuition costs. Schools are routinely raising tuition 10% a year. Are salaries increasing 10% a year? By the way, in case you’re wondering, the real median household income in 2008 was just over $50,000. Care to guess what it was in 1990, nearly 20 years earlier? The answer, a hair under $50,000.  I wonder what the price of gas, groceries, college......was in 1990? I don’t know, but probably a lot less than they cost in 2008. That, in a nutshell, is why the economy collapsed, sorry, it wasn’t all Bush’s fault. But I digress. 

For people determined not to eat cat food in retirement, it’s easy to see why childcare is such a huge business and why it has grown so much especially considering there are 26 million couples in the United States with children under 18. The numbers just don’t add up for many people to stay at home. So now the trick is to find the right care.