Universal Childcare Call to Arms!

[mvh1992]

@phatdatlandsg The US needs to change with child care desperately. My SO makes literally barely just enough, sometimes it’s not. But we have no extra money for any dates or anything ever. He wants to look into getting a second job because our 1 year old twins are pretty stressful and he does not have the patience to handle them for extended periods of time(he’s working on it but currently definitely not there) he suggested I look into putting them in daycare and working part time or something so I have more “time to myself” and for two 1 year olds to go to daycare in my area it would be $2,130 a month plus $400 deposit for each oh but they’re kind enough to do a $50 discount when you enroll two kids doesn’t even matter if they’re part time it’s to secure their spot even if they don’t attend.

 

[phatdatlandsg]

@mvh1992 It's so hard mama. I hope you and your SO know you're doing a great job under unbelievably cruel circumstances for working parents. Truly.

 

[praytogainjesus]

@phatdatlandsg Um, this is amazing. Thank you.

 

[phatdatlandsg]

@praytogainjesus THANK YOU for getting involved. It's gonna take an army of parents to do this, but LETS ROLL (sorry just had my 4 shot coffee this morning after dropping off the girls).

 

[reborndestiny]

@phatdatlandsg We tried to put our triplets in childcare when they were around 1 or so. It was $2800 a month. More than our mortgage.

 

[riposa]

@reborndestiny Comparing daycare to our mortgage is a joke for us because we bought a foreclosure and have been slowly fixing it up — our mortgage is under $900/month while our daycare cost is triple that.

FT care (8:30-4:30 M-F) for my 2.5yo twins at our center is going up from $2,600/month (total for both kids, includes breakfast, lunch and snacks) to $2,800/month starting Feb. 1. My oldest was in their preschool program until she started kindergarten in the fall, and we were paying about $3,700/month for all of them combined. Daycare costs for three-under-five were literally more than my take-home pay, but I’m a hospital nurse and my job provides the health insurance for our family. My husband works for a small business and, while he makes more than I do, it’s not a whole lot more, and his health insurance is cost-prohibitive.

Side note: I hate that college costs are so much more privileged than daycare costs in terms of tax advantages and loan availability, even though the amount of time to prepare for daycare costs is so much shorter. I would love to take out a low fixed interest rate student loan equivalent for childcare and have 20 years to pay it back instead of paying the equivalent of a whole new house in cash for care over five years when I spend four months after each birth not getting paid and incurring large medical costs.

 

[phatdatlandsg]

@riposa @riposa I love your tagline. I say a similar thing to folks I work with, I'm like "bring on a problem, nothing scares me anymore and I'll be able to handle it.." because damn, everything gets thrown at parents of multiples and it's just another day. I guess that's why I posted this--if anyone can make a breakthrough in childcare in the US its Parents of Multiples! Plus, if we ever do a march, our numbers will double and triple with each family--haha