Currently, I am staying home with him and my boyfriend is working. We figured out that if both of us were to work, we wouldn't be making more money.
The "extra" money brought in would go directly to paying for some sort of childcare. Thereby defeating the purpose of me working altogether.
So I chose to stay home with my son.
However, we are still really struggling to get by financially. So, by the time my son turns two, I though about enrolling him in sort of Preschool situation.
Until I started researching the possibilities.
The majority of Preschools in New York City are privately funded and extraordinarily expensive.
For example, I had heard wonderful things about the Montesorri School in Cobble Hill. So I looked up the cost of their programs or two year olds.
I kid you not, for two days a week, part-time (meaning 9am - 12pm) it is nearly $8000/year!
Clearly, this is not a viable option for my family.
And surprisingly, this is a typical cost for a preschool program.
I started to wonder if I was alone. Does everybody just suck it up and break their bank accounts to send their kids to Nursery School?
But then I met another mom at the Brooklyn Public Library who has two boys, one is almost one and the other is two and a half.
We got to talking about the whole Preschool dilemma. She, too, was in a bind. Her older son was currently enrolled in a Preschool in the East Village but it was costing her money that she didn't have.
She was concerned about what would happen to her finances when her other son turned two.
She said to me
"There's got to be another way."
I agree with her. There has to be an alternative solution. But I have yet to figure it out.
Until I started researching the possibilities.
The majority of Preschools in New York City are privately funded and extraordinarily expensive.
For example, I had heard wonderful things about the Montesorri School in Cobble Hill. So I looked up the cost of their programs or two year olds.
I kid you not, for two days a week, part-time (meaning 9am - 12pm) it is nearly $8000/year!
Clearly, this is not a viable option for my family.
And surprisingly, this is a typical cost for a preschool program.
I started to wonder if I was alone. Does everybody just suck it up and break their bank accounts to send their kids to Nursery School?
But then I met another mom at the Brooklyn Public Library who has two boys, one is almost one and the other is two and a half.
We got to talking about the whole Preschool dilemma. She, too, was in a bind. Her older son was currently enrolled in a Preschool in the East Village but it was costing her money that she didn't have.
She was concerned about what would happen to her finances when her other son turned two.
She said to me
"There's got to be another way."
I agree with her. There has to be an alternative solution. But I have yet to figure it out.
The solution is to move to Scandinavia, where daycare costs 300-400 $ pr month (and most of that amount is even deducible from your taxes).
ReplyDeleteIt really boils down to the question of equal work opportunities for men and women. My mother and her friends, and thousands of other men and women, wrote angry letters to politicians and to newspapers, and arranged a number of demonstrations where they demanded better, cheaper and more pre-schools, day cares and kindergartens. This was 30 years ago! Honestly, the United States are lagging behind..
Someone was telling me about Montessori schools to but I was like whatever. My daughter is one, and even if its a cool system, we'll look back later and it will be just another yuppie thing. Personally, I don't care, I just would need a place that was decent. But like you said, that's hard to find. Well it sucks that there are no affordable options. What if you start working again (later, we have the same thing going on now too.) and your future job has a daycare? That would rule. Or some sort of program to help or something. Idk. I do know that if you both work you could maybe get subsidy. We couldn't because they didn't cover it for school. So yay, I can only work in a dead end job, not try to better my education so they aren't poor forever. >:\
ReplyDeleteGry- I wish I could move to Scandinavia. It sounds like a more human existence.
ReplyDeleteCordula - Even when start working again, it is still going to be unaffordable. Unless I miraculously get an extremely high paying job.
Leigh- As far as I am aware, JetBlue does not offer Day Care.