Would child care affect your choice?

Gav05Ally06 · **Would child care affect your choice?**

I am very lucky to never have to leave my child with anyone except family. My husband is home 1 1/2 days a week and my parents don't work anymore and they watch the kids the other days when I'm working full time. (This is great especially because I have young parents- in their 40s) And when my parents aren't available (rarely) I have two aunts who don't work and are more than happy to watch them.
My question is how strongly does/did child care affect your decision about working? I have decided recently to go back to work full time. If I didn't have this set up I would definately make another choice.

as143ks · 11-13-2007, 08:19 AM

It totally affects my idea of working. Right now it is a necessity that I work since we are in debt repayment mode. The costs of child care even part time is outrageous. Luckily I am able to work nights 3 days a week, MTW 9p-9a so we can still keep our benefits. It is exhausting but my parents and IL's watch DS during the day on Tues and Wed so I can sleep. Then I get to be a SAHM on Thurs and Fri. If I wasnt able to work nights, I dont know what I would do since our families can only watch DS part of the week and I would have to put him in daycare the rest of the week.

ember15 · 11-13-2007, 09:56 AM

My former job would have my dd in daycare 50 hours a week after the expences of going to work and childcare I would make $100 a week working full time.
So pretty strongly for me but I also really wanted to stay home

freebiemom · 11-13-2007, 10:07 AM

Yes, child care does affect mine and my DH's choice concerning working. We do not want our kids in daycare or being cared for on a regular basis by anyone but us. We are their parents and it is our responsiblity to care for them and be with them daily.

Also, as much as child care is and the fact that we have four kids (although that decision probably would have been affected if we had our kids in day care) it wouldn't be worth it for both to work full-time anyway.

araefinn · 11-13-2007, 10:47 AM

The cost of daycare strongly effects my decision to work. I had a great govt job that paid REALLY good, but when 75% of my take home check went to daycare, it didnt make any sense. I was basiclly working to pay daycare and that was it. Even part time is still outrageous. One day I will return to work full time, but not until all the kids are in school.

tango · 11-13-2007, 10:55 AM

I am currently on maternity leave. Our DD is 3 weeks old. I have to go back to work full time bc of our debt/expenses. My husband works 2 days/2nights and I work days (teaching). We will have to put her in daycare 2 days a week which is not what we want. But this is why I am here- to hopefully get out of debt and eventually stay at home.

aliadam · 11-13-2007, 10:59 AM

Well it DID affect our decision. We thought my mil was going to watch our kids a few hours a wk so I could take a teaching job at IU school of nursing. It would only have been two afternoons a wk as I would have been teaching evening clinicals at the hospital and my dh would have been able to pick them up after he got off work. She decided not to do it, so I turned down the job. Now in hindsight.....I'm not sure I'm glad about that decision. We didn't want to leave them with just anyone. However now I've been out of the job market so long I don't think I'd even be safe taking care of patients in a hospital, and sometimes wonder if I had gone ahead and gotten child care then and gone back to work at least part time how our lives would be different now. I sort of think I wish I had.

aleise02 · 11-13-2007, 11:03 AM

The cost of childcare, and the cost to work really effects my desision to be a SAHM. With baby #1 on the way. We priced the cost of daycare/family or freind watching them and it would be 60% of my take home pay. Plus it is my opinion that it costs alot to work. By the time you buy (in my case) a professional wardrobe, gas, the occasional office b-day or gift exchange my dh and I figured that 70% of my take home pay would go to daycare or work expense. I would rather loose the small amount of extra money and stay at home with my child and make my job be to stretch DH's paycheck as far as possible, and care for my child.

aleise02 · 11-13-2007, 11:03 AM

The cost of childcare, and the cost to work really effects my desision to be a SAHM. With baby #1 on the way. We priced the cost of daycare/family or freind watching them and it would be 60% of my take home pay. Plus it is my opinion that it costs alot to work. By the time you buy (in my case) a professional wardrobe, gas, the occasional office b-day or gift exchange my dh and I figured that 70% of my take home pay would go to daycare or work expense. I would rather loose the small amount of extra money and stay at home with my child and make my job be to stretch DH's paycheck as far as possible, and care for my child.

brensmom · 11-13-2007, 12:09 PM

we were lucky at first my dh was daycare during the day for our oldest and i was there at night. then dh's job hours changed and mil watched ds until he was 4 by that time we had 2 kids and mil is not in the best of health and we had a scare where she passed out and ds had to get the neighbors at 4 years old. we decided then it was not in her or our kids best interest and we could not afford daycare for 2 kids full time. so i started staying home. we actually are financially better off than when i worked we don't spend nearly as much money as we used to on just stuff.