Advice on Typical Cost for In-home Day Care for Second Child

Updated on February 17, 2010
J.W. asks from Havertown, PA
7 answers

I need some advice on the increase in cost for a second child for in-home childcare. I currently have a 3 1/2 year old and am expecting my second child the beginning of April. I currently pay a daily rate for in-home childcare (my child is all she watches) and was wondering how much that should be increased with a second child. I do want to say that every year I have increased the rate by about $5/day even though I have heard that daycare costs go down as they get older. I also this year have kept the rate per day the same even though 2 of the 3 days he is in preschool for half the day. I have been fine with doing all this b/c I absolutely LOVE the person who takes care of my son and always want her to know how much I appreciate her. I always try to air on the side of trying to be more generous. Even when he's there for a half day, I normally just give her a full days pay. However, after the second child I may need to watch my finances more so even though I still want to pay her very fairly, I may not be able to be as generous as I was with the first. My oldest will be in school again next year for five days, so at the most she'll only have my son 1/2 day and then the baby three full days. Does anyone have any insight into the additional cost for a second child...is it 25% more, 50% more, etc??

Thank you in advance for any input to have!

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R.R.

answers from Salt Lake City on

I take my daughter (11.5 months) to a licensed in-home daycare and pay $450/month ($25/day with one free day every 2 weeks). I recently asked what it would be for a second as we are thinking of trying for another soon and she would charge me $800/month which is about $45/day for both kids. Hope that helps!

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C.O.

answers from Chicago on

I did home daycare for 20 years and I did not give a discount for the second child. I only raised my rates every couple years though and rates did not go down as they got older. Center base daycares are able to do that because the older classrooms have fewer teachers.

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M.C.

answers from Washington DC on

Hi. I have a 3y old and an 8y old in in-home daycare. For us the main price is the younger one, and we get a slight discount for the older one.

The 3y old is priced at $40.00 a day or $200 a week. That has been the price since day 1 when she was 6wks.

The 8 y old is $12 a day for half a day (when there is school) and $25 a day for a whole day.

My kids are with her from 8a-5p every day

M.

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M.F.

answers from Phoenix on

I'm a home daycare provider and charge $40/day for the first child and $30/day for any additional children-full days, of course. Half-days are $20/15. Congrats on the soon-to-arrive new addition to your family!

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L.T.

answers from Dallas on

My 3 yr old goes 3 days a week which is considered full time and my 7 month old goes 5. I pay $125 a week for the newborn and got a $25 discount for mutiples - so $100 for the 3 year old. It would be the same if she went 5 days a week.

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G.B.

answers from Tulsa on

I just love child care questions because I get to do research and find answers for people. I have lots of years in child care and as a Nanny. I am looking for specific things pertaining to Pennsylvania. But can say across the board on some things. For instance, if you want to know how much is resonable then go online to your states child care referral page and/or call every home child care center on it and say you are interested in finding out how much it would cost to have a 3 1/2 yr. old and a newborn at 6 weeks. I can tell you now it will be a weekly rate because they just can't do a day here and a day there. They have to pay their bills whether your child is there or not. You are fortunate the person you have is flexible.

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This is the pay rate/scale for Oklahoma, This is what The Stae of Oklahoma pays to child care provider's that have a contract to receive money for child care services. I'm not finding the same information for Pennsylvania but I bet you could look and find it.
http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/2E81F###-###-####-487B-...
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This is a link for a center and they have their prices listed.
http://forkidssakecc.com/priceinfo.htm
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This may be from peoples tax information, I am not sure but it is very informative.
http://www.naccrra.org/randd/data/docs/PA.pdf
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Just for fun, here is the link to your states regulations for having an home child care.
http://daycare.com/pennsylvania/family.html
http://nrckids.org/STATES/PA/pa_3290.pdf

Here's the same link site but just for resource and referral.
http://daycare.com/pennsylvania/

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T.C.

answers from Minneapolis on

I live in MN and typically for a licenced in home day care the rate basically doubles. I pay 25 bucks a day for my 2 1/2 year old and am due with the second. We would pay 50 a day for both kids if i were doing full time still. We will be going down to part time so the rate is 30 per day per kid. Once my son starts kindergarten the rate will drop for him but stay the same for the younger one. If your child is the only one she watches you may just want to talk to her about it and see if you can agree on a price that works for both of you.

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