Child care cost for children of any age in the United States is expensive. It doesn’t matter whether you’re sending a child to daycare or preschool, or you’re hiring a nanny or babysitter to come and help you at home – every option has been found to be unaffordable for the average family.

Even though you may struggle to pay for child care, at the same time, you want to ensure that your child is being properly taken care of while you’re at work. That means you’ll need to figure out a solution where you know your child is safe, happy, and learning valuable skills like socializing and reading when you’re not around. 

Let’s take a look at the expenses of child care, along with what choices you can explore when you’re trying to figure out your next move. ​

​There are a multitude of ways parents can balance working life and raising their children. Some parents change careers to something with more flexible hours. Other parents alter their schedules or reduce their amount of working hours. However, these options are not always possible, and this creates one of the most significant dilemmas in modern parenthood. How do parents provide the best opportunities for their children to thrive and have enough money to pay for them? When it comes to caring for their children, many parents are in a position in which a choice must be made: who is going to stay home to take care of the kids and put their career on hold, and who is going to continue working?

An alternative solution to use or continue using a professional child care provider while remaining in the workforce. For most working single parents, and even many households with two working parents, professional child care is the only solution to this problem. This creates a dire need for affordable, quality child care for young children. However, the cost of high quality child care has dramatically increased over the last two decades. Child care costs have been shown to be more expensive than the median housing rental costs in all 50 states, making it essentially unaffordable for most parents. Many will opt for lower cost child care while acknowledging that this choice usually decreases the quality of care their child receives. Though naturally, this creates a few questions: is the high cost of child care worth the expense, and is there a more flexible way to pay for these expenses?
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