The Airing of The Grievances

Today is the first of my weekly Monday installment of The Airing Of The Grievances.  Trying out this new writing format, Mondays will be a dedicated bitch fest; whining and complaining about whatever ails me.  Normally, I have plenty to complain about however, today my bitch tank is kinda low.  Weird.  I'm sure I can muster something up in the next 4 seconds.  Oh.  Wait.  I've got something.

THE COST OF CHILDCARE

Since October I am a full time working mom.  With the cost of insurance out-of-pocket, it currently makes more sense for me to work for insurance than pay privately.  With that being said, daycare costs now are the other huge component.

Stay and home and pay (lets just say) 2000/month in insurance

VS

Work full time (with insurance) and pay 2000/month in childcare

What makes more sense for our family right now is the latter of the two options.  *Also, I'd like to point out that in my research in finding child care for my two kids, you absolutely get what you pay for.  

Chris is a small business owner.  A non-union contractor, Chris doesn't have the option of being apart of a large insurance plan.  I have a bachelor's degree (which actually doesn't mean shit these days) and over 9 years of professional experience in the sales and marketing industry, so it imperative that I have the job that offers full benefits.

*After my job offer came through, I started researching full time care for the kids.  I looked at chain day cares (KinderCare, Kiddie Academy), independent day cares and at home options.  After seeing several and doing my research online (recommendations, word of mouth, referrals, etc), I found a great place.  A bit on the pricier side (compared through my research), Hometown Child Care offered everything we were looking for.

I will also make mention that I saw a few centers and home day cares that were absolutely gross, filthy and disgusting.  My must haves were the following:

CLEAN, STRUCTURED, LICENSED, KEEPING IN DFS LAW/PROTOCOL, RECOMMENDED AND INSURED

You'd be surprised how many child care centers and at-home places don't care about the above.  Just wanting to get paid each week, people will throw up a bunch of smoke and mirrors to make it seem clean and a happy environment for little ones.

So yeah.  Roughly $2000 a month goes to child care.  Its a shame that it's so expensive however, I'd probably pay more if it meant that my sweet magical unicorn babies were being taken care of.

If and when I ever win the Powerball, I'm for sure setting up some kind of non-profit so that parents can AFFORD child care, and still manage to get ahead in life.  If I were a single parent and didn't have the option of Chris' income, I'd be so screwed.  My whole paycheck goes to daycare.