All children are the apple of their parent's eyes, their most precious and invaluable asset. Children are loved by the parents even before they are born. This precious bond taking shape right from day 1 of pregnancy just strengthens and develops through the pregnancy and by the time of birth this love just overwhelms the doting parents who wait in eager anticipation and delight to take the first look of the sweet little face. Such a love so selfless in nature with absolutely no expectations of anything in return is something that cannot be measured or explained and it stands true for almost all the parents universally.
All parents would strive to bring the best in everything for their children. It is every parent's heartfelt desire to spend as much time as possible with their precious offspring to create memorable moments lasting a lifetime. But in an ordinary family of today, the pressure of hand to mouth existence forces both parents to work to ease the financial circumstances and to provide a better environment and material comfort to their children. The question is, with the rising costs of child care, are they able to actually achieve what they set out to do sacrificing so much of quality time they would have otherwise spent with their children?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. It is not an easy task analysing the amount of money parents would be spending on childcare simply because that is dependent on a lot of factors like the location where you reside, type of childcare, number of hours/ week you would be putting your child and of course age of your child. So what causes such an exorbitant cost of childcare in the US?
The main culprit here would be no one else but the government. The government has laid down the stringent laws to regulate Childcare industry. The regulations on the area/ sq. foot/ child, number of children / Childcare employee etc. are quite strict. Therefore, a Childcare centre would need to pay more rather less in a rented property especially near city premises where most of the parents' offices operate and employ more people in order to adhere to these rules rather than face the harsh penalties. Such rules vary with each state in the US, so the cost will be invariably exceptionally high in some when compared to the others. In a recent study the cost of Childcare was found to be the highest in the state of Massachusetts, closely followed by New York. Nevada, Montana and Florida stand neck to neck. The cost was found to be relatively low in Wyoming but it is the lowest among all states in South Dakota. But on considering the share of household income spent on Childcare, New York stands out which is not at all surprising.
Health and safety of your child is not something to be compromised in exchange of cheap services. So what are the options for the parents other than to stay at home especially if the job is not worthwhile and low paid to boot.
The US government has recently proposed for an annual tax cut of $3000 per child and also more help for Childcare in lower - middle income group. But will this suffice?
We shall have to wait and see.