Feeling hopeless about childcare

Long story short, I started an internship last year where I worked 3 days a week. I was fortunate enough to have my Mom watch him because it was unpaid and it would have been very difficult for us to pay for daycare on one income. They hired me full time and I love my job and I've been there for almost a year now. For the first two months I put Anthony into day care full time. It's $225 a week and one of the cheapest good quality ones in the area. Some of the really smurffy ones that are filthy and in dangerous areas still go up to $280 a week. Anyway, it was like I was working just to work and get out of the house but barely making money. My mom started watching him 3 days a week and he continued to go for two days for $130 a week. That worked great for awhile and then this month she relapsed after years of being clean and things have gotten out of control quickly. I immediately stopped taking him there and last week my job was very understanding about not being able to work on those days. On Friday, we found a new babysitter. It went great and Anthony loved it there. I get there this morning and knock/call for 20 minutes. No idea what was going on but here I am sitting at home missing work again. I love his school but I really can't afford the $225 a week, plus, I go to school Thursday nights and if he's in daycare he has to stay there from 7 AM to 6 PM until someone can pick him up whereas if he is with a babysitter I can go home and see him for an hour before I go to school. We met with 6 other people and I called like 10 other places last week and I can't find anything. This sucks  

I'm sorry you're going through this  

One of the expenses you don't think about until it becomes a necessity then you find you work just to pay for daycare.

Have you thought about a private sitter? I used www.care.com to find my sitter. They do background checks, references, everything. They also rate profiles on who would be the best fit and meet the criteria youre looking for (including rate of pay, hours needed, etc). The sitter I use is fantastic. Shes doing potty training for my youngest, swim lessons for my oldest and teaching spanish to them both.

Quoting MrsMason:" I'm sorry you're going through this   One of the expenses you don't think about until it becomes ... [snip!] ... I use is fantastic. Shes doing potty training for my youngest, swim lessons for my oldest and teaching spanish to them both. "

Yes, we met with a few people from care.com. The area I live in is right outside of Philadelphia and very expensive. The cheapest we found from that site wanted $375 a week.   The one we found on Friday was a private sitter too and didn't watch any other children she just had her own 2 year old.

Trust me hun I know I have a 3 year old and one due in 4 weeks. I had my son in daycare paying about the same $225 a week almost $260 very two weeks. I took him out and had to quite my job couldn't afford daycare and didnt trust nobody with him still dont sad thing is when I can go back to work after my second son is born ill either have to pit them both is daycare or work on days my mother inlaw and sister inlaw has off which will suck being part time. But I guess well do what we have to to take care of our children. Good luck with the babysitter.( sorry for misspelled words thank the andriod phones )

Quoting Anthony's Mommy ♥:" Yes, we met with a few people from care.com. The area I live in is right outside of Philadelphia and ... [snip!] ...   The one we found on Friday was a private sitter too and didn't watch any other children she just had her own 2 year old."

Ouch. I'm sorry hun.

Quoting mama2be22:" Trust me hun I know I have a 3 year old and one due in 4 weeks. I had my son in daycare paying about ... [snip!] ... we have to to take care of our children. Good luck with the babysitter.( sorry for misspelled words thank the andriod phones )"

It really does suck that good, affordable childcare is almost impossible to find because it forces Moms to not be able to work. I really like my job and I just don't know how I am going to make this work! Good luck to you too, hopefully you can figure something out as well!

Did you ever find out what happened and why they didn't answer? That is so frustrating  .

Sorry to hear about your mom, that must be really difficult.

Quoting Chim Richalds:" Did you ever find out what happened and why they didn't answer? That is so frustrating  . Sorry to hear about your mom, that must be really difficult."

Yeah, she called my SO a few hours later and said her phone was on silent   which really isn't much of an explanation.

Thanks, yeah it sucks because I've gone through this with my Mom before. There were a couple years where I didn't see her at all and it took a long time until I was able to talk about her without crying. When she finally got clean, it took me a long time to open up to her again.. and now that she has possibly relapsed again (I guess I can't say for sure that she has, but all the signs of what I know from before are there) it has brought back some crazy emotions that are making me feel like I'm a kid again. My step-dad called me really sad last night about not seeing Anthony and he doesn't know her history at all.. so, it was hard to explain to him what was going on.

I know how you feel. I am looking for a job now, but everything I find is either too far away from a good daycare (area) or its super expensive. Even if In make decent money, I am almost paying for her to go to daycare. Even the crappy, dirty daycares around here are like $200 a week minimum. its almost impossible to find good daycare that isnt $400 a week.

Quoting Anthony's Mommy ♥:" Yeah, she called my SO a few hours later and said her phone was on silent   which really isn't much ... [snip!] ... night about not seeing Anthony and he doesn't know her history at all.. so, it was hard to explain to him what was going on."

That's so sad, especially when other people are being so deeply affected. I haven't spoken to my sister in over a decade because of addiction. It's heartbreaking. I hope your mom gets the help she needs.


And...wouldn't she be checking her phone if she was expecting a child to be dropped off? That really is super strange...

Quoting Chim Richalds:" That's so sad, especially when other people are being so deeply affected. I haven't spoken to my sister ... [snip!] ... And...wouldn't she be checking her phone if she was expecting a child to be dropped off? That really is super strange..."

Thanks, I hope so too.

Yeah, it really is weird, I don't get it at all. I mean, it's still a job and she's getting paid. She should probably be awake before I'm knocking at the front door.