American parents are waiting frustratingly long for childcare and paying harmful prices.
It is common for parents to be waitlisted for six months to get childcare and pay nearly $17,000 a year in 2024, according to a survey of 2,217 mothers in July by BabyCenter.
Some 40% of parents seeking childcare have been put on a waitlist averaging six months, but 13% of those families waited a year or longer, the survey said.
Families with full-time childcare for one child paid an average of $320 a week, or $16,686 a year in 2024.
The high prices have 84% of parents saying that childcare has affected their financial goals, and 54% of those say they couldn't save enough money and 25% say they couldn't pay off debt.
The findings comes as government for assistance for childcare has dwindled after pandemic funding evaporated, putting tens of thousands of childcare programs at risk of closing and leaving millions without care.
Approximately 70,000 childcare programs are in danger of closing and leaving 3 million children without care, according to nonprofit Century Foundation.
The presidential campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are both promising to provide new childcare support in the form of tax credits.
How to save money on childcare
Parenting website What To Expect has recommendations for saving money on childcare:
- Friends and family: Ask people close to you for help with watching your children.
- Babysitting co-op: Join or create a babysitting co-op, which is a group of parents coming together to rotate caregiving responsibilities.
- Split babysitter: Find another family to share babysitting services with.
- Ask HR for childcare benefits: Some companies offer reimbursements, on-site babysitting and flexible spending accounts that lets you save pre-tax dollars for from your paycheck for childcare.
- Tax breaks: Look into state and federal government tax writeoffs for childcare.
- Reach out to local college: Higher education may be able to connect you with students charging affordable prices for babysitting.
- Work from home: Ask your employer if they can let you work from home more because of childcare.