Reporting a Home Daycare

[Inspired by Reggio]

My mom mentioned that she paid $70/week for me at 4yrs in school with home lunch (lady lived across the street from the school) and my 8mos old brother was $90/week......23 years ago!!

That makes for me $14/day and infant brother $18/day!! and exactly like Reggio said "and look at the difference in cost of living between than and now".

Yup ... it amazes me how people were able to 'afford' that back in the 70's when 'subsidy' was unheard of and wages were way LESS and MOST women in the work force who had to work were only making minimum wage or not much more and way less than MEN even if they were in a 'good paying job' .... however now minimum wage has gone for $2.50 an hour to $10.25 an hour over that time and people are still only able to 'afford' to pay the SAME for daycare???

It saddens me to be honest how little our field is valued ... in 1990 I got a job in a non profit centre making just on $10.25 an hour with a 8 hour work day and a paid lunch hour, full benefits including a PENSION that the employer MATCHED so if I put in a $1 they put in a $1, 12 sick days at full pay, 6 sick days at 50% pay, 3 weeks vacation and so forth .... which back than was GOOD money and benefits specially for new grad cause minimum wage was like $3.15 an hour and many 'private' centres that is all they paid so I was lucky to get that job ... however when I left that job 10 years later my wages had only changed by $1.05 an hour over the course of 10 YEARS so an average of $0.10 an hour increase each year ..... in 2005 when I had to move to a new city and had to start 'over' in this field the starting wage I was offered with over 17 years experience in the field and a proven track record of professionalism and dedication to my field ... $10.10 an hour - expected to work 9 hour day and unpaid lunch, 10 sick days, 2 weeks vacation and NO BENEFITS ..... seriously that is how LITTLE our fields wages and resources have changed over the years????

However in comparison once upon a time it was a privilege for a family to have ONE car - now it is EXPECTED that they NEED at least TWO, families only ate out on 'special' occasions now we eat out 3-4 times week, women do not think twice about forking out $50 biweekly in manicures and pedicures or $300 every 6 weeks on haircuts with highlights, the electronics and toys families have, the cost of entertainment and cellphones and other 'extra's' and so forth that eat up the 'wages' people make is just considered the NORM and a NEED verses a extra and so forth?

Just baffles my mind - sorry to hijack the thread btw just a pet peeve of mine and the 'warehousing' of over ratio programs for cheap is just a symptom of the VALUE we place on our children and 'raising them' .... we do not think TWICE about paying $10 an hour for a teenage babysitter so we can go out and spend $200 on dinner and a movie because we NEED ME TIME to distress from our hard work but we claim we cannot 'afford' to pay someone $3.50 an hour to help RAISE our children in a quality education learning environment to give them the best head start in life and we willingly plop them in 'cheap' programs where I do not care how GOOD or PASSIONATE you are you cannot provide the same LEVEL of individual care and attention to 8-10 children that you can to 4 or 5 of them you just cannot have enough eyes, arms, and TIME in the day .... just does not make sense to me at all how we can have such a low priority for 'children' who are our future generation