How to choose an affordable child care for working parents

Child care is a major component of the ever-increasing costs connected with middle-class opportunity for Malaysian families. Quality, inexpensive day care allows working parents to remain in the workforce, promotes the healthy development of young children, and assists families at a point in their life when tiny investments yield significant social returns.

In the absence of large-scale policy action, young adults have cited day care costs as the primary reason for having fewer children than they would prefer.

Parenthood in the Malaysia might feel like a never-ending sequence of financial obstacles for those who do have small children. Over the last two decades, middle-class incomes have barely kept up with inflation, while the costs of raising a family in the middle class—including housing, education, health care, and child care—have grown dramatically. During this time, income inequality has risen, with the top 1% and upper middle class pulling away from the rest of the country in terms of wealth and income.

Most parents are required to fund the entire cost of day care under current policies, which is a price that few can afford. Even low-income families, whose children are likely to be qualified for child care assistance, are frequently obliged to pay for child care because just one out of every six subsidy-eligible children receives aid. Meanwhile, the only reason child care is affordable for parents is because the day care workforce effectively subsidises day care prices by paying low salaries.

Day care is an important part of family life for most young children whose parents work. This issue brief analyses new data on child care payments and patterns that provide insight into the types of Day care that families utilise to better understand the financial stress on families and the types of arrangements that parents make to manage their finances. The findings of a new study of child care spending data from the most recent wave of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), released in May 2019, are reported in this issue brief.

The author looked at family incomes, demographics, child care spending, and the number and types of child care arrangements utilised by families with children under the age of five.

Working families with small children spend a lot of money on child care.

Families paying for child care spend a higher percentage of their income than the HHS threshold of affordability in nearly every category, including marital status, race, age, education level, and income.

Working families paying for child care, on average, spend around 40% more than what is considered affordable. For all children under the age of 15, the Survey of Income and Program Participation asks parents how much their family spends on child care in a typical week. While the majority of child care dollars are spent on children under the age of five, school-aged children with working parents may need child care before or after school. The resulting estimates of child care costs at the household level take into account the whole range of child care expenses that families pay in order for parents to work.

It displays the number of families with children under the age of five, the proportion of families who pay for child care, and the average income and child care expenditure for families with children under the age of five in which the surveyed parent—almost always the mother—works. In the explanation of the findings, the author refers to these homes as “working families.”

Americans have ran their own tests, where you can check it out more at here. All the data provided are from the American households. We might not be the same 100%, but the reasonings are almost the same.

How to choose an affordable childcare for your children, then?

1. Do your research. Make surveys between each childcare, the monthly expenses, what they cover, what they don’t cover,
2. If you happen to have time to spare, interview the centres. Ask questions related and what you want to know from the childcare centre.
3. Drop by the childcare centre, unannounced. See their reactions if you came unannounced and they’re unprepared. If at all feasible, visit the same centres at different times of the day to get a sense of how the staff interacts with the children and the daily routine. After you’ve enrolled your child, you might want to drop in unannounced a few times to see how things are going. Your visits will sometimes confirm that the location is perfect for you, and other times they will be a true eye-opener.
4. Rely on your instincts. When something doesn’t feel quite right, every parent is aware of it. You might be put off by a centre that everyone in town praises about, or you might have a disagreement with a sitter who comes highly recommended. If this occurs, keep looking. Babies deserve and thrive in loving, nurturing environments. Investigate alternate options if something about your scenario doesn’t feel right.
5. Be flexible and adaptable. You’re not married to a particular person or scenario, and you can always change things up if things don’t work out. Yes, you want your infant to have a routine, but it doesn’t mean you can’t change things up. Dr. Shatoff reminds out that babies are resilient, and as long as they have a nice experience with their new caregiver, they will be alright.

You are still your child’s primary caregiver—the most consistent source of love and support in her life—regardless of your working hours. Your baby will thrive and grow into a happy, healthy child under your care and supervision, with the aid of your carefully selected caregivers.

However, if you prefer to not send your child to the childcare you may opt for taking care and teaching your child from home. We wrote an article few months ago relating to teaching your children from home, you may click here to read the article.