Child care in Florida

For newborns to pre-schoolers, you can put your kid in the care of either a private baby sitter or a drop-off daycare. When my Teenagers were that young, they were cared for by national chain day care centers (same childcare philosophy and similar management style no matter what U.S. state It is) called KinderCare. Childcare in the U.S. is regulated by the local government, usually the State where that business is operated. I can tell you from my experience that my Teenagers were basically raised by caring women from various national and cultural background at KinderCare. At these organized child care centers, hours are generally longer and there will always be someone to watch the children if that particular staff who usually cares for your child is out. On the other hand, you may have to find a substitute or take off from work to stay home with your child if your private child care is sick or has an unplanned leave.

Another in-home child care that is very popular in the U.S. is Au Pair. The Au Pairs come from foreign countries and live with the host families and care for the child or children for the same flat weekly stipend. When I had an Au Pair three years ago, it cost about $180 per week, in addition to paying for room and board (utility bills and food about $500 a month) plus a $7,000 per-year program fee for the costs of round-trip tickets, training and misc. The American family gets to learn something about the country and language where their Au Pair is from. The Au Pair gets to experience the American life style and helps out with child care. The more children the family has, the cost-per-child is lower. The U.S. Department of State oversees the Au Pair program, but private companies actually hire and manage Au Pairs (aka administer the program). Please check out j1visa.state.gov/programs/au-pair/ Legally, an Au Pair (only 18-26 years old) is allowed in the U.S. up to 18 months.

I found that American families who are generally open minded (to let outsiders in!) and (well) educated are likely to host Au Pairs. Of course, having some money to pay up to $23,000 a year and an extra room in the house for the Au Pair to sleep helps! Not to mention a spare car for the Au Pair to drive their kids around. So generally, host families tend to have a higher family income than average American families to be able to do all of these.

When children start school (full-time) in the first grade all the way to sixth grade, there are normally childcare before and after school childcare arrangements right at the school campus.

Then, you can't wait for them to grow up and leave the nest while you work hard to save for your own retirement and, at the same time, also save enough to send them to college.

Hi Prajna!

Thanks a lot for your help

Armand

Of course, there are many American families whose only one parent works and the other stays home to raise their children. So don't even send to kids to formal schools; they "home-school" them.

Currently, the U.S. faces very tough economic conditions, more and more families decide that bringing up their own kids is a better option financially. As y'all know, Americans increasingly become unemployed.