I was reading an MSN story about what to do about the high cost of childcare when you have a baby. Since my sons are 5 and 3, I don’t have quite the expenses of new parents. To have my older son in 1/2 day care at a neighborhood babysitter (he’s in kindergarten the other half), and my younger son in preschool from 8:30-4, I pay $165 a week. That’s not pocket change. Next year with my older son in first grade, it will drop to $150 a week (preschool tuition is going up) and two years from now, it should drop to $50 a week. That’s going to be really nice. The year after, I won’t have any expense during the school year.

I can manage my childcare expenses, but it does take a substantial portion of my income. Then, when summer rolls around, to have them both in full-time care, it would cost me $40/day, which is still a bargain. But there comes a point where you have to wonder if it’s worth it. I’ll probably only have a babysitter 3 days a week and reduce my workload a little or work more in the evenings and on weekends.

But as a VA, I have the flexibility to make the decision of how often, when, and for what rate I’ll work. Many people don’t have that option. I really hope by the time my boys are fathers, childcare will be better, more affordable, and more flexible than it is today.

I know a lot of VAs work from home with their kids there. That doesn’t work out well for me. I’m really curious how it works for others. I want to have total concentration when I work, and I want my kids to be engaged in kid-appropriate, fun, social activities, which I can’t help them with if I’m working. So they’d probably be watching TV most of the day. I also like to have most of the normal business day available to meet with clients, have phone conferences, attend network events, etc.

The only advice I can give to new parents is to consider a family day care home. I’ve used 4 of them in the last 3 years. I feel that in each of the instances, my kids benefited from a closer bond, a smaller group of regular children and a home like atmosphere. Plus it cost about $10 less a day and my kids didn’t get sick as often. Most even gave me a sibling discount if both my boys were there. Obviously you need to extensively interview them and offer a whole bunch of questions on everything under the sun to make sure it is a fit for your child and provider. The disadvantage is that it’s a single human running it and that person does take a vacation and does occasionally get sick, but if you have flexibility in your job, I found it to be manageable.

Not sure why I’m thinking about this today. Maybe its because both my boys were sick last week and I had two workdays with them here. It definitely reaffirmed my belief that I’ve made the right decision about childcare and my business!