• TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    8 days ago

    My family relies on a complex system of aunts and uncles and grandparents watching their nephews and nieces and grandkids and having different off days to avoid interacting with the daycare industry and if we didn’t I honestly think all of us with kids would be destitute. I genuinely can’t imagine paying 1k+ a month for childcare, I don’t know where the money would come from.

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      8 days ago

      That’s what I’ve seen among a lot of my Asian friends and their extended family throughout my life both in suburbia and in trailer parks throughout the states and among my own family back in Korea (less so now since their more younger generations are now experiencing the hell of atomization of the family structure). I genuinely feel gut-wrenching terrible for parents in our country and how much they are forced to hemorrhage just to keep their families alive.

    • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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      8 days ago

      Absolutely wild how i see so many articles that say “private equity, bonds, and stocks continue to surge, yet home ownership plunges while defaults surge” and some trust fund “journalist” can’t figure out why that is.

  • RedWizard [he/him]@hexbear.netOPM
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    8 days ago

    We pay in the ballpark of $38,000 a year for child care for 2 kids. It’s insane to think about it in those terms. There was a time in my life where I made less then that a year, I know people who make less then that now. They’re not renting let alone thinking about having kids. If one of us stopped working to stay at home with the kids we wouldn’t be able to afford or house. We are waiting for relief in the form of kindergarten.

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      8 days ago

      We pay like $17k for one kid 4 days/week. No idea how people manage with two little goblins!

      We are waiting for relief in the form of kindergarten.

      My kid was born right after the birthday cutoff in our school district, so we have to wait an extra year. Press X to RIP in peace my wallet.

      • RedWizard [he/him]@hexbear.netOPM
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        8 days ago

        Oh ours too! Then our state pushed the minimum age to 5 for K with no plan or relief for all the bur birthday kids they fucked over. Pushed the Pre-K age up as a result.

  • bumpusoot [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    8 days ago

    Such a perverse cycle, need to work to live > need to pay for childcare > need to work more > need more childcare > etc.

    Childcare was always a shared responsibility, prehistoric tribes worked this shit out quite easily. Our deathly atomized society is increasingly flunking it.

  • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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    8 days ago

    I know a family that has 3 kids, one with a medical condition. Dad’s a high school wrestling coach and mom os a nurse. They crunched the numbers and found that childcare cost them $50 a month more than what mom was working, so she quit her job to take care of her kids. This is in rural Ohio, where childcare costs more than college. A nurse was literally paying for the privilege of having a terrible amd stressful job. It would be hilarious watching the powers that be keep redefining what a recession/depression was to avoid labeling our economy as being in one if ot wasn’t for the fact that we are all struggling because of it.