Childcare for my 1 year old
- Thread starter mdvio99
- Start date
I would budget around $900 to $1,200 per month. Waitlist times depend on where you are located exactly but can easily take a number of months.
Start contacting day cares now if you know the area where you will be living.
No one can tell you about waiting times or costs (unless licensed/registered and may be $10 a day). You need to start calling now to get on waitlists or put down deposits for a space. You can look at home day cares too which may be in the neighbourhood you are living in. Will you have a car or be relying on public transportation? That will be a factor in what lists to get on. You need to decide how far you want to go (drive/bus) to drop and pick up your child every day.
You may not have had children in a while. Many are paying close to $2500/month in the GTA. You may be able to find non-profit and/or home daycares for around $1200 in the GTA or subsidized/income geared spots. Many daycares have waitlists of over a year. There aren’t enough childcare workers so securing a spot is extremely competitive and the better quality low cost spaces are hard to come by. It also depends on where you live. In areas where there are a lot of young families you are often limited to the more expensive options. Many are having to delay returning to work because of lack of childcare. Luck and location has a lot to do with it.
Would try to put yourself down on as many lists as possible. Realistically you may not be able to secure daycare in a few moths.
In downtown Toronto daycare fees are around $1,000 a month for a toddler, and a couple of hundred more for an infant at centres that have opted into the CWELCC program, which for this year is over 90% of the centres in Ontario. It seems logical that outside Toronto would be cheaper.
Opting in and actually being able to provide $10/day spots are very different. Many can’t secure a spot at the reduced rate and are left with either highly subsidized or very expensive if you can’t find a subsidized spot. There used to be some moderate pricing options but most of those have gone away.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/07...are-amid-implementation-of-10-day-child-care/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-child-care-1.6875384
Availability (especially for infants) has been an issue for a long time. Parents sign up for waiting lists as soon as they find out they are expecting. That has been a thing in the GTA and other major cities for a while now.
I was specifically responding to your statement that "You may be able to find non-profit and/or home daycares for around $1200 in the GTA or subsidized/income geared spots."
$1,000 a month is the going rate for the majority of centres right now, if you can find a spot. Toddler and pre-school spots are easier to get than infant.
For context, I signed my little one up for a pre-school space with only a couple of months notice at one of the more expensive centres in downtown for less than $950 per months. City run centres cost about $750 per month for pre-school but the wait times are longer.
That's parenting. It's up to the couple on the arrangement.
daycare does provide interaction with other kids/toddlers more frequently vs stay at home kids/toddlers.
we do not know OP's situation. May be both of them are going to study in Canada or have full time jobs that's committed to