Cutting the Cost of Child Care

By Lisa Belkin

After the mortgage, child care is the biggest expense in most family budgets. And in the face of job losses, belt tightening and economic uncertainty, parents are looking for ways to reduce what they spend on the people who watch their children. It is a painful cut, because there is a person we know and trust on the other end of the decision — one who needs what we pay her (women still overwhelmingly outnumber men in these jobs) to support her own family. And because we hesitate to use the word "cheap" when talking about who is with our kids when we're at work.
Yet cheaper is increasingly necessary. Some of us are eliminating child care completely. But for working families (or even families in which mom or dad are aggressively looking for work) this is a requirement not a luxury, and we're finding creative ways to reduce the costs but still have the coverage we need.
Here are a few of the most talked about options:

• Shared care: Two (or more) families with children of similar ages and schedules share a caregiver. It is simplest when worked out between friends, but sharing bulletin boards can be found online in some places, particularly college towns.
• Babysitting Co-ops: Here the parents (a group of about 20 families) take turns being the babysitters. This is most commonly used for evening go-to-the-movies care, but can be made to work in a group of parents with varied and flexible schedules. There are books, and Web sites and a New York Times article that summarize the basics.
• Child Swapping: An agreement among friends, less structured and formal than a co-op, where I watch your children so you can run errands and get work done today, and then you watch my children tomorrow. Something more of us should have been doing for each other all along.
• A "Mommy Nanny": In this arrangement, a babysitter brings her own baby or child to your house or cares for yours at her own. When my boys were younger, our baby sitter's daughter became like their baby sister. We still miss her. Mommy nannies can charge less because they are being their own child-care providers.
• Bringing Baby to Work: It's a trend with traction. The Parenting in the Workplace Institute lists 100 companies and public agencies that have policies allowing parents to bring their babies to work. They have lots of advice on how to persuade your bosses to allow this at your office. One suggestion they don't seem to have gotten around to listing yet: Tell them that the Governor of Alaska does it.
• Staggering Work Hours: If one spouse works the early shift and another the late shift, there is less need for back-up care. There is also less time to see your spouse.
• Making Work Mobile: This is my own cut-back plan. This year our family no longer has a baby sitter. I have a wireless card instead. Now my laptop and I sit in the car at the school pick-up line, and the waiting room at the pediatrician, and on the sidelines at tennis lessons. I can write, and send, as if I were in an office. (Guess which place I sent this post from?) My children are older, and I have a job that lets me work remotely, both of which are necessary for this option.
• Family: The fallback throughout history, and a valuable one now. If your family is nearby, Grandma and Grandpa will often (but not always) work for free.

Check back here later today and I'll be posting some details on how to make a few of these approaches work in your own life.

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