Taking care of a child is not a cheap task these days. In fact, it seems like the cost of childcare is getting more and more out of hand each day.
This is happening mostly because there is a lack of supply. Just to give you some perspective, parents in Washington D.C. are being charged an average of $22,631 for one child per year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That is a lot of money to be spending on a single child!
Of course, not every state is clocking in at that same number. Some states are spending less than those in Washington D.C., but they are still spending far too much.
It is especially an issue for parents with low incomes, who are already struggling to make ends meet.
One user on Reddit shared their story about this. They explained that, because of all the aforementioned reasons, they felt guilty and conflicted about one particular situation they were recently put in… They had to charge a low-income mother $600 for being late to pick up her child.
The user, who goes by the name Aggressive-Airport on Reddit, took to a thread to explain the incident and why they did what they had to do.
The user is the owner of the daycare, and they explained that the daycare has pretty lax entrance requirements, so they tend to attract lower-income families.
“Not all of our children are like this, but the proportion of them is bigger than others,” they wrote.
They went on to explain that it is fairly common for daycares to have a policy about late pickups. For their daycare, it runs $3 per minute late. They go on to compare it to other daycares in their city who charge $5, sometimes $10 per minute late.
“The policy is in place because our employees, to be blunt, have places to be after work. Some have second jobs, some have to pick up their own kids, etc,” they wrote.
By law, at least two caretakers need to be with one child if a parent is not present. The late fee is for the employees who must stay with the child — it does not go to the daycare.
Recently, they had one mother who was about three hours late which, if you do the math, comes out to about $600 in late fees.
The Reddit user went on to explain that they knew the mother was low-income… She was also a single mother. And her child was wonderful.
The daycare told the mother that the late fee would be on her next payment cycle and naturally, the mother was upset.
“I wasn’t on premises when this happen, but if I had been, I would have volunteered to stay late. This would drop it to $300, but I wasn’t there. I can’t stiff my employees or change the fee or waive a portion of it without dipping into my own pockets,” they explained.
“I also can’t ask my employees to be altruistic here because it’s their money by rights (and the agreement I have with them). If she had even phoned in advance, I could have driven up to help out, but she didn’t,” they wrote.
The user goes on to explain that when December comes, they know that the mother will most likely refuse to pay the money. Then she will be kicked out of the daycare and forced to find other options, which the daycare knows she probably cannot afford.
Now, the daycare owner is stuck in a difficult spot. They know $600 is a lot of money and they wonder if they should just help out and comp it out of pocket… Except their employees are already excited about the bonus they are going to get.
If you were in this position, what would you do?
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