Daycare is a pretty big expense for most households. The trouble is, the price of daycare is going up, even in hard economic times. With parents losing their jobs or having their hours seriously cut, many people are left without many promising options as they can no longer afford their childcare expenses.

I was reading an article about this over at USA Today that basically said daycares with year-round waiting lists are now struggling just to fill the open slots. It’s no longer about making a choice to have a second car or take a family vacation. It’s now about making the choice to feed the family.

I’m not a mother, so for me I had never really given this matter a lot of thought. It wasn’t part of my budget, so I never worried about it. But, I became more concerned about the problem last week when I experienced something I’m still not sure how to take.

There’s a Chinese food restaurant here in Austin that I frequent quite a bit. It’s a great little place, family-owned, sort of like my own personal little “Cheers” bar…everyone knows my name. At any rate, there’s a waitress who works there that’s as wonderful as can be. Not only does she know my name, but she knows the dishes I like and how I rotate them. Basically, she knows what I want when I walk in the door.

So, I go into the restaurant last week for dinner with a friend and we’re enjoying our meal when several cops burst in and demand to speak to our waitress. Naturally, the entire restaurant is confused and wants to know what’s going on. It turns out, the waitress had taken her kids to work with her and left them locked in the car with food, water, games, and movies to watch. She was going out every 15-20 minutes to check on them and make sure they had plenty to drink and so forth. Someone called the cops on her.

Upon questioning her, the police discovered that she couldn’t afford the cost of daycare and she didn’t have any family in Austin that she could turn to for help to watch them. She explained she brought them to work and that she was checking on them every 15-20 minutes. The police spent some time examining the kids and they were perfectly healthy, nothing wrong with them at all. They were, in fact, cranky to have their movie interrupted by all of the grown-ups wanting to check them out.

Given the nature of the situation, the police sent her off with a warning, but told her that they were required to report it to CPS. She could expect a full-blown inquiry from them and what happened after that was between her and CPS. She was pretty distraught, so the restaurant sent her home for the evening.

Now, I’m not saying I agree with leaving the kids locked in the car. However, my mom did this with us kids when she went grocery shopping and it was never a problem. We were always left with things to keep us busy and plenty to eat and drink – especially the drinks. Still, I see the other side where it’s plenty dangerous to be leaving your kids in the car, even for a moment.

But what are parents supposed to do? Quite their jobs? How will they take care of their families?

I did some reading and found a few tips for those of you out there with kids.

1.) Switch to night shift, if possible

Sure, working nights isn’t exactly on the top of the list for most people. But, usually there’s a pay differential and it may be easier to have your kids stay with someone while they’re sleeping.

2.) Teenage babysitters

Teenagers are usually much cheaper than a daycare and more flexible in the hours. Of course, you’ll want to make sure they’re CPR certified and have some references, unless you know them personally. Otherwise, it’s a good way to save money and help them out, too; especially during the summer when teenagers are looking for part-time work.

3.) Family and friends

A lot of us may have family and friends that we could ask for help, but we don’t. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to intrude on their lives or maybe it’s because we have too much pride to ask for help. In either case, sometimes we just have to ask. If you can afford to offer them a little money, then do so. Or, if not, offer to help out with household chores as a way of repayment.

4.) Start a community co-op

We did this in our neighborhood and it seems to be working out well. Most of us in the apartment building I live in know each other pretty well. So, we decided that we’d get together to watch each others kids and rotate it to give everyone a break. Even though I don’t have kids, I still participate to help out when I can. There are probably some stay-at-home moms and dads that would be happy to help out by joining forces and watching the kids. Never hurts to look into it!

Something else to consider is leaving the oldest in charge. I didn’t put this as an actual tip because this is really to the discretion of the parents. Obviously, a 4-year-old isn’t ready to be in charge of his or her 2-year-old sibling. But, what age is a good one to leave them home by themselves? I have a friend who leaves her 10-year-old home alone after school until she gets off of work. He rides the bus home and when he gets home he locks the doors and double checks the windows. He’s not allowed to answer the door or the phone and he has all of his mother’s contact information in case of an emergency.

She’s also laid down very strict rules about what he can do in the house, as well. No cooking. He can have a sandwich or something that does not require him to use the stove or the microwave, but that’s it. He does pretty well and there haven’t been any issues for my friend (knock on wood), but I personally feel 10 is too young. But then again, I’m not a mother, so I don’t know. Is 10 too young?

What do you think about this whole daycare thing? Are you paying way too much for daycare now? And what about my waitress friend? Did she get off too easy in your opinion, or was she doing what she had to do? Would you have called the cops?

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