My husband and I both work and we have two children -- a three-year-old and a three-month-old. Our children go to two different facilities. Finding care around this area is a real challenge -- forget about quality. I got on seven or eight waiting lists while I was pregnant three years ago and I only recently got a call from one of them. Not only are our children in different centers, but they are about 45 minutes apart from each other. Just to pick them both up takes about an hour and a half. We looked into having a nanny, but we just couldn't afford it. We currently pay $600 a month for our daughter and $8,000 a year for the preschool so about $15,000 a year. That's more than our mortgage.
In Massachusetts, the cost of child care for a two-parent, middle-class family averages 16% of their annual income. In Mississippi, costs average 7.3%. See how your state ranks.
