30 Posts From Delusional Parents Who Would Ask Babysitters To Pay Them, If They Could

Even though they're getting called out for the way they go about it, parents who are sending kids to daycare know that it can be a huge chunk of the family budget.

For example, in the US, the average cost is about $10,000 a year, but it's more than double that in many places across the country.

According to the US Labor Department, the average price of preschool and daycare is up 6% from last year and nearly double the overall inflation rate of 3.2%.

Big parts of the problem can be attributed to increasing labor costs and rising demand with more parents going back to the office post-pandemic. 

Child care is gaining resonance in economic and business circles, but it's losing ground in the political arena.

Funding put in place during the pandemic is set to run out this month, and advocates warn that once the US hits that "child care cliff," some centers will either have to raise prices even more, cut staff, or shut their doors.

Employment in the sector still hasn't recovered from 2020, in part because wage growth in the under-resourced industry hasn't kept pace with other low-wage sectors.

On top of that, babysitting rates rose 9.7% in the US in 2022 — a bit less than the 11% hike seen in 2021, but still outpacing inflation for the second year in a row.

A shortage of babysitters and higher pay that those remaining are able to command are creating seismic ripples in the labor market, keeping some parents at home or in precarious care arrangements.

Last year, the national average babysitting rate was $22.68 an hour for one child, $25.37 an hour for two, and $27.70 an hour for three. That's a staggering 21% jump in just two years.