[throwaway6556]

Up to and including becoming a fucking nursery. Complete with crying and singing kids for Christ sake.

I get it, nurseries are expensive and you may not have someone to dump the kids to (or money for Netflix).

Shouldn't nurseries be subsidised instead?

[massysett]

They are.

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ

[germinalphrase]

Yea - they probably should be. Discussing the cost of day care with friends it amounts nearly an additional mortgage payment every month.

[eric_the_read]

In a surprisingly large number of families where one family member earns a lot and the other much less, the cost of daycare can match or even occasionally outstrip the money brought into the family by the lower-wage earner. My wife recently started working at an early learning center, and during the summer, her salary is nearly entirely devoted to paying for the day camp for our school-age kids. If she had wanted to work full-time before they had started school, we'd most likely have been in the red.