[FigBug]

What do most American women do after having a kid, quit their job? You can't put a newbord in daycare can you?

[untog]

> You can't put a newbord in daycare can you?

You can. Many daycares take babies from six weeks onwards. I cannot imagine how it must feel as a parent to do that at six weeks, but plenty do.

[fastbeef]

Jesus.

We felt bad when our second kid started daycare at 18 months.

[asark]

Pick a job that offers actual maternal leave (teaching's probably the best—time it right and you get the Summer, too, plus your daily schedule will be close to that of your kid so you'll have lower daycare costs) or otherwise is either fairly tolerant of people disappearing for a while for kids or is easy to get back into after leaving—I don't have direct knowledge of this but I suspect family-friendliness and relative ease of relocation to follow a higher-earning spouse, say, is part of the appeal of all of teaching, nursing, and real estate agent..ry? ing?

Or just take barely enough unpaid leave (or draw on other pools of paid leave, which are usually tiny anyway and may have been eaten into over various pregnancy-related issues and appointments already) to get back on their feet and head back in, leaving the baby with a cheap unlicensed daycare down the street (maybe fine, maybe, uh, not, but not like there are other options on a limited budget) or older relative or whoever :-/

[mseidl]

But daycare in the states can be _really_ expensive. In the Seattle area now the cheapest is about 30k a year, per kid.

[prawn]

For newborns or one-year olds and onwards?

[koolba]

Take unpaid leave for a short period of time and then daycare. Or leverage grandparents. Or stay at home.