Searching for Daycare Options for Impoverished Families
Poverish families may be wealthy when it comes to love, but they often come up short of cash at the end of the month. Poverish parents aren't afraid of hard work, but when they find employment, they face a child care dilemma: how can a low-income parent afford daycare? There are several daycare options for impoverished families to consider, and we will discuss them here.
Federal Tax Credits
The federal government offers tax credits for poverish families with daycare expenses. However, many poverish families don't even earn enough to file a tax return, and families living at or below the poverty level cannot afford to advance funds for daycare throughout the year and wait until they get their tax refund to recoup their daycare expenses.
Friends and Relatives
The most common daycare option for impoverished families is to turn to a friend or relative for a daycare solution. The problem with this solution is that poverty often runs in families from generation to generation, and poverish families are likely to have relatives who are already working hard at their own jobs and unable to care for someone else's children, no matter how much they love them.
If a poverish parent finds a stay-at-home friend or neighbor who is willing to provide daycare, the parent might be able to provide services in exchange for child care. If a deal can be worked out, then using a friend as a daycare option for an impoverished family might be the best solution.
Perhaps the neighbor needs childcare on evenings or weekends or at other times when the poverish parent can provide it. Poverish parents can provide other services such as house cleaning, helping the daycare provider with cooking or helping their children with homework in exchange for daycare services.
Starting a Daycare Business
Perhaps the best daycare option for impoverished families is for one parent to stay home with the family's children and provide daycare for other children, too. Even poverish families have the resources to start a home-based daycare business. A daycare business requires virtually no start-up money.
If a family already has young children, they can usually take care of one or two more without buying additional daycare equipment or toys. Customers provide diapers and bottles for their children, and the cost of a modest mid-day meal can be included in the daycare fee.
With a home-based daycare business, the daycare provider usually gets paid right away-at the end of the first week of daycare, at the latest. Unlike tax credits, the family does not have to wait until it files a tax return to make money. Best of all, the poverish parent's children get to attend daycare for free.
If a poverish family's home is unsuitable for daycare, yet another daycare option for impoverish families is for one parent to find work providing in-home daycare for another family, with the understanding that the poverish parent will bring his or her own child to the home and care for him or her in addition to the children of the employer. With some creative thinking and innovative solutions, daycare options for impoverished families can be found.
