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Childcare costs aren’t just affecting families’ monthly budgets. They’re changing how parents save, spend, work, live, and even think about growing their families.
To better understand the impact, Cultural Care rrecently surveyed hundreds of parents across the country about how childcare costs affect their financial lives, and what they know about the different childcare options available to them.
The ripple effect of childcare costs
Here’s what parents told us about how childcare costs are affecting their lives:
55% of parents surveyed said childcare costs have impacted their ability to save
42% said they’ve cut back on typical lifestyle spending
29% said they’ve reduced their work hours or left the workforce because of childcare costs
26% said childcare costs have impacted their housing decisions
26% said childcare costs have delayed or impacted their decision to have more children
But the survey revealed something else, too: many families simply don’t know how the cost of hosting an au pair compares to the childcare options they already use.
Childcare costs are impacting more than family budgets
Childcare should fit into your family’s life, not force you to reshape your life around it. But for many of the parents we surveyed, high childcare costs are doing exactly that.
More than half (55%) said childcare costs have impacted their ability to save, while 42% said they’ve cut back on their typical lifestyle spending. That can mean making difficult tradeoffs in how families spend their time and money.
And the impact goes well beyond everyday spending. More than one in four respondents (26%) said childcare costs have affected their housing decisions, and the same percentage said they’ve delayed or reconsidered having more children because of the cost of childcare.
Those are big life decisions. Where to live and whether to grow your family should come down to what feels right for you, not whether adding another child means multiplying your childcare bill.
That’s one reason many families turn to au pair childcare. The core cost of the au pair program doesn’t increase based on the number of children in your family. An au pair can provide up to 45 hours of childcare per week and help with child-related tasks, giving families flexible support that can be especially valuable as their needs change.
Childcare costs are shaping parents’ careers, too
For working parents, childcare decisions and career decisions are often closely connected. Nearly three in ten parents surveyed (29%) said they’ve cut back on their hours or left the workforce altogether because of childcare costs.
It’s not difficult to understand why. When a significant portion of your paycheck goes directly toward childcare, families can find themselves weighing the financial value of working against the cost of care.
And cost isn’t the only consideration. Working parents need flexible, reliable childcare that can adapt to real life. Early meetings, late days, hybrid schedules, commutes, school closures, and sick days can all make finding the right coverage more complicated. Having care at home can give families more flexibility to build a schedule around their work and childcare needs.
Randi Maves, host mom in Colorado, knows that dilemma all too well. “As a full-time single mom to an infant and a 4-year-old, I felt that I was drowning balancing work, daycare runs, chores, and cleaning,” she explains. “[Our au pair] has relieved my stress and added joy to our lives in immeasurable ways. She’s the teammate I needed.”
Many families don’t know how au pair costs compare
One of the most interesting findings from our survey wasn’t about how much families spend—it was about what they don’t know.
Families who weren’t sure how the cost of hosting an au pair compared with their current childcare arrangement were the least likely to consider hosting one. In other words, uncertainty around cost may be keeping families from even exploring the option.
And awareness makes a significant difference. Among parents surveyed who said they were very familiar with the au pair program, 85% said they were open to hosting an au pair.
That may be because hosting an au pair offers families more than childcare. Au pairs become part of the family in ways other childcare options don't, bringing new languages, traditions, and perspectives into children’s everyday lives. It’s a two-way cultural exchange that gives families the care they need while opening their children’s world to something new.
“When we were deciding between daycare and hosting an au pair, we were overwhelmed,” says Iesa Young, host mom in Tennessee. “Like many parents, we wanted to make the ‘right’ decision. One that balanced safety, love, stability, culture, and trust. Cultural Care gave us something we didn’t expect when we first began the process: a clear explanation of the real differences between childcare options, and peace of mind that hosting an au pair was the right choice for us.”
Could au pair childcare work for your family?
Our survey makes one thing clear: families are making real tradeoffs to afford childcare. But before cutting back on savings, changing career plans, or putting off growing your family, it’s worth understanding all the options available to you.
For families looking for another way to make childcare work, hosting an au pair offers a combination of flexibility, consistent support, and predictable program cost. And because that cost doesn’t increase with each additional child, hosting can be especially appealing to families with multiple children.
But the benefits go far beyond childcare. Hosting also brings cultural exchange into your home, giving children the chance to experience new languages, foods, traditions, and perspectives as part of everyday family life.
Ready to see how au pair childcare could fit into your family? Learn more about becoming a host family today.
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