Every parent knows why child care is important—but how do you find the right support?

a child playing with crayons at child care

Working parents all have one key thing in common: a reliance on child care. It’s a fundamental need to get any job done. Some parents have relatives who watch their little ones. Others need support from daycares, day camps or nannies. Regardless of the child care options for working parents, we’d be lost without those rockstar caregivers!

On a fundamental level, child care must be high-quality and safe for all the obvious reasons. It also has to be reliable, so we can focus on work without being sidelined by inconsistently available care. But, if you’ve gone down the rabbit hole of finding the right care, you know the list of needs and wants grows the more time you spend researching. 

To make things more difficult, it’s even harder to find high-quality child care now. The United States is going through a child care shortage fueled by the pandemic, low child care staff pay and the increasing expenses of child care. All this is having a major impact on working parents across the nation who are often faced with the choice of giving up their jobs, reducing their work hours or working odd hours so they can care for their kids themselves. 

And let’s be real: child care is expensive. According to Care.com, it can run up a whopping bill of $10,000+ every year. The heartbreaking truth is so many people across the nation simply can’t afford this vital service.

Since it can be hard to source the right support at the right price—especially now—we wanted to offer some help. We’ve compiled a list of chlid care options and tools to assist working parents in finding the proper care for their little ones. 

Because at the end of the day, it takes a village, and we as parents want the best possible child care for our kids. They (and we) deserve it, right?

Child Care for Working Parents: Support Options

At-Home Care

If you feel most secure with your child being cared at home, at-home care is the perfect option for you. To find care that aligns with your budget, check websites such as Care.com, Urbansitter.com, Sittercity, Helpr or Bubble. You can also search and post on local Facebook groups or the Nextdoor app, which is a really great way to get referrals from other parents as well. 

Private and Public Care Centers

We thought the best way to break down this option is to guide you through how to source the right one: 

  1. Use Google Maps to find a daycare or program near your home or office, ensuring a short commute. 
  2. Read online reviews to get a sense of what other families’ experience has been. 
  3. Once you’ve narrowed down a list of options (three is a good number so you can compare them), schedule tours to check out the facilities for yourself. It’s also a time to chat with staff and learn more about the programs and day-to-day, such as what your child’s daily routine will be, what they’ll learn, who the teacher is, and how lunch and snack systems are handled. Pre-K and daycare centers can be great opportunities for kids to learn basic child development skills sure to help them during their early education years. 
  4. After you’ve completed all the tours, it’s time to assess how they compare. Evaluate which is best for your child’s development and comfort, as well as which is best from a financial standpoint. Another factor may be when your child can start, as many day cares and school programs have waitlists. If you’re pregnant now, be sure to factor in that timeline and get on waitlists now to ensure your child can start when you need them to.  

Financial Assistance

No one should be without child care. If you need financial assistance, the United States federal and state governments offer several resources and financial support programs to help low-income families. 

Here are some programs to look into: 

Child Care at VIDA Coworking

VIDA Coworking understands why child care is important for parents and believes that child care is a fundamental necessity. That’s why VIDA made it a priority to offer onsite child care resources. You can bring your kids to work so you don’t have to sacrifice your career or income for child care. 

Last year, VIDA offered VIDA School for members with children in first through sixth grade, providing additional learning support for children in an online or virtual learning program — and VIDA Summer Camp for kids 5-10 years old. We will soon be offering full-time on-site child care for kids ages 3 months – 5 years — for more information or to join the wait list,  please email us at hello@vidacoworking.

Rent a Portland coworking space with unrivaled amenities, including child care, VIDA school and more. Contact us today to schedule a tour of VIDA Coworking!