HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Childcare is an expense that working families must pay, no matter how high the cost.
"Its not news to anybody that childcare is really really expensive," Credit Analyst at Lending Tree Matt Schulz said.
Over the last few weeks several school systems have announced that they temporarily moved to virtual learning which means that working parents had to stay home from work or pay for childcare.
"Whether you make a high income or a relatively low income, there is nothing more important to a parent than making sure that their kid gets taken care of." Matt said.
With that responsibility comes thousands of dollars in care expenses - and with no end of the pandemic in sight. This cycle could go on for years. Forty-four percent of working parents worry that a lack of childcare will hurt their career.
"It really forces parents to make some difficult decisions, and it's even more difficult in a volatile economic time like we're in now," Matt said.
Attempting to pay for childcare leaves many parents in debt, and some families decide it's cheaper for someone to quit their job and stay home with the children rather than work.
"Debt is something that can get out of control and is something that you want to try and wrangle in to the degree that you can." Matt said.
Of course, that's difficult for families that live paycheck to paycheck, but experts say the best thing you could do is create a budget and try to stick to it as best as you can...but there's no guarantee that that will always work.
"There's just no other choice other than just going into debt for childcare and it's just unfortunate." Matt explained.