“People joke when you’re going to have a baby how you’d better start saving for college. But you don’t expect to be paying for college six months into being a parent.”
Kate LaBeau is a working mom who lives with her husband, Ryan Wigly, and their daughter, Sloane, 2, near Kirke Park in Ballard. She’s also pregnant, which means she and Ryan are on the verge of an enormous expense: two children in full-time child care.
They’re not the only ones. On Kate’s block, there are five families with children under five years old. Altogether, they will spend about $200,000 on child care in 2026.
Welcome to the Waitlist
Each family on this block of 9th Avenue NW has its own (costly) arrangement. Down the street, Dr. Kate Vogeli and her husband Mitch Martinez rely on a nanny share for their infant, Charlie. In 2026, they estimate they’ll spend $42,000 on child care.
“We were on a bunch of waitlists in January, Charlie was born in June, and we had to go back to work in November,” she said. But in November they were still waitlisted. “Our new goal is to have him in a daycare when he turns one. It seems like the cost will be better and we might finally get in!”
Likewise, Kate and Ryan were on so many waitlists they used an app, Kinside, to manage them.
“Early in my pregnancy I casually posted on Facebook that I was looking into child care,” said Kate. She had no idea what she was getting into. “It felt like I was launched into this whole world — do this, don’t do this — it’s like a full-time job.”
A few houses down from Kate, Sadie Mackay and Jen Robertson put their son Callum on a waitlist for the Woodland Hall preschool when he was born. He’ll be able to enroll when he turns two. Right now, Sadie and Jen are paying $38,000 per year for care.
“We’re paying more for Callum’s daycare than what my senior year cost at Lakeside,” said Sadie.
The hidden costs
The child care crisis isn’t just about money. Long waitlists and exorbitant tuition often force parents to stitch together 40 hours of care through a mix of family, friends, nannies, and daycares, all of whom have their own set of rules and their own schedules.
“There are no rolling admissions at many of the daycares,” explained Kate, “how can I do a ‘September entry’ for a baby that will be born around Christmas?”
When their daycare is closed (25 days a year), Sadie and Jen “play hot potato baby,” handing Callum off throughout the day, or they call in Sadie’s mom, Susan.
“It’s a mess,” said Sadie.
Even the award-winning, sliding-scale Seattle Preschool Program (SPP), which recently expanded to 151 locations, isn’t convenient. Most of the SPP schools follow the typical public school day: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. So even though the sliding scale saves parents money, it leaves them with at least two hours of care to cover each day — and that’s if they even know about SPP. Most of the 9th Ave parents had never heard of the program.
Compounded loss
None of the 9th Avenue parents qualify for city or state assistance, which cuts off around $150,000 for a household of four. They are frustrated but mostly resigned to their fate.
“Last year was really bad,” said 9th Avenue parent Jared Luther, “because Rosie was an infant. This year was a little better.” A little better amounts to $3,200 a month.
Savvier the second time around, Kate and Ryan decided to switch to a daycare that cost less and was closer to home.
“In the end,” said Ryan, “we just decided that that money was better off with us.”
He’s probably right. Erica Snyder, a certified financial planner, offered this scenario:
“There are a few ways to look at this,” she explained. “Let’s say parents invested $3,000 a month for the first five years, stopped contributing but kept the money invested through high school. By that time, they’ll have saved about $180,000.
“With a 10% compound return, by the end of 17 years it would be approximately $725,000.”
In other words, if just one family on 9th Avenue invested the cost of early child care and early education, they’d have enough money to put every child on the block through college.
Read more from our coverage of what it will take to advance universal child care in Seattle:
- Universal Child Care: What can Seattle learn from New Mexico? | New Mexico’s new universal, no-fee child care system has insights
- The cost of child care: One block, five families, $200,000+ a year | Child care for two kids can cost as much as four years of college tuition
- Immigrant providers are critical to achieving universal child care | Equity in child care access depends on it
- What’s the DEEL? Seattle’s work toward universal child care | DEEL Director Dwane Chappelle discusses where we are and what it will take
- Child care by the numbers—and where to turn for help | Seattle is a ways away from universal child care, but assistss thousands with care
- In Seattle, few employers significantly subsidize child care | Outlier YMCA considers child care ‘not a perk, but a foundation for equity and opportunity
- ‘We need long-term funding not short-term fixes’ | City and state leaders say they’ll keep working to address the state’s child care crisis
