How Much Does Day Care for Twins Cost?

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How much does daycare for twins cost? Let’s talk about costs and how that varies based on your location and the age of your twins.

We know twins can be expensive. In fact, one of the biggest expenses that parents of twins face is that of daycare for their twins.

Let’s talk specifically about childcare centers where you drop your kids off, maybe when you’re going to work and you pick them up at the end of the day.

Location is Everything

The biggest factor of how much you’re going to pay for childcare for your twins is where you live.

If you live in a big city, if you live on the west or east coast of the United States, you’re going to pay significantly more than if you’ve live in the Midwest, the central U.S., or a small town.

And if you’re outside the United States, costs vary as well. One twin dad from Sweden told me that he pays only about $250 a month for both twins to be in daycare full time. But that is heavily subsidized by the government (and taxes).

Now let’s talk about here in the United States and what you can expect to pay for daycare in your neck of the woods. I share a few examples of different locations around the country.

These examples may or may not be close to where you are so consider the size of the city or area compared to where you live.

Twin Day Care Example Costs

• Ohio: $335 a week which that comes out to about $17,000 a year
• Buffalo, New York: $24,500 a year for childcare for twins
• New Jersey: $22,000 a year for child care for twins
• Maryland: $486 a week. That’s $25,000 a year.
• Oklahoma: $270 a week, that’s only $14,000 a year.

Prices range all over the place from a couple hundred dollars a week in the middle of the country to extremely high costs in big cities and on the coasts.

The bottom line is that your expenses can sway anywhere from $10,000 a year, up to 25 to $30,000 a year for daycare for your twins.

Is Day Care Worth the Cost?

These twin day care costs can be too much for a family to bear. Oftentimes parents will decide that it’s just not worth it for both parents to be working just to take the majority or all of one parent’s paycheck to pay for daycare.

Twin dad, Chris Jackson says that they never put their twins in daycare and that his wife quit when the twins were born and she started being a stay at home mom. So nine years later and two kids more, she’s still a stay at home mom since they couldn’t justify paying an entire paycheck to someone else to raise their kids. Great points.

Likewise, twin dad Brandon says “my wife and I priced out daycare for our twin girls and couldn’t justify spending an entire paycheck and then some for daycare. We are fortunate that we were able to do this on one income, but it’s tight every month.”

Take a look at your circumstances and your budget. When you run the numbers, you might say “there’s no way that we’re going to have one of us (mom or dad) work full time just to pay for daycare.”

When you can just have one of the parents stay home and take care of the twins and gain the benefits, paid day care for twins might not be worth it.

Plus you’ll get the benefits of having a parent home with the children during the day.

Now it’s not always going to be easy. Like these twin dads said, you know it’s going to be tight on the budget. You’re going to have to make some creative financial adjustments. But don’t rule that out. Don’t just assume that you have to put your twins into daycare.

Get Various Price Quotes

You should reach out to the daycares in your area to get different estimates and quotes from each of them and see which one is the best fit for you. Just because someone is paying $25,000 a year on the east coast of the United States doesn’t mean that that’s going to be your expense for your twins where you live.

Your Twins’ Age Impacts Child Care Pricing

It will be more expensive, the younger the twins are because infants require more hands-on care, more attention, and more caregivers per child than when the kids are older. Expect expenses to be a little higher when they’re infants compared to when they are toddlers and beyond.

Ask for the Twin Discount

When reaching out to daycare centers for pricing, make sure you ask for the twin discount. They may or may not have the twin discount which may be known to them as the sibling discount. If you have other children that are also in daycare, try to negotiate such that you can get a reduced fare on each of your children.

If you’re expecting your twins still or  are in the early months with twins, I highly recommend that you pick up my book, Dad’s Guide to Raising Twins. It will help you through those first couple years with twins, overcome the common challenges, and help you see what’s coming around the corner from the stage of life that you’re in right now.