I was just discussing this with a girlfriend the other day. We calculated that it would be about 50% of takehome pay if we worked FT. While we agreed on one hand that it was crazy, you also have to consider this. (Ill use round numbers to make it easy for myself) if you make $4000 a month, and pay $2000 a month for daycare, you take home $2000. If your family needs that $2000 to make the bills, you really don't have a choice. If you can do without that $2000 then you can make the decision to stay home if you want to.