"We don't have many other options, so we just have to take the hit," said Danielle Ganje, a mother of three living in Blaine, Minnesota.

If you're a single parent, perhaps. But if you're married with an employed spouse, maybe not.

According to Care.com, the average cost of full-time, center-based infant daycare in 2023 is $1,136 per month. That's per child. To help solve this problem, finance blogger Ivana Pino suggests six ways to lower the costs of childcare — none of which is helpful and one of which includes using debt! Practical suggestions such as relocating to a cheaper area of the country or moving closer to family didn't make the list.

But the most glaring omission is the option for a parent to stay home. Why not forgo the childcare expense altogether and use that money to ease a family's financial burdens?

In my recent YouTube video on daycare, one commenter conceded that his wife's entire paycheck goes to pay for daycare. Her entire paycheck!

That may be an extreme example, but it is nevertheless true that a majority of Americans spend 20 percent or more of their household income on childcare. Married couples would be wise to put pen to paper in order to determine if that second income offsets their daycare costs.

For decades now, dual-income families have been hailed in America as "necessary for basic survival." In reality, this lifestyle simply boosted the GDP, which is why economists and tax collectors cheer for it.

After all, when both parents work, they have to pay for child care. They have to buy new work clothes. They spend money on commuting, as well as on takeout and convenience foods since no one's home long enough to cook. Even the coffee industry benefits. (Remember brewing coffee at home?) All these transactions further swell the national income accounts.