Editorial policy

This site is written and maintained by one person, Charles Smith. There is no research team, no panel of experts, and no proprietary dataset behind the numbers you see here. This page explains exactly where the figures come from so you can judge how much weight to give them.

Where our cost figures come from

Every dollar figure on this site is a published national or state-level average drawn from third-party sources, not from original research we conducted. The main ones are:

• U.S. Department of Labor National Database of Childcare Prices for county-level center and home-based care prices.
• Child Care Aware of America for annual state-by-state price reporting.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS data for childcare workers as a floor for nanny wage ranges.
• IRS guidance for anything involving the Child and Dependent Care Credit, Dependent Care FSA limits, or household employment taxes.

Where a page states a figure we could not trace to one of these, we say it is an estimate, or we remove it.

What the calculator actually is

The calculator is an arithmetic model, not a quote. It multiplies published average rates by the hours and number of children you enter, then layers on the payroll-tax and tax-credit rules that apply to most households. It cannot know your specific provider's pricing, your waitlist position, your state's licensing requirements, or your exact tax situation.

Treat the output as a starting range for a conversation with real providers and, for anything involving taxes, with a CPA. It is not financial, tax, or legal advice.

What we do not claim

• We have not surveyed families, nannies, or daycare centers.
• We do not have first-hand experience of every state or provider we write about.
• We do not publish testimonials, reviews, or case studies.
• No author on this site holds a CPA, CFP, or childcare licensing credential.

How we use AI

Drafting and editing on this site are AI-assisted. A human decides what each page argues, checks every number against the sources listed above, and is accountable for what is published. Nothing goes live unreviewed. If you find a figure that does not match its source, that is a mistake on our side and we want to hear about it.

Corrections

Email nannyvsdaycare@gmail.com with the page and the figure you think is wrong. We correct the page and update the "last updated" date on it. Substantive corrections are noted on the page itself rather than made silently.

Advertising and independence

This site is funded by display advertising through Google AdSense. Advertisers have no input into what we publish, no advance sight of it, and no ability to have content changed or removed. We do not accept sponsored posts or paid links, and we do not currently run affiliate links. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on the page it applies to.

Updates

Childcare prices and tax thresholds change annually. Pages carry the date they were last reviewed. A page that has not been re-checked against current-year sources says so rather than implying its figures are current.