The days of every child having a parent at home during the day may be over, but childcare has become an expensive endeavor - so much so that some people have had to quit their jobs and become full-time parents.

Cherie Bennett is a single mother of two. She has qualified for daycare subsidies, and her children will start daycare soon.

Even with assistance, she doesn’t know how much she’ll have to pay out-of-pocket.

“I’m sure it’ll hit us pretty hard,” she said.

She said she’s had to quit a job before because she couldn’t afford to pay a family member’s asking price to watch them. She looked at daycares during that period, but couldn’t afford $100 a week or more for each of her children.

“I don’t know because it’s two of them, and it would be hard to pay for both of them,” she said. “Without the help, I wouldn’t be able to work a job or go to school.”

Bennett is a single parent, but many Richmond County families are dependent on child care assistance from social services to make ends meet with work and day care, according to the administrators of the Subsidized Child Care Program.

“We have mothers calling us telling us they’re going to lose their jobs, and families who just could not make it without this help,” said Family Services Program Manager Lee Anne Sago.

The average day care bill is somewhere around $100 a week, or $400 a month, per child. This is a sizable portion of the average Richmond County pay stub.

A single parent who earns $8 an hour grosses $320 in a 40-hour workweek. Day care for one child would cost this individual about a third of their check — before taxes.

“This is definitely something that’s very needed,” Little Kingdom Child Care Owner and Director Sherry Morgan said. “I’ve seen incidents before when parents were on the waiting list for this program, and try to pay out-of-pocket until their name came up. After the first couple of months, they struggle so hard to pay it, they end up having pull their children out and quit their job.”

She said it’s working families that she sees using this program, not welfare mothers.

“They’re at home,” she said. “These are people who are working, but it’s hard. It discourages a lot of people. They feel like they may as well stay at home and draw a check.”

This program allows a family to cap its child care cost at 10 percent of its gross income, and everything past this percentage is supplemented by the program.

The program already supplements the payments of 579 children in the county, accounting for somewhere between 350 and 400 families.

More are on the waiting list, with 185 children from 115 families waiting for assistance.

“Eligibility is based on gross earnings, and the earning limits are very generous,” she said. “For example, a family of three can earn $3,057 a month and still qualify. That works out to about $36,000 a year.”

Sago said many are ashamed to reach out for help, because of the stigma of dependence on social services. However, she said 82 percent of the families receiving the assistance are working families.

“This is a very worthwhile program, primarily because it allows parents to maintain a job, and keep earning money,” she said. “Many just can not afford day care without this.”

In this county, Sago said there are 2,715 children who would qualify for this service.

“I just wish we could help them all,” she said.

Karen Thompson and her husband Kenny have one pre-schooler and a kindergartner. They don’t qualify for assistance.

“I actually had a different daycare, and she gave me a discount - $110 per week for both,” she said. “Which was pretty affordable for two.”

She now pays $95 a week for her preschooler.

“I don’t want to take away from the care he’s getting, because they do really well and he’s learning and I don’t worry about him,” she said. “But the other aspect is $95 a week of my paycheck goes away instantly, for someone to watch my child so I can work. It’s a lose-lose situation. I work to take care of my family, but then I also have to make sure I’m earning to pay somebody to watch my child.”