I Fought For Paid Parental Leave In My Town. Then Came The Child Care Costs.

Ask any American with young children what their No. 1 household expense is, and you’ll hear the same answer almost every time: child care. Each family finds its own way to manage. Some parents are pushed out of the workforce. Others work jobs they wouldn’t take otherwise, or hold down multiple jobs in order to meet their families’ needs.

In order to show you how real families are navigating this child care challenge, HuffPost is profiling parents around the country. If you’d like to be featured in an installment, email us at [email protected].

Name: Kristin Dunn

Age: 33

Children’s ages: 5 years and 15 months

Location: North Carolina

Occupation: Dunn works as a housing manager at a domestic violence shelter. She also serves as an elected commissioner for the town of Laurel Park, and she receives a small stipend for this role. Her husband works at a company that produces automotive suspension products.

Annual household income: $100,000

Monthly household take-home pay: $6,390

Monthly child care costs: $1,580

Child care plan: Both children attend the same full-day childcare center, where the family receives a sibling discount. The 5-year-old will begin year-round kindergarten later this year. While this will lower monthly daycare payments, it raises the issue of what the family will do during school vacations, which comprise a total of 14 weeks out of the year.

During the summer, “she’s gonna probably do a day camp until three in the afternoon,” Dunn said. She acknowledges her privilege in being able to pick her daughter up at 3 p.m., but notes that camp costs will add up quickly. She added that their monthly mortgage payment, at $1,627 per month, is only slightly more than what they currently pay for childcare.

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