Braid

For parents

Someone who knows their name.

Your child spends the afternoon in a retired teacher’s living room, with one other child and nobody else. The same person every week, who knows what they are reading and who they fell out with at lunch.

Under $1,000a month if your employer sponsors a place
About $1,500a month if you come to us directly
2children in the room. Never more.

Both figures are for a full week of afternoons — around 25 hours of care — and both are what actually leaves your account in post-tax dollars, after the dependent-care benefit. Not a headline rate with fees underneath it.

What you receive

Five afternoons, and the days school forgets about.
From the school gate until about six, plus full days in the school holidays and the occasional Saturday. If you only need three afternoons, you only pay for three.
Two carers cover your week, not one.
This is the part that makes it survivable. One carer’s dentist appointment does not collapse your Tuesday, and you are never one phone call away from leaving work early.
A ratio that is the whole point.
Two children, never more. It is not a number we would negotiate under pressure — it is also what keeps this legally exempt from group day-care licensing, in a home rather than a facility.
Food handled, including yours.
Your child’s meals on care days arrive at the carer’s home with the carer’s own groceries, with allergies, dietary rules and cultural requirements already set up. You do not pack anything.
Vetting you can actually inspect.
Every carer is fingerprinted and cleared through the State Central Register before a first afternoon, every home is visited, and everyone holds current CPR and first aid. Every session carries real insurance — homeowner’s policies exclude paid childcare, which is the gap that makes informal arrangements risky.
You can see the afternoon.
The app shows you who is with your child, who the other child is, when they arrived, what they ate and when they were collected — without turning the carer’s living room into a surveillance exercise.

If money is the obstacle, say so on the form. Our foundation covers families who qualified for a New York State childcare voucher and are still on the waiting list. Those places are staffed by volunteers, and those families pay nothing at all. There is no shame in ticking that box and no disadvantage to it — it goes to a different list, not a lower one.

Put your family down

A waitlist, not a contract. No card, no deposit, no commitment.

For example: you have been approved for a New York State childcare voucher and are on the waiting list, or you think you would be eligible. We will help you check.

Employer-sponsored places are the ones under $1,000 a month. Knowing where you work tells us who to approach.

Only if you want to. We would never contact an employer without asking you first.

Days you need covered

We will email you when we open in your neighbourhood. We never sell or share what you tell us, and we will not contact your employer without asking you first.

You’re on the list.

We will write when we open near you. If you told us your employer, we may come back to ask whether an introduction is still welcome.