Can we talk about the cost of childcare?

I don’t even know what I’m trying to get out of this post - maybe just commiseration. None of my close friends have babies and no one in my family or my husband’s ever had to pay for childcare because of available grandparents and other random family members.

I was lucky enough to have twins. They are 8 months old. They start daycare Monday, full time. Granted we are paying for two but it’s $3,600 a month, and that’s with the sibling discount. More than every other payment we make monthly put together (mortgage, cars, utilities, etc etc etc). We live in a VHCOL area, nyc suburbs. I feel like we will struggle to afford this amongst everything else that comes up with kids, house, pets, life, despite making high salaries.

How much do you pay for childcare and where do you live? How do you pay for it? What did you cut back on?