A quiet is falling over some Anne Arundel day cares, and not just during nap time.

Local day care providers are starting to feel the pinch from tightening family budgets.

Centers that have had waiting lists for as long as anyone can remember now find themselves scrambling to find children to fill their nurseries and classrooms. And as day cares watch their enrollments shrink, more children could be put in possibly dangerous situations as parents turn to cheaper, or possibly unlicensed, care.

Many child care businesses are for the first time offering part-time services or are changing hours to accommodate the growing number of parents working off-shifts, or struggling to make ends meet.

When The Capital contacted Creative Garden Learning Center of Annapolis, a day care located on Merryman Road, Assistant Director Robin Savoy said two infants' parents had canceled enrollment in the program earlier that day.

"And they did let us know that it's simply because of money," Ms. Savoy said.

Usually Creative Garden stays full, Ms. Savoy said. The facility's capacity is 112 enrollees, but right now it provides care to less than 100 children, she said.

Ms. Savoy said she's observed another symptom of the troubled economy. The day care has always accepted child care vouchers from the state.

Last year the center had three children enrolled with the aid of vouchers, but currently it has 11 children who are in the voucher program, she said.

"That's more than we've ever had," said Ms. Savoy, who has worked at Creative Garden for 11 years.

She said Creative Garden recently adjusted the application fee price from $75 down to $50 in consideration of families' current economic perils.

As families tightened their spending over the past few months, local parents, like parents nationwide, have been scaling back on child care.

The average child care cost outpaces rent and mortgage payments, according to various reports. So, instead of paying for day care, some parents are opting to keep their children at home with grandparents or upending their work-life balance.

An Anne Arundel County family of four with two pre-school children spends about 18 percent of its household income on child care, according to the Arundel Child Care Connections' 2008 report.

At about $17,000 in child care costs, that's slightly more than what that same family would spend on housing, which is approximately 17.3 percent of the family income.

It also comes to about twice what the family would spend on food, which is about 9.4 percent of its income, according to the report.

Even before this year, the cost for child care had climbed 5.2 percent from 2006 to 2007, said Linda Smith, the executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

Census Bureau data from 2005, the most recent available, indicates 2.65 million preschoolers attended day care. Though Ms. Smith's association said current national enrollment - or canceled enrollment - figures are not available, there are distressing signals that those numbers are dropping significantly.

Ms. Smith said she believes that when going without child care isn't an option, some financially strapped parents will put their children in facilities or homes that are little more than waiting rooms. She said she expects even people who now qualify for aid from the state to not even bother applying.

Some alternative day care options are more appealing to parents these days. Monday at Westfield Annapolis mall, Linda Pecilunas looked on as her daughter Taylor, 2, bounced and climbed on the indoor Playland in front of JCPenney. Taylor used to be enrolled at a day care center, but now a friend of the family watches her and about three or four other children, Mrs. Pecilunas said.

She withdrew Taylor from the program because of the cost and the distance of the center from her job, she said.

"As it is, I work, and my husband works," she said. "And he actually works a second job."

But she doesn't regret the decision to leave her daughter at a friend's house instead of at the church day care where Taylor used to attend, she said.

"She loves going," Mrs. Pecilunas said.

Some day cares are bracing for more economic fallout.

Rebecca White, director of Salvation Army Day Care Center on Hilltop Lane in Annapolis, said her center is anticipating an influx of new enrollees in the spring because the Salvation Army program provides subsidized child care, making the service more affordable than many other for-profit centers in the area.

Because the Salvation Army also assists with other economic needs, such as utilities, food stuffs and holiday meals and gifts, she said the staff has seen many indicators that demand for lower-cost child care is rising.

"We haven't yet gotten a lot more (children), but that isn't to say that we won't see it in the spring," she said. "Often parents will be hesitant to switch kids mid-season."

To compensate for the expected rise in enrollees, Ms. White said they will open up a fourth classroom.

Full text available at Annapolis Capital.