Working Moms
sportsmomma
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XP: Daycare WWYD
sportsmomma
member
in Working Moms
XP from December 2013 Moms...
DH and I are having the hardest time making a decision on whether to switch daycares for DS (20 month old) and start new for this new baby (due mid-December, back to work in March or so), so thought I'd pose the question to you all as a WWYD.
Option #1: Stay with daycare that DS is enrolled in now. It's a large public center working on it's NAEYC accredidation and has the benefits of a big center like clean, newer facility, newer toys, nice playground, clear guidelines, etc. DS does seem to have friends there as he talks about some of his classmates at night, so I worry a bit about separating him from them. The main downsides to the center are that there's no real consistency in who his caretaker is. There are main teachers for each room, but we almost never drop him off with one of those two or in his room and then they have floaters who come in through the day and often pick him up from someone different too. We don't like going in there and having never met the person who is caring for him at that time. It is also further from home, about 6 miles / 20 minutes, but close to my husband's job. Also, the price is much higher, for the two kids it will be about $600/week.
Option #2: Switch to a church daycare that is state licensed, but doesn't have additional accreditation. Much smaller community feel to the place. They have two teachers for each room and barring vacation or illness those are the two caretakers the child is with all day for consistency sake. They only employ one floater, and mostly use full-time staff to fill in as necessary. The children would not be shuffled between rooms, but rather are dropped off and picked up in the same place. Price is also a positive in that it would be about $400/week, so would save us $200/week, $800/month and over $10,000/year. It's also a 5-minute 1.5 mile drive from the house, so closer. I also like the church influence even though it's not our denomination. The negatives are that the facilities aren't as new and updated and the toys are older, there's no real playground but more just outside toys (Cozy coupes, ride on toys, Little Tykes slides, etc.). And even though I like the consistent teachers, if we don't like one then the kid is really stuck with them vs. it just being a small part of their day. One thing I didn't like on the tour is the 14 mo - 24 mo room was watching a TV show, she said they get 15 minutes once/week and the older kids get 30 minutes once/week, which isn't too bad but it still turned me off a bit. Another thing I noticed is one of the older kid rooms was eating Little Debbie zebra cakes things as a snack - not exactly healthful eating. I didn't ask if it was a special treat or considered part of their regular snacks. The menu I was provided for meals looked similar to where he is now. The main negative is that we'd have to switch our son, which might be a tough transition and we're not familiar with the new place so it's more of a mystery of what to expect vs. the place we are now.
So, what would you do???
DH and I are having the hardest time making a decision on whether to switch daycares for DS (20 month old) and start new for this new baby (due mid-December, back to work in March or so), so thought I'd pose the question to you all as a WWYD.
Option #1: Stay with daycare that DS is enrolled in now. It's a large public center working on it's NAEYC accredidation and has the benefits of a big center like clean, newer facility, newer toys, nice playground, clear guidelines, etc. DS does seem to have friends there as he talks about some of his classmates at night, so I worry a bit about separating him from them. The main downsides to the center are that there's no real consistency in who his caretaker is. There are main teachers for each room, but we almost never drop him off with one of those two or in his room and then they have floaters who come in through the day and often pick him up from someone different too. We don't like going in there and having never met the person who is caring for him at that time. It is also further from home, about 6 miles / 20 minutes, but close to my husband's job. Also, the price is much higher, for the two kids it will be about $600/week.
Option #2: Switch to a church daycare that is state licensed, but doesn't have additional accreditation. Much smaller community feel to the place. They have two teachers for each room and barring vacation or illness those are the two caretakers the child is with all day for consistency sake. They only employ one floater, and mostly use full-time staff to fill in as necessary. The children would not be shuffled between rooms, but rather are dropped off and picked up in the same place. Price is also a positive in that it would be about $400/week, so would save us $200/week, $800/month and over $10,000/year. It's also a 5-minute 1.5 mile drive from the house, so closer. I also like the church influence even though it's not our denomination. The negatives are that the facilities aren't as new and updated and the toys are older, there's no real playground but more just outside toys (Cozy coupes, ride on toys, Little Tykes slides, etc.). And even though I like the consistent teachers, if we don't like one then the kid is really stuck with them vs. it just being a small part of their day. One thing I didn't like on the tour is the 14 mo - 24 mo room was watching a TV show, she said they get 15 minutes once/week and the older kids get 30 minutes once/week, which isn't too bad but it still turned me off a bit. Another thing I noticed is one of the older kid rooms was eating Little Debbie zebra cakes things as a snack - not exactly healthful eating. I didn't ask if it was a special treat or considered part of their regular snacks. The menu I was provided for meals looked similar to where he is now. The main negative is that we'd have to switch our son, which might be a tough transition and we're not familiar with the new place so it's more of a mystery of what to expect vs. the place we are now.
So, what would you do???
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Re: XP: Daycare WWYD
I can't tell how old your son is. That would also be a factor for me. Even though my DS could have stayed at the same center as DD, I could tell he kind of outgrew the space so we looked elsewhere, added to our commute with two drop offs, and paid more.
I guess my point is, yes, 10k is a lot. But if you can swing it, I would take that factor out of the equation, visit the second place again, and then really figure out where your kids would do best.
You had me sold 100% on number 2 until you mentioned the TV and the little debbie cakes.
However, 30 mins a week of TV I could overlook if I got that initial "Yup, this is the right fit" feeling. And the snacks are NBD either, I would just send in my own like PP mentioned.
Does your center have a lot of turnover? You mention a different teacher in the room often, but is it a teacher from another classroom or someone brand new all the time? If it's just another teacher or floater, I wouldn't worry about it, but if there is a lot of turnover, that is definitely a red flag.
That's what's making this so hard is that every daycare has it's downsides and we just don't see a clear frontrunner in this one. Thanks for the replies - keep 'em coming. Helps me to think through it!
Also - I should have added that many aspects are the same or similar so didn't include for comparison purposes but are why we're looking at these two: they have great educational curricula, happy with the level of security, like the director of both, good tenure with staff, good educational extras like Spanish, sign language, science, math, motion, etc. as they get older, require certain educations/certifications, happy with sick policy, etc.
I love the way your center handles staff changes and will share with our director either way because I think it would be great for her to consider adopting or at least considering parts of it. They often have pictures up with the teacher's name, but that's still fairly impersonal so I like the bio part of it.
I am leaning towards place #2 as long as you can get some clarification about the snacks. I'd go for another visit and try and get a sense of the vibe. Maybe even take your 2-yr-old with you and see how he likes it.
If you like both places (assuming that there's no such thing as a perfect daycare) I'd go with the $800/month savings. I also don't think that the adjustment period your 2-yr-old will take to get used to the new place is enough of a reason to keep him in your current place.
I recently had an opportunity to work part-time, but it would have required switching who would be watching my 4 month old. We have her in a large daycare as you described... clean, playgrounds, accredited, multiple teachers, and 5 minutes from work. Our option was to have her stay with a friend who is an amazing mom and would have provided great care... and just a couple of blocks away from home.
After a lot of consideration, we decided to have me continue working full-time and stay with the daycare. Either way, I would have been bringing home the same money and she would have great care in either location. The reasons we made our decision is that DD is happy at her daycare, they can offer more opportunities for her, and she would only be 5 minutes away from work. If anything happened to her during the day, I would rather only have 5 mintues to get there from work than need to drive all the way to our neighborhood before I could get to her and see the situation for myself. I would love to spend more time with DD, but we did what was best for her.
Your current daycare does sound problematic in terms of consistent caregivers. Would the same be true for the baby?
I think I would look for an option #3.
Yeah neither sounds perfect. I like the sound of #2, but I really don't like that they don't have a good play ground, do tv and have unhealthy snacks. What is the point of doing 15 minutes of TV? Seriously?
Also...it would actually concern me that it's the same 2 teachers all day. Most centers I've looked at have 3 teachers, one morning and one afternoon plus a swing teacher, with 2 always there at one time except for very early and very late when there aren't many kids.
The reason is to keep the teachers from working 10 hour days each day. I get concerned about the same caregiver working such long hours cause I kind of feel like that is where mistakes happen and where teachers have the opportunity to exercise bad judgment - when they are tired and over worked.
But your current center does seem to have major consistency issues that I don't like either. I hate to say look for #3...but I might look for #3.
Either that, or go for 2 and bring your own snacks and help organize parents to improve the playground over time.