Schools? VS Nanny?

KevandJess

I am still early in my pregnancy, but I started thinking the other day about daycares/nannys etc and how early you need to start looking and taking tours etc b/c of wait lists...When did you start doing this?

Here is my other thing...Im not sure if I will be a stay at home mom, I have the option but I really enjoy my job and I get to work from home. From the looks (haven't toured yet) I really like The Post Oak School, but they don't accept the baby until 14 months. I know I will have 6 months maternity leave. So if I return to work I still will have 8 or so months before the baby could attend The Post Oak School....so do I get a Nanny for 8 months? But that means it could affect my work when I am working b/c I will always want to see whats going on if the baby is crying etc...however I want to breast feed and it makes it easy when the baby is right there in my house. I like the idea of socialization at daycare but I worry that I will miss the baby so much and not want to work at all....

Sorry for the rambling, hopefully that makes sense on what Im trying to say...

Advice?

PAGAS

I was in a very similar situation to you, except I work 3 blocks from our house.  The Post Oak School is my first choice as well, if we sent F to daycare.  Our plan as of now is to have a nanny and see how that works out.  I want to be able to come home when I like and feed F, plus for now, I want her in our home environment.  We will reevaluate after some time to see if 'school' is a better option (Post Oak is right by our home/my office as well).

We started the serious nanny search a couple months back, but found that was too early for most people because they wanted a job sooner than February. 

MrsMGR

Joe attends St Andrews in West U. I never considered a nanny. I just didn't think I could trust one person to watch my child all day with no supervision. A really good quality daycare was ideal for me bc there is a structure in their day, a curriculum, other children to play with, and several teachers to oversee what is going on. If he isn't getting to stay home with me all day, I thought the benefits of a structured daycare outwieghed the one-on-one time and the convenience of a nanny.

 

I got on the waitlist for St Andrews when I was about 10-11 weeks pregnant....and Joe was the last one to get into his class.....so I'd start figuring things out quickly if I were you.

lilycat

This is a very personal decision. It comes down to trust and choosing the set of limitations you're most comfortable with.

For me and my husband, we started out thinking a nanny would be nice. Then we started to want oversight and accountability. I also realized how hard it is for one person alone to care for a child. It seemed that having backup helps a lot.

When I looked at my son and thought of leaving him with someone without any oversight, it troubled me. When I asked his doc, the pedi suggested we try daycare first, and if we didn't care for it we could switch. <why didn't we think of that? b/c we were brain dead.>

We started daycare when he was an infant and never looked back. Lucas gets very good care. His infant caregiver, Ms. Lou,  loves all the babies. She took wonderful care of him, and helped us learn to be better parents.

My husband works nearby and checked on them. So, that's how we built the trust. A good daycare, a good caregiver, and an ability to pop in.

No choice is perfect. If you're able to work from home, you can build a relationship with your caregiver that is harder to build when you're not there.

Good luck on your decision. And, remember, if you decide something and don't like it, you can change. (Remembering that helped me.)