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Returning to work poll
I work in retail and am supposed to go back on Aug 17. I haven't started looking for daycare for DS, but we would need availability Mon-Sat from 8:45 am to 9:30pm. Close to impossible here. We would likely end up with a daytime caregiver and an evening one. We would be spending around $30 a day for him to be in care, which is 1/3 of my wage per day. My other option would be to stay home and do an inhome daycare. I would need 3-4 kids to make the wage that I would be making in my retail job. What would you do?
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Re: Returning to work poll
ugh, tough choice. i am struggling with a similar choice.
3-4 kids on top of your own is a lot of kids. i think you would be drained and that is a huge commitment.
nice to not have to work weekends/evenings anymore.
keep in mind when budgeting, it costs a lot to work! think of the gas, clothes/shoes, money on lunches, dinner you end up buying because you are too tired/busy to make something.
maybe there is another option? can you work weekends or something and just do before/after school care plus casual stuff like if schools have a professional day etc?
You're right, finding daycare for those kind of hours is near impossible anywhere, and even if you did, it would end up costing a fortune.
Have you looked into signing on with a dayhome agency in order to strat your own dayhome. This way you would be guaranteed to be able to start "working" from home b/c the agency will fill the spots for you.
Goldenprincess, yes I have started looking into a licensed daycare. They would provide the kids, but take a cut of the pay. But, they supply toys.
I know it would be exhausting having that many kids, but I could startout with a couple and add a couple more as time went on. I am so torn as to what to do. I wish it were easier!
If you haven't already gotten onto a wait list, unless you're still pregnant, you're probably going to have a tough time. I didn't look into it, and apparently the wait list here is 1.5 years! Crazy!!!
I'm not sure what the regulations are where you live, but I've looked into it here:
If you have more than 2 kids who aren't your own, you need to be licensed here- which means that you need an ECE course, first aid, additional liability insurance and a home inspection by the licensing branch.
I'd look into working off-set hours to your H if that's at all possible. OR- do you have any friends who might think about SAH? My gf is SAH, and has agreed to watch DS. DH and I will work sort of off-schedules, so DS will only need daycare 3-4 hours a day. In a normal daycare, we would have to pay the full $600-800/month to hold his spot, but because it's a friend and she's only going to be watching DS and her DD, she's going to give us a break
None of the above options capture what Dh and I are going to do. We both work shift work. I work a 4 12 hour day rotation, 2 days and then 2 night and then I am off for 5 days. Dh works Monday to Friday 8 am to 4 pm or 4 pm to 12 am. So even if I go back full time day care won't always be that helpful, because some weeks I will need 4 days and others none. I think I will be going back on a modified schedule because if DH is working until 12 am and I work night shift, than we need to have some one watch DD until 12:30 am, which will be really hard. So we are going to try to do it so that I work when he is home, so that one of us is with her instead of going the day care route. I may not be able to go back full time, but as long as I make what I would have made minus day care costs, were still in the same place either way.
~Katie~