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In home childcare vs. daycare center
Hi,
I will be a first time mom in July to a baby boy and will be needing to go back to work right away. I am looking into the costs of bringing someone in home vs. a daycare situation which I am not thrilled about with a newborn.
Can anyone give me an idea of the costs as well as where to find an in home person? I live in HB.
Im very stressed about this and was supposed to stay home for 6 months but my DH just took a new job that cut his pay almost in half.
Thanks ladies!
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Re: In home childcare vs. daycare center
We pay $12/hour for our nanny, who we found through care.com. I don't know a lot about the rates for daycare centers, but a couple of friends use Turtle Rock here in Irvine, and it's around $1300 a month. Since we have our nanny 9 hours per day, 5 days a week, it's considerably more expensive than the center would be.
Another consideration is the hours you will need. Daycare centers are typically open for 11 hours a day, from 7 am to 6 pm, and you might not want to pay a nanny for that many hours per day, depending on your budget.
I have three kids, and two of them have been in the infant program at Bright Star Learning Center in HB. (They have infant through after school, with separate areas.) It is between Edinger and McFadden and Goldenwest and Edwards at a former elementary school. I believe the full-time weekly rate is $286 but there are different fees for part-time, etc. The same teachers are there who were there when my oldest daughter started there over 3 years ago - so they have a low turnover rate - and I have been really happy with the program. My oldest is now in kindergarten, and we were told she was really well prepared from her preschool experience. She is reading everything she sets her eyes on now, incl. emails over my shoulder. (: When we were taking her baby brother there recently, she told him how lucky he was and what a great experience he would have. It was really wonderful to hear that she considered it to be such a positive experience. The infant class teachers are the same teachers who took care of my second daughter, and they are great. I believe their rate is the typical rate for a center. However, I do think there is a boys and girls center in hb that has a reduced rate. I checked it out a long time ago but ultimately like BLC better - in large part because of all of the activities (esp as they get older), and huge play area. The other place was really sparce. I also checked out kindercare on beach but didn't like how a motel overlooked the play area and the play area was basically concrete.
Hope this helps. Good luck!