If you are going back to work...

ashleyrsotomayor

Are you using in-home child care/sitter or a daycare? In-home care is significantly cheaper and would be the only way it would be worth it for me to work full time, but I am nervous about having just an in-home sitter. Daycare would be a waste of money because it would be half my paycheck. I might as well go part-time.

rock-elle

I'll have to go with a nanny for awhile because I work the second shift and DH is a pilot so he flies all kinds of hours so daycare is kind of a non-issue for us, its more evening care and/or MIL!!

SoulfulWhim5862

I'm divorcing and staying with my parents until I'm able to get a better job to support me and my LO and get a place of our own.  My mom does in-home daycare and will be watching my LO when I go back to work. 

krissymac

We haven't figured it out. My mom might be able to watch baby on Mondays and MIL might be able to watch baby another day of the week, probably Tuesdays because that's when she watches my baby niece.  I'd like use daycare for the rest of the week just for the additional socialization. I'm not saying it's the best idea in the world, but my SIL doesn't do any daycare and that baby is the biggest diva aka crabby ALL the dang time and seems she can only be comforted by mom. 

Orchard27

I'm still really early, but I've identified 5 daycares in our area that I will start contacting after our next appointment:  4 are centers and 1 is an in-home.  Unfortunately, I was semi-scarred as a tween/teenager (only half kidding) about in-home daycares because I used to spend time with an aunt who ran one and I think she was crap at it.  The kids were never in danger or anything, but even then I didn't think she ran things properly. 

But then I think of how I worked for a babysitting agency and I was how I would want someone to be with my kids, so I know there are good ones out there.  Anyways, that's just my personal struggle to consider in-home daycare.  Cost is going to svck either way because I live about an hour outside of Boston and I work in a super high cost of living area.

magdalina.h

My MIL is going to quit her job and stay home to take care of Nugget

mjune3881

I consider myself super lucky in the fact that my mom lives about 40 minutes away from us and really wants to be the nanny for our kids.  I really wish I could stay at home, but its just not a possibility right now. 

kathymarie

I'll probably stay home for a few months, and then daycare it is. My benefits are fabulous and worth going to work for.

goalieamy24

I'm extremely blessed in this department and had family members fighting over who was going to keep our little one.  At this point the plan is that my MIL will be coming to our home to keep our little one. 

I used to work as a therapist for children birth to three and so I spent a lot of times in the local daycares.  I would quit my job and move in with my parents before putting my LO in one of those daycares.  I'm amazed at the quick staff turnover, the germs, and some of the most ridiculous rules I've ever heard of...One daycare I went into didn't provide any sort of consequences for any behaviors.  That's just my opinion though. 

WormandElizabeth

I had always hoped to stay home for a few years, but now reality is sinking in and I know that's not a possibility since I make more income and have better health benefits. MIL does in-home daycare, which I'm not thrilled about having her watch LO because I know it's going to be struggle between what I want and what she wants, but I'm learning to live with it...

cherylanddoug

I'm hoping to miss the entire 1st 1/2 of the school year.  My school has an in-house daycare.  I want to use that for the rest of next school year so I can breastfeed through the entire first year.  After that I want to look into some in home options to save money.  I am the breadwinner so going part-time is not an option

damabo80

Orchard27:

  Unfortunately, I was semi-scarred as a tween/teenager (only half kidding) about in-home daycares because I used to spend time with an aunt who ran one and I think she was crap at it.  The kids were never in danger or anything, but even then I didn't think she ran things properly. 

The same thing happened to me. My mom put me in one when I was 7 (she said that she researched like crazy, and this one came highly recommended by a lot of friends) for two weeks (she was a SAHM, but was headed back to work, and needed to attend a class).

I hated it. We (kids) were treated like second class citizens by the providers, the other kids were running wild (I learned about sex from the tweeners who were there), it felt dirty and sticky (what can I say, I was a snob at the ripe ol's age of 7). It was awful. Like Lord of the Flies but inside of a house.

I'd hate to do all this research to find a "great in-home daycare" that treated my kid like crap.

Both sets of our parents are on the west coast....I soooo wish family was an option for us, but it's not. Looks like we're going traditional day care route.

schenkertobe

We are going with daycare. For us, with our commutes we'd have to have a nanny for 10 hrs a day almost. But there is a great daycare right across the street from my work, so LO would only be there 8hrs a day and I could stop in for visits. But, I'd rather have a nanny. I think it would be so much easier in the mornings not having to get a baby out the door every day, and you don't have to deal with sick days. If it's cheaper for your, I'd say go for it! 

PrincessDi80

My mom and I both dearly wish she could quit her job and take care of LO unfortunately she is not in a position where she can do that. So it will most like be daycare most days and maybe my dad who is retired some days

jay-tea

Daycare center hands down.  It may be pricier - but so worth it.  DD has learned SO much, is very social and interacts well with others - she's made friends and so have we.  We don't have to worry if the provider gets sick, because there is always coverage.  She is in a preschool curriculum and I am amazed at how much she has learned.

That being said - yes, daycare is going to eat up half of my salary.  However, the price does go down each year and DD will be starting kindergarten in the fall of 2012 and it will be even less.  The in-home daycares around me would cost about $500 less a month as it stands now - but the price doesn't go down each year and right now, DD's daycare center is about as much as the in homes go for.

Hunter22

jay-tea:

Daycare center hands down.  It may be pricier - but so worth it.  DD has learned SO much, is very social and interacts well with others - she's made friends and so have we.  We don't have to worry if the provider gets sick, because there is always coverage.  She is in a preschool curriculum and I am amazed at how much she has learned.

This exactly. We had my son in one at home daycare and one day I found him sitting in the swing with a matchbox car (5 months old) in his hand and for ten minutes the lady was nowhere to be found. The second was an at home daycare but run by the Army base daycare so had all the same rules, regs etc and was much better. Even then, once we got him in a professional daycare (at about 16 months) we noticed an amazing difference in his development. The curriculum they provide and activities they have planned for them are incredible, not to mention that they are right across from the National Mall so when the weather is nice they take them to the Smithsonian Museums at least twice a week. Of course we are paying out the butt for all of that though. Do what is best for your situation and if you feel there is something lacking maybe you do a lesson or whatever with the little one when you get home. For what it's worth, I didn't think any of the above was very important until he was around one and eating, walking, etc.

kbel424

We are on the fence between a nanny share with good friends of ours who are due 6 weeks before us or a daycare center. I'm thinking that I like the idea of the nanny for the first year where it's more individual attention and then switch to a daycare center for the social and educational benefits once she's 1.

frogyie

We are blessed in this department also. DH works nights and has off 2 week nights and I am in sales so I partly work from home and schedule my appointments in the afternoon if DH needs it, my ILs also live less than a mile from us so MIL wants to watch the LOat least once a week and I am sure my mom wants to also. I would love to get the baby into some sort of class after a year for socialization so we will see.

lsugirljen

I am taking the full 12 weeks of FMLA(I have the leave so that I will get paid). After that I will be taking LO to an in home sitter.  The only daycare I would consider where I live doesn't take babies until they are one, WTH?

ashleyrsotomayor

kbel424:

We are on the fence between a nanny share with good friends of ours who are due 6 weeks before us or a daycare center. I'm thinking that I like the idea of the nanny for the first year where it's more individual attention and then switch to a daycare center for the social and educational benefits once she's 1.

 

This is kind of how we feel. Luckily if I go back full-time, MIL has offered to come stay with us up to three months after I go back to work, so we really won't need care until LO is about 7 months old, which makes me feel better. At that point, there will only be 4 months left in the school year, so I think I am just going to try to get a friend or someone from church to watch LO so we can save money, and I feel like they will get much more individual attention that way and also stay away from the crazy germs. For the following school year when LO is one, if I still have to work full time I would like to try a preschool/daycare setting because as a kindergarten teacher myself I know how important that socialization and early development is. The bulk of my students start kindergarten having never been away from mom or around other peers, and their social skills are terrible. Not to mention the moms didn't work with them at home AT ALL, so they come in very behind. If I am fortunate enough to stay home the following school year, I will absolutely make sure my LO is involved in things outside of the home and stays with other adults on a regular basis so they aren't clingy and afraid of others and they get the socialization they need. I will obviously be working with them a lot at home since I am a teacher. 

jenniann87

As of right now I will be a SAHM. My FI works 2nd shift and the hours can be crazy. If I do decide to go back to work. Which will probably happen eventually we will most likely use an in-home sitter, my mom, MIL or BM's mom.