- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Hawaii Babies
inamra
member
Help: Childcare
inamra
member
It's hard to find drop-in/part-time daycare! Or do they pretty much not exist? Everywhere I've called only accepted full-time daycare. LOL, I've gone as far as considering to join 24-hr Fitness (there's one 2 blocks from my office) to use their 2-hr childcare (supposedly while you work out) so that I can at least make it to a meeting =P
So now I'm thinking about getting a part-time/on-call nanny. I'm looking on sittercity and it looks promising, but I want to make sure I research thoroughly before making a final decision. Do you ladies use any other sites or have any recommendations or tips? What about Craigslist (or is that "sketchy" for childcare?)? TIA!!
Sept 2008 Wedding | May 2010 & Mar 2012 Babies
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Help: Childcare
ditto both comments. I'm not sure if it will be super easy find an on call nanny though - good luck! seems like that would be a good job for another mom! Or maybe do a couple of set days/times which might appeal to a student. My BFF was a nanny 3 afternoons a week while a grad student.
As for centers, I'm not really surprised. Drop in is definitely tricky (I rarely see drop ins at Jack's center) but a majority of the infants in his room are part timers. They can do 3 full days (must be the same 3 days every week) or 5 1/2 days but I know at least one of them worked out a 2/week schedule and price since there were plenty of other 3/week kids.
Would you mom be less likely to cancel on you if she had less days? Seems like you could do a set 1-2 days of non-family member provided care (either center or nanny) then you could always try to set meetings on those days for piece of mind and then have your mom and MIL take the other days. Less days for them = less chance to burn out and cancel.
We're in a similar situation (mom watches Libby for us, but even though we compensate her apparently she's still thinks of it as a "flexible" job...ARG!)...
So far we've been able to rely upon some new friends who also happen to be SAHMs and are open to occassionally watching Libby when we need it (I pay them to do it). It's my preference that she be with someone she knows and that we know better than just finding them online. That said, I've been impressed with Care.com and am considering paying for access so I can set up a more regular back-up situation.
As far as part-time daycare centers....we've found one here that we like, but the hours don't quite work for our needs right now (they offer 8:30-2:30 one to five days a week, predetermined in advance similar to what Robbi's described) all of the others are full-time (and cost around $800/mo. regardless if you use them 12 hours a day or 3)! As for 24-hour fitness, I believe you're required to be onsite so that won't work for you to be at a meeting. I have seen drop-off daycares though near malls (I think you're in the South Bay and I've seen one near Valley Fair Mall and The Great Mall) where you pay by the hour. I dunno about those places though...you'd need to check them out to see how you'd feel about leaving B there.
Perhaps you can look into that and possible find a SAHM or college student or other appropriate person who has flexibility to watch B, as needed? I did this for a friend when I was working for myself and performing. If/when she needed help, she'd call and we'd arrange for it here and there. Sometimes I had her kids everyday for one or two weeks, sometime over a weekend and sometimes just randomly here and there. I have some friends in the South Bay area who might be available to do this for you...if you want reccs, let me know. Most are singers/voice teachers who have flexibility during the day.
I'd also address this flakiness with your mom, if you can. She needs to understand that it's causing problems for you and that passive-agreesive behavior to get you to move closer (how close does she want you to be? Next door?!) is not only going to not accomplish her motive but it will actually result in her seeing B and you less.
Maybe you can ask MIL to be your primary DCP and use your mom as back-up? Or MIL a few days a week and arrange for B to be at a daycare or with an alternate DCP for the other days? It's rough. I don't know how people with more than one kid afford daycare. I can see why many decided to become SAHP once there's a second or third or fourth baby...it makes a TON of sense.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
ugh sorry about the moving closer issue! i hate passive aggressiveness also. i wonder if she's using that as a tool to try to get you to move cloer. i haven't heard of drop in child care either...
but i meet a bunch of women attorneys who work contract and they use college students as nannies. i don't know how they go about hiring one though...
hawaii 10.2008 plan ;P married bio ???
yes, our gym had a really nice child center and you have to remain on site, but that could vary... and ours doesn't do diapers and requires the child to be 18mo. You have to be on site because they come get you if they can't calm the child down. I don't know, obviously I have never used it.
I forgot about REAL drop in centers since I don't live in a big city. I know Seattle has a few because they also do birthday parties on the weekends (friends of our had their child's bday at one - it was really cute) and all they do is occasional care. I think that type of care might also be considered "Mom's day out"? maybe try searching that term.
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Thanks for all the help/ideas/suggestions, ladies!!
Thanks for the rec! I'll check out care.com too
She has one day per week currently. I actually switched her to one day every other week now. I think if she only wants to do like once a month, then it's more of a "see and play with grandson" vs childcare while I go to work =P
Yeah, I was able to find in home care via Craigslist, but not sure if that's considered a reliable childcare source =P I did also try to check licensed childcare providers in my county via the county website but they only list large facilities, not small in-home ones...I think I may need to go into the county office in-person to get that?
or maybe a state agency? Here the state licenses the facilities and has a searchable database of how long they have been licensed and if there have every been any complaints against the facility.
Glad to hear you liked care.com too
Yeah, the inconsistent babysitting gets a bit frustrating, esp since I tell my boss every Sunday what my schedule for the week is (since I'm pt) and then mid-week, I have to say oh, sorry, I need to work remotely today because babysitting got canceled. I wish I had SAHM friends! I should've joined a mom's group or something...it's good that you have SAHM friends! 
Oh...bummer on the 24-hr fitness =P I can't seem to find these drop-off daycares (at least not via the web) near Valley Fair or Great Mall. I'll try to research more...maybe I'm missing something?
Thanks so much for the offer. That's incredibly sweet of you!! Right now, I'm looking at daycares, as you suggested in your last paragraph (trying to find someone who will take B part-time, like 1-2 times/wk) and if I can't find something, then I'll let you know and then maybe can you ask your friends if they'd still like to do something like that?
I know you asked this rhetorically, but the answer is: move in with them =/ Let's just say I have a *very* needy mom. Yeah, I did talk to her about the flakiness. She always agrees to a modified plan from the last, then backs out again. I guess the root of the issue is that she wants me to move as close as possible and it's just not gonna happen.
Yep, it's state, well at least here in Texas. Try googling the Dept. of Family & Protective Services [or Child Licensing] for the state you live in.
We were able to enroll C in a part-time preschool recently, but they definitely do not offer a drop-in service. You have to register your kiddo and they have to attend on a regular basis. The ones that I have ever seen that offer a drop-in service are a bit more "shady" looking to me unfortunately and I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel dropping her off at a place like that.
Our daycare center is a nationwide chain, and I know that many of the centers do back-up care that you can reserve online, if available for that day. Do you have a Bright Horizons anywhere near you or your work? Check out their website....it might be worth a call to see if a nearby center does do back-up care. I have no idea how much it costs, but I will say that I love our center!
https://www.brighthorizons.com/
ok so aside from the great suggestions already given here is what i can think of
definitely look for a "mom's day out" program - i don't think they require a regular schedule but if you want one, you can do that. we plan to do that when A is older so she can play with other kids/socialize
check w/your local preschool. the one here has a "preschool association" and they have an email list where they blast out avail child care. that is how we found one candidate when we were looking - my cousin was part of that association and she forwarded the emails to me....the emails only included people that were recommending their own babysitters/nannies (but didn't need them anymore). i think if you talked to a preschool they could maybe help you
sometimes there are other local mom's group websites online - that's where we found our nanny. they have a classifieds section that again, only includes listings from moms that are recommending someone they have used. in googling for various baby stuff i have found several similar sites in other cities so i am sure there has to be soemthing like that in the bay area?
oh and sorry she is being so flaky. that is really sucky and i don't see why she can't see that she is really putingt you in a bad spot. GL, i hope you find someone... i know looking for a new person is really stressful! i know when my friend (who watched Miss A for us) moved to FL it was really hard finding someone, esp a "stranger," we could trust to take care of Miss A!
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Thanks so much for this rec! It looked promising, but unfortunately the ones in our area are all full for infants so they can only do back-up care if one of their kids happened to be out sick or on vacation that day. So it's sort of more like a "if it works for us, then it can work for you" type of thing rather than a consistent drop-in service. It would've worked if they weren't full though! But it looked like a great center. Glad you guys love it and thanks for the rec
Thanks everyone for the ideas and recs! I'm neck deep in my search now and finally found some that do part-time care. I have toured one place so far and appts to tour two more next week and am trying to make more appts (it's really hard to reach them sometime because they're busy with the kids during the day but not there at night...and I leave messages for them but most don't call me back =/).
J, thanks for the rec on the mom's day out. I was able to find one but it's a bit far from us (30 min away), but I'll keep it as an option if the other places I have on my list so far doesn't work out. The closest mom's group in our area requires a membership fee to join, so that's sorta deterring me right now =P Is that normal? Maybe I'm just not used to social groups requiring membership fees...but good tip on the preschools. I'll try that too!