deciding between daycare centers - WWYD?

jetgrrrl

I'll try to keep this as short as possible but I apologize in advance for a long post!

We are moving from our current condo where we've lived since before our kids were born to a new house in our same town. We had our oldest DS in a preschool where he has been for the past year, and our youngest in a nanny share, which is ending. So now they both need daycare. We are trying to decide between our current day care and one that is closer to our new home. Here are the pros and cons:

Staying with daycare where DS1 goes to preschool:

Pros - he's familiar with it (although he'll be moving to a new classroom for Pre-k), he knows a lot of kids (although many of his best friends are leaving for various reasons); it is very affordable, they get to be in an urban setting where they can walk to lots of stuff, they heat lunches in the microwave if desired

Cons: DS1 and DS2 will be indifferent buildings about a block away from each other in a busy urban setting, parking is problematic, traffic is problematic and it's not on our way to work, will add time to the start and end of our days(I'd say at least 15 minutes on the pickup alone)

Using the daycare closest to our house:

Pros: It's closer, will mean less transit time for us and the kids, it's in two buildings but they're right next to each other with a parking lot, kids have access to wooded area, runs on an hourly basis so we could potentially hire a baby sitter and have them do half days, which I would like to do, can buy lunches (at an additional cost of course) so I could get a break from making lunch now and then

Cons: Significantly more expensive ($300 to $400 more than we are paying now), another huge change for DS1 at a time of huge change, no heating of lunches, DS1 will go through leaving the only home he's ever known AND the only school he's ever known at nearly the same time.

I would consider trying out the daycare we are currently in to see how bad the pickup and drop off are, but I just don't want to move DS2 twice in a short amount of time. So we need to make the call and stick with it.

I basically have spaces reserved at both places for both of them at this point and I have GOT to make a decision in the next day or two as Sept. 1 would be DS2's start date. I'm having such a hard time with this and would appreciate any thoughts.

jetgrrrl

So it's actually about $400 a month more than what we're paying now with one of our children in a nanny share. It's more like $700 more than we would pay with them both in the center where our son is now. Very hard to justify that cost but the pickup/drop off is just going to be miserable.

traveltheworld

For $700 I would stay with the old DC, provided they are both equal in quality. That's quite a bit of $. I'd test-drive going there during morning and afternoon rush hour to see how traffic is and whether it's indeed 15 minutes or so, or whether it's a lot more than that.

Dacey

$700 is a lot for my family, but you know your own budget better than me!  I would consider this first - how will the extra $700 affect your lifestyle/savings/spending?

Also, when will your DS1 start school?  Will he be able to attend public school?  In that case, you would only be paying this higher rate until then.  Would it be worth it to you to have your DS2 in the closer school once DS1 is in school?

jetgrrrl

DS1 turns 4 on Sunday, and so over the next year we're going to have to make the decision as to whether we send him to kindergarten as a very young 5 or hold him for another year. We are leaning toward the latter. So unfortunately we may have two more years of paying for daycare for 2 ahead of us. DS2's birthday is even later - end of August - so we will almost certainly hold him. But in any case, yes, it would be easier to have DS2 in daycare near our house once DS1 is in school, for sure.
I have to say I'm just eating my guts out over this. The money is a real issue but I think it's going to take a minimum of half an hour once DH or I get there in the afternoon to get them out of school, into the car and up to our house.
If they were both already in the original school we would just leave them there and see how it goes - I just don't want to enroll poor DS2 in one school only to pull him out 2 or 3 months later because we can't handle the pickup/drop off.

2chatter

If the difference is $700, what would the price difference be for a nanny watching both in your home?