Oregon Babies
Childcare questions!! Help please
Before we TTC we are trying to make sure we can afford daycare. We would like our child to be at someones home (not a center) So if you wouldn't mind sharing:
1) How much does your childcare cost (either an hour/day/month...whatever yours is)
2) How many kids does your sitter watch?
3) How did you find your sitter?
Thanks for your help ladies! I have tried looking around and haven't found much so I figured you ladies would be the most helpful!
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Re: Childcare questions!! Help please
Wehn I researched in home care I was looking for fulltime. I found they ranged from $400 - $1200 a month. We were VERY lucky to have found a great in home for $500 a month after months of searching and having DS at a center for the first 2 months... I think this is the exception to the rule though. She is licensed and everything, plus had 10+ years experience.
For an in home I would plan on spending about $600-$800 a month... and you'll have to do a lot of searching to find that. A lot depends on where you are located. I am in a daycare dead zone apparently...lol.
Good luck!
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You're paying $8/hr? Is that for a nanny or an in home center? $8/hr seems like a steal for a nanny but a rip off for a center.
Just curious.
We are paying $1275/month at a center (goddard school). I know, very expensive.
ratio of 1:4
We were both so extremely impressed with the place, that it doesn't bother us one bit to spend the extra money for it. Plus, it is 2 blocks from my work and will be such a convenience.
I pay $155 a week for full time care in a center that has a 1:4 ratio, 8 babies max. I am very pleased with the care DD receives and after having interviewed a few in home centers before checking out this one, I'm glad we chose it.
Ultimately, you have to decide what about child care is important to you.. For us it was a few key things:
We wanted to feel like the other babies in the center were happy and well taken care of. We stopped in unannounced, so they weren't expecting us therefore couldn't clean up or be on their "best behavior", we got to see them as they would be all of the time. We were very pleased with how everyone interacted with the babies and just got a really good vibe off of the staff.
Location (our center is located halfway between home and work)
Flexibility with hours (our center is open 6am-6pm)
Knowing that if the primary caregiver is sick, she's probably going to stay home and have another caregiver from the center take over for her and not spread her germs to the babies. Not that I don't think kids should be exposed to germs, I didn't like knowing that if an in home caregiver was sick, my only option would be to continue sending DD to the daycare, or stay home with her. My/DH's job doesn't have that kind of flexibility. If DD is sick though, then yes I'll stay home. We also don't have the flexibility to stay home for an extended period if the caregiver needed to take a vacation or had to leave town for an emergency.
I also enjoy knowing that if the primary baby "teacher" is in need of a break, to step out and relax after hearing a bunch of babies scream, there is a whole staff of other teachers that can step in and take over for a bit. I was also worried that DD would get unusually attached to just 1 person at an in home center and I'm glad she gets to be around a lot of people and a lot of babies.. It's made her a very social baby, which is good because I'm painfully shy.
I found our center on Craigslist and Google.. I had searched for "day care centers" on the google map near my work, and found it.. bookmarked the website and then found it again when searching on Craigslist.
I had wanted an in home daycare, but found it was difficult to find one. All the ones that were recommended to me didn't have space since they could only have 2 infants and another one we liked, was a little out of the way (location wise) and because this was her career and didn't want to be burned out (which is understandable), her hours weren't flexible, which was a little tough for us considering the location.
Most of my searches were word of mouth, i looked online with various oregon childcare registries, just to make sure they didn't have any outstanding violations, but we couldn't find a good fit, so we ended up at a center.
Anyway, i'm completely happy with the center -- as the previous posters say there are alternate teachers so if the primary caregiver/teacher is on vacation, sick, there are others who can care for your child. I pay about $1100/month, full time 7:30-5:30, but the daycare hours are 7-6pm.
Good Luck -- most of the in home places i've found have been purely word of mouth. Also, scrutinize the place and reason if they charge you an extremely low amount. Keep in mind that this is someone's livelihood-- if they were good at it, they wouldn't need to offer the lowest prices available. This is a business they're running! They need to be profitable someway to be happy.