Maryland Babies
Mella&T
member
Someone's getting a little brother!
Child care for 2-3 days a week?
Mella&T
member
We haven't completely figured the details out yet, but I am hoping come fall we will only need someone to watch the baby 2-3 days per week. I am hoping to work from home 1-2 days and MIL should be able to watch her at least one day a week. Can anyone provide any advice on where to look for part-time care? The only thing is that we can't really have someone come to our house to watch her. DH works from home (but can't commit to watching the baby since he's so busy and is in and out on sales calls a lot) and I think a babysitter might be uncomfortable watching a baby with a parent home? This is starting to stress me out and we really need to finalize our plans. Any advice is welcome...thanks!
Someone's getting a little brother!
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Re: Child care for 2-3 days a week?
Probably an in-home DCP is your best bet for part time infant care. From my experience, most daycare centers will only take infants full time.
One of my coworkers found a sitter for her child, for just two days a week, just by asking around. It's not a licensed provider, just someone who will watch the kid those days, so it depends on what your comfort level is also - do you want someone licensed with insurance or just someone you are comfortable with.
I'm not sure where you are located but Apple Tree in Cockeysville and Timonium Children's Center in Timonium both take infants part time. And also, I know plenty of people who have a nanny in the house while the mom or dad is working from home, so I would not completely write off that option until you've thoroughly looked into it.
Also, have you tried the big centers - Celebree, Goddard, La Petit, ChildTime, etc? I am currently looking for child care for my 3 year old and all of these places offer part time, its certainly worth a phone call to see if they offer a part time program for infants too.
Good luck!
"You reach deeper until you can find the strength. That's all life is, one big fight after another."
Angel babies: 9/19/07, 10/08/09, 1/05/11
I agree with a PP who suggested an in-home daycare. DH and I only need daycare 3 days a week and were able to find an in-home who would allow it. I called around to several of the larger daycare centers and none of them accepted part-time infants - they all told me they don't allow part-time until the child is 2 or older.
Good luck with your search!
try sittercity.com
We needed part time infant care for the summer when we first started with our in home DCP since my DH is a teacher and all of the in home places that I called were agreeable to taking an infant part time. I was surprised it was so easy to find!
FWIW, I know a few people who WFH and have a nanny or sitter at home while they are working. It is a normal arrangement.
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You will need to find an in-home or babysitter/nanny to come to your house.
One thing to think about it though is that it will be very disruprtive to your LO to being going back and forth in different care settings/caregivers different days. You might want to think about putting him/her in an in-home or center FT just so that they can have consistency of one place M-F. And, if you are able to work from home 1 day a week, you can use that extra time to either do stuff for yourself (run errands, do laundry, etc.) that's hard to do w/ your LO or pick up your LO early.
Not to argue, but that's just an opinion. When I went back to work, Ava was three months old. My friend watched her three days a week and my mom had her the other two days--it wasn't disruptive to her at all. She loved being with both of them. There are centers that can do part-time--you'll just need to do some research. It would be hard for me to be home one day a week and have my baby in daycare.
ITA its an opinion. I just see posts about that sometimes on the WM's board, just wanted to raise it as an issue b/c it can be something that you might not think about until your LO is actually here. I guess actually what I'm thinking of is when its a different care situation every day - so Monday @ home, Tuesday @ the sitter, Wednesday back @ home, etc. If you go M-W to daycare and Th & Friday at home that would be easier. But, I'm sure there are kids that handle it really well and jsut roll w/ whatever from day one and either way, we all do what we need to do.
I may be wrong, but I thought that daycare centers in MD can only have FT infants b/c they are required to have a separate crib for each infant that is only used by them. I *think* that's what E's daycare center told me when we were looking and thinking about having my mom watch DD one day or week.
I have a friend who tried to work from home w/ her twins and a nanny and it was very difficult. Everyone is different and it was twins, but from what I have read/heard it's very hard to work from home with a child at home and no other care provider other than yourself.
Ditto the PPs on maybe just getting a babysitter or perhaps doing a nanny-share. A good care provider would be fine w/ watching your child while your DH was at home (and it doesn't sound like he is home for full days, etc.) so long as he has an office w/ a door and can disappear from your child, it could work out better for your child to stay in your house and have the care provider (whether it be a sitter or your MIL) come to your home. Your child wouldn't have to get in the car every morning, you wouldn't have to pack a lunch and still be in the comfort of your home. Also said provider could possibly do laundry or something like that while the baby naps.
A baby-sitter while more expensive by the hour could probably be just as affordable in terms of flexibility. The mom of the 2 I watch calls me a babysitter and I know I cost more than an in-home center, but I essentially am only paid for days I work. I don't get any paid vacation, sick and I am really flexible, for the most part if they want to switch days I can and do.
Kathryn is correct. Crib sharing (in licensed daycare ceters) is illegal in Maryland. That means that if your baby isn't at the center they cannot allow anyone else's child to sleep in the crib assigned to your child. Now some centers may have extra cribs to accomodate part time care arrangements, but a lot do not.
I agree with DHT, my child is fine wherever but I also think it's because I've set that standard from day 1. We are out a lot, we spend time with a lot of people, we've tried to have dc be comfortable with many people who will possibly keep the baby.
Someone's getting a little brother!
Hey Melissa!
When we were pregnant, I was toying with the idea of PT daycare too. I found that most places won't take infants part time. In home daycare providers are only allowed to have two infants at once, so spots are pretty coveted. Of the 10 or so people that we met with, only one would take DD part time (and we weren't comfortable with her, so it didn't matter). We found our DCP using https://www.mdchildcare.org/mdcfc/childcare/choose.html. You may already know of it, but I just wanted to pass it along. Good luck!!