Childcare questions for moms with a toddler and a baby

Love My Lil Princess 509 · July 2013

I'm currently a SAHM, but will return back to work sometime with the next 1-2 years. That means I will have a toddler and a baby, so I'm curious if most of you are sending/send your toddler to a separate pre-school and keep the baby with a sitter or at daycare? Or, did you just find a sitter for both kids or a daycare for both kids that has a nursery program? I'm trying to see what would be most cost effective as well.

ras26 · July 2013

I'm not sure if it's the "most cost effective" but DD is in a daycare now that goes from infants to pre-K. They do lots of age-appropriate educational activities in all the rooms, but switch to a more pre-school setting around 3. #2 will be attending the same daycare. Maintaining only 1 drop-off and the same schedule will be nice.

Love My Lil Princess 509 · July 2013

ras26:
I'm not sure if it's the "most cost effective" but DD is in a daycare now that goes from infants to pre-K. They do lots of age-appropriate educational activities in all the rooms, but switch to a more pre-school setting around 3. #2 will be attending the same daycare. Maintaining only 1 drop-off and the same schedule will be nice.

Yeah, I'm thinking about that too. I would rather not have to go to 2 different locations to pick the kids up. There is one good rated daycare, that also has a huge waitlist though, that has both an infant room, up to a Universal Pre-K program. They give either a 10% or 20% discount on siblings too. I was going to take a tour soon to get our name on the wait list, but I keep delaying. We could also just have a sitter for both kids, since I don't think pre-school is all that important personally, but I'm thinking a sitter for 2 kids will be really expensive. But I haven't priced it out yet..

Love My Lil Princess 509 · July 2013

hocus:
Both my kids are in daycare full time (same location). They do preschool as part of their program. During the "gap" year when my older child was really ready for something and my son was too young to go anywhere we had a full time nanny and my daughter did part time daycare.
Next year my older child will go to K and then after school while her brother stays in his daycare. I'm really not looking forward to 2 picks up.

I'm in NY as well. Did she do a pre-k program at the daycare too?

AllieMag24 · July 2013

Our child care center has two programs in the same building: infant/toddler rooms (with kids 3 months to 3 years mixed in each room) then a separate preschool program. Right now, both girls are in the same room and the older one will transition to preschool in the fall. I really love having them in the same room and as other folks said, you can't beat the convenience of having them on the same schedule. When DD2 started day care, they were in separate rooms in the center and even that was time consuming so I'm grateful that a spot opened up in DD1's room.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the most cost effective strategy but we do get a discount for having two kids there and it the overall cost will go down again when DD1 moves to the preschool program.

skyejo · July 2013

Both my 10 month old and 2 1/2 year old attend the same daycare center. The center has a great preschool program which is one of the main reasons we chose it. Mornings are hetic enough--I'm wouldn't want to add a second drop off to my list if I didn't have to!

married2matt · July 2013

When my children were this age, we did a morning preschool through a church and a nanny share. The other family sent their kids to the same church preschool, so the nanny only had to do one drop off and one pick up. It worked really, really well and we got the same quality care of having a nanny but for a little less money since we were sharing the nanny with another family.

MrsWindyCity · July 2013

Ours are separate. The daycare center DS1 went to only goes to age 2. DS1 is now at a Montessori and DS2 is at his old center. There are centers that have bigger age ranges but not really near us and none with availability. We are moving soon and even though it would be easier to get them in one place, we'll probably stick with two because we like the Montessori approach so much,

honeybee111 · July 2013

I'm currently on maternity leave with DS, but the plan is to keep DD(3.5) in preschool full time, and have a nanny for DS. When DS is 18 months, we will put him in the toddler class at DD's school.

boogerbearoriginal · July 2013

Expecting #2, but the current plan is to switch back to nanny and next fall, when he's 3, we'll likely start him in a p/t preschool program. It makes a difference that we only need p/t care due to our offset work schedules.

We had him home through 18m with nanny and family. Then our nanny decided to move to VA and we went to daycare.

We are going back to p/t nanny because 1. there are things I don't like about daycare (all daycare not just his), and 2. his current place doesn't accept kids until 18m so either way we'd be switching him since I'm not doing two drop offs.

The current plan is to start looking for a p/t nanny this fall and pull him out once we find someone we like. I figure it will be easier to get her started and going with #1, and then we still plan to have her continue to come while I'm on leave to get acquainted with new baby. And it will eliminate me dealing with getting a toddler out the door, dragging lunches/sleep stuff, etc all while hugely pregnant in the winter ice/snow. Plus it will be awesome to have some extra help when H is at work as I'm recovering from birth, and trying to get used to handling two kids.

LoCarb · July 2013

Our DC center has a preschool program

emberlee3 · July 2013

DS has always been in daycare. We chose to use a nanny share for DD until she was 1. This helped with the illness factor. She has been in daycare for about 2 months. It's great, but I've had to use backup care twice because she's been sick. To me, that is the only negative about daycare.

kcox123 · July 2013

We use a daycare center that takes 6 weeks through pre-K. We love it. Enough that we paid to have 3 there for 9-10 months at one point.

bcnoelle · July 2013

We have have had way too many issues with DS being sick at daycare and needing emergency back up care. If we had a second, we are worried that the sick days could double and the expenses wouldn't justify the cost of both daycare and emergency nanny service. We are planning to do a nanny with part time preschool for DS if we have a second. Our part time pre-school programs are relatively cheap compared to full time options. It also will mean less meal prep and coordination between myself and DH. The cost of two in child care would be a bit less than a nanny for both, but for us it would be worth our sanity. The only thing we aren't too happy about is figuring out drop off and pick up for DS"s part time pre-school. This would likely be a task for the nanny and it's a bit of a hassle for her.

Strunella · July 2013

We have a nanny and DS will start pre-school 3x a week in the fall. The nanny will cut back her hours to accommodate his new schedule. Once I return back to work after maternity leave, we'll have the nanny resume her current full-time schedule. So, she'll have baby the whole time and DS too when he's not in school.

ByGrace22 · July 2013

We use a center that takes all ages. One dropoff is such a time saver. I'll have two dropoffs in the fall when ds starts kindergarten, but the money savings vs three in daycare will be nice.

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