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XP: Childcare - SAHM vs. daycare?
What would you think of using a SAHM with her own child for childcare? We met a mom yesterday through a friend who has a baby 1 month older than DS who is looking to take care of another baby in her home. She was awesome - the kind of mom I wish I was (so interactive and enthusiastic, etc.) She had a beautiful house, right near a great park, and she goes all the time to the zoo, the children's museum and the library.
We were all set to take him to daycare, but we're having some second and third thoughts now. The pros would be that the transition would be super easy and he wouldn't get sick as much. I think he'd get a ton of one on one attention.
The drawbacks? We wouldn't get as many hours with her as with daycare, the cost is high in my opinion (she wants 10/hour, which I think is a lot for someone watching their own child in their own home at the same time as they take care of yours). Also, there's no backup care if something happens.
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Re: XP: Childcare - SAHM vs. daycare?
I think $10 an hour is too much if she is watching your child in her home while caring for her child too. Is she CPR certified and does she have any childcare experience (other than raising her own)?
I think there could be positives to it, but if she's not licensed or certified or anything, I would be hesitant.
My "nanny" is my neighbor who has two girls of her own- ages 13 and 19. She has a Masters in Early Childhood Development and used to be a teacher. She watches DS in my home, although she does occasionally take him to her house during the day to play with her toys (she has millions of them). She lives right behind me so they walk over. But I don't have to deal with packing things up, taking DS over there, etc. And we give her $100 a day, which works out to about $11 an hour.
Does she plan on taking your ds in a car to those locations? The museum, zoo, library? I wouldn't want the extra cost of buyng a car seat for her car, but I also wouldn't want to just bring over a car seat and not install it before my dc used it. Also, I wouldn't count him not getting sick as a pro. The babies that we know that are with SAHM's have been horribly sick this year. Months of double ear infections and one ruptured ear drum sick. DD has been in day care since Feb, and has only had one major illness. A few ear infections, but those have only lasted as long as the medications.
We chose a center because there were so many eyes watching dd. The teachers are watching her, the cooks stop by, and the director stops in. I just feel better with more people watching dd in an environment that is baby safe.
Charlotte Ella 07.16.10
Emmeline Grace 03.27.13
This is our arrangement. We send DD to a SAHM who watches her out of her home. She has two older sons, ages 8 and 11, and she also watches another 9 year old boy after school. But it's just DD during the day -- she was watching a boy about a month younger than him, but his mom got laid off a few months ago and she was never able to fill his slot.
We're quite happy with the arrangement. I don't mind that she's not licensed; she's not required to be in our state, unless she's watching more than 3 kids unrelated to her. Licensing isn't an indicator of a quality child care facility. Really, all it does is: a) ensure that the provider is CPR certified, not a felon, etc. and b) check in once every few months to make sure that the home is appropriately childproofed, that the provider is not over capacity, that the provider isn't doing unsafe things (e.g. letting babies sleep with blankets or putting kids in high chairs without fastening the straps), etc. I can check (and have checked) all that on my own. Also, checking references is an absolute must with any facility, licensed or unlicensed, since the state doesn't do that for licensed facilities.
I will say that now that she's a little older, we don't feel that our arrangement is providing quite enough social interaction for her, and we're looking at part-time preschool programs. But I think I would feel differently if that other little boy were still going -- she doesn't need a classroom with 8 other 1-year-olds (actual class size at one place we're looking at!), just one or two.
Our provider does take DD places, which I like, actually. We bought a car seat for her for $50 at Wal-mart -- Cosco Scenera, gets great safety reviews.
Backup care has not been an issue for us, as our company has a fantastic backup care program, but it ends today
We'll have to see how things go in the coming months. We did have a bad stretch before Thanksgiving where our provider was basically out for two weeks straight (her son was sick for two days, then she had planned days off to chaperone a field trip plus her Thanksgiving holiday) and it would've been very hard without the backup care program. Luckily, my work schedule is very flexible and DH has an understanding boss, so I think we'll be OK.
Not sure if it's because of the lower numbers, but DD has missed a grand total of 1 day in the 6+ months she's been with this provider. When we sent her to a daycare center through the backup care program during that stretch before Thanksgiving, she ended up missing three days due to illness.
$10/hour is definitely high. We pay $200/week for 5 days, roughly 8-9 hours/day, so that's around $4.50-$5/hour. To give you an idea, that cost is a little lower than what we'd be paying weekly at a daycare center.
I think that you do have to be more careful when looking at an unlicensed provider, but I would not ever eliminate a provider just because she's unlicensed.
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)