Researching Child Care and it's a nightmare!

LissyLips87 · July 2015

So... I'm due in October. Currently, it's only July! I figured I should start researching child care for my baby girl once I return to work mid January 2016...............

I have contacted 12 child care centers around the area and of those 12 only 2 have openings in January, but space is limited. Everyone else offers a waitlist and FEE for being placed on it. One daycare actually informed me that they are booked out until September of 2016 and stated that I should have begun my search the moment I found out I was pregnant! REALLY!?

Not to mention, child care is no where near as affordable as I had imagined. My husband and I have no problem paying for quality care for our baby girl while we are working, but some of the tuition rates are absolutely insane! Some run upwards of $595 per week for full-time care. Unfortunately, the only two child care centers that do have availability in January aren't in the greatest areas, have both had several regulation violations within the last two-years and both run about $310 per week. I'm going to continue to research reputable child care facilities around my area, but it is looking like I may have to drive a bit out of the way.

No, I do not have family nearby that can watch our baby girl. My parents live a little over an hour away and have offered to watch her two days a week, but I would never want them making that drive!

Is anyone else in the same predicament with finding decent childcare? Any suggestions?

smlowe9311 · July 2015

Would you be willing/able to look up home daycares? Dd1 is in one (in the state of Florida they have to be registered too) and that's the only type she's been in (switched due to moving). We use ones that friends or family have recommended and are state registered. I'm sure the cost differs from area to area and state to state but dd1 is $135 a week which I know is less than the centers we have around here anyway.

cbolton19 · July 2015

Ugh. That is awful. I am starting my research too and it sucks! Maybe your parents could help for a little bit so you could get her into a nicer place in Feb/March. That could be a temporary solution to get into a place that may have later openings. Then she wouldn't be at a less desirable place for as long during the week.

I get so anxious at the thought of leaving my 12 week old at daycare. I hate it. I wish I could stay home with her. And the nice places are so expensive. I feel you on how crappy the search is. Good luck!!!!

AshleyLowry · July 2015

@LissyLips87 I'm completely in the same boat. We started searching around April and have found a couple of places that would meet our standards. They are either full until well after I would need to return to work or are so ungodly expensive that it would be cheaper for me to stay home and take care of baby myself (but then we would not be able to pay our bills). It seems like an impossible situation right now.

leighann1 · July 2015

I started my search by emailing all of my mom friends. Several recommended care.com to me, and a few had tips on in-home providers. I've also scoured the craigslist daycare section. Good luck to you!

bashley3 · July 2015

I started calling in early June, prior to being admitted and all this hospital nonsense. I was told we needed to act fast for January-March (I'm going to try to stay home as long as possible) especially since we're having twins and needed two spots. My husband had to do the visit on his own, but once I saw how excited he was about it, I knew it was the right place.

We put $250 down to be on the waiting list. They waived the early drop-off/late pick-up fee due to twins, and they gave a small discount for my employer. All said... It'll be $1750 a month. The number is horrific. BUT... I calculated it down to the amount per hour, and it's $9.25 combined. I couldn't find a trustworthy nanny for near that for ONE baby... so we're going to have to suck it up.

Try figuring it out that way... Take that huge number and calculate what you're actually paying per hour, and it doesn't sting quite as much.

Good luck in your hunt!

brandypinky22 · July 2015

I hear you! I thought I was doing great starting mid July too. By most of the waiting lists I'm running into I would have had to book a spot before I even knew I was pregnant.
Also, in homes terrify me so I just can't bring myself to think about that. We have one that has an opening and are on several wait lists. Luckily I liked the one that is open.
I would start asking everyone you know with kids, maybe they know of somewhere. Also, in my state you can look up the list of licensed day cares online, so there might be somewhere newer or that you haven't heard of to look in to. Good luck with your search.

koriemo · July 2015

It is so hard to find quality care! Have you considered finding a nanny or using an in home daycare? I know there are bad stories, but if you get plentiful references, you should be able to find a good place. If you don't have a lot of connections in the area, you could try calling big churches in the area and see if they have a bulletin or know of any in home care providers in their congregation. Www.sittercity.com and www.care.com are great resources!

michellelynn6 · July 2015

You might consider looking for in-home or a nanny if there aren't many spots open. One of my best friends in a care provider in a geriatric facility; on her days off, she babysits for kids for minimum wage. You can often find people already in the care industry looking for opportunities. Otherwise, checking around any local colleges or universities can help; students often have open schedules. I nanny-ed 3 days a week on term of college and loved it! For colleges, you can contact their career center.

swcm · July 2015

I haven't contacted any places (yet), I'm worried what I'll find!

Could you looking into doing a nanny share with another family? I belong to a couple of online neighborhood groups (one is a Facebook group and one is through the website Nextdoor) and people are always posting/collaborating about nanny shares on there. A couple of co-workers also use nannies/nanny shares.

kaseyhunter85 · July 2015

I am in the middle of my search currently. All the centers I have called are full and most have waiting lists for new borns that you have to get on before are even pregnant(how that works is beyond me) this is such an overwhelming scary process. I am spending my day off tomorrow calling in home providers....wish me luck!

Telebell · July 2015

We did an in home place for DD and it was great. It happened to be a neighbor down the hall. I liked the home feeling better than the center feeling. There's nothing to be scared of about in home, and in most states they're highly regulated so you can be relatively confident of quality. Just use your instincts. If it feels warm and bright and you like the person running it, it's probably just fine.

cgummie · July 2015

We plan on borrowing a friend's nanny when we need a sitter. She's awesome with their 2 kids, and offers a discount if we happen to want her to watch our LO while she has the other kids.

I second another poster's comment about colleges. I had lots of friends who were education majors that babysat for extra cash.

jcra7212 · July 2015

Were having an AWFUL time finding care too. My husband is military and I am a government employee stationed in Hawaii so we have no family around and our daycare wait list here is insane. I registered the other day and there are no spots until Aug/Sept (of next year!!!) I'm terrified to put my baby in a home daycare especially after I saw our neighbors house (who runs a home daycare). All the nannies here in Hawaii want $10-$15 an hour. We're considering me quitting my job to raise our baby

dchiapella · July 2015

I live in a really expensive area and the cheapest rate for daycare is over $2,000 a month... If I could afford to be our that much I would just quite and be a SAHM and not need the care to begin with!!!! care.com is a nanny site and so far has proven more realistic than day cares. Plus you get a more personal relationship with the caregiver which is reassuring. Also, church daycare centers. Some local churches have them, and depending on how local the rates can run much cheaper. My only saving grace is that I'll be working from home 3 days a week which I didn't think was a possibility at first.

gerbies · July 2015

With my first child, I investigated daycare facilities, home day cares and nannies. I found large day cares too institutionalized. The ratio to babies is generally higher and babies don't get the attention they need. In home day cares in my state only allow 2 children under 2 and a lot of times the ages were staggered...one infant and one 15-month old, as an example. I went through many interviews, doing background checks and settled on an in-home daycare. She has become a member of our family and truly loves the children vs a young employee at a daycare facility who has never even been a parent. We did try a nanny for the first month, but that felt the most dangerous: aside from having to install cameras (which we didn't), we wouldn't know what she was doing all day. In-home day ares are highly regulated, are small and you have the other parents to connect with. We will be going to our original in-home daycare-she has a waiting list, but she is taking our little one because of our relationship. Do lots of research!

devonsd315 · July 2015

@jcra7212 I'm also married to an active duty servicemember and work full time. Have you heard about fee assistance if you can't get into the base CDC? I know for the Navy, if you are on the waitlist and they don't have a spot for you, then they will subsidize the care you find out in town. Your care provider has to register with the program, but I also think you can search and find programs that are already registered. This is where I started to look: https://www.naccrra.org/military-families. The base CDC closest to us said they usually have spots in about two months, otherwise I will be looking on there to find a place.

satori15 · July 2015

We had a wonderful nanny for DS (we also had a terrible one but we figured it out fairly quickly). Paid her about $2000 a month, salary, with paid time off and reimbursement for her to maintain a cell phone, gas for taking DS out, and health insurance. Yes, it sounds expensive, but it was one area where I wasn't willing to compromise. And, it was worth it!! I love that woman like a sister and trust her just as much as any of my family. I pray we'll be able to find someone as wonderful for our little girl.

kaseyhunter85 · July 2015

This wasmy morning searching for daycare: 47 phone calls later (no exaggeration) I have a meeting tomorrow with a lady who seems promising! 2 we'll call yous. 7 disconnected numbers. 8 sorry I am fulls and 29 voicemails.

mrsdobbie · July 2015

We just contacted our 2 first picks for daycares this week. Both have a 3-4 year wait list! So apparently I should have been psychic! Luckily we don't need it until October 2016 and I am hoping a lot of people ahead of us will have found daycares they like in the meantime so forgo their spots. If not I guess we start looking at home daycares closer to when I go back to work.

bishopgn · July 2015

We went with a nanny 7 months after j returned to work and wish we would have done it from the start rather than a center. Have you considered it? You can use care.com and run extra background checks outside of it

danixbanani24 · July 2015

I'm so with you on this. I do live near family but my mom works and my dad, while retired, is older and I wasn't sure he could do babysitting EVERY day. I wanted to find a part time day care but none in my area will do part time for an infant and never mind the waiting lists. Now I'm considering doing a nanny share with a woman in my building that is pregnant. We're friendly and always chat and she mentioned she has a babysitter set up for her little boy already. I'm having a boy as well and I've been meaning to ask her if I could share her babysitter for two days a week at least. We'll see. I wish you luck!

swcm · August 2015

Just following up... Anyone have some good luck???

We only need part-time care. 3 of the 4 places on my shortlist are out since they either don't offer part-time care, or don't have availability until September/Oct 2016!

My top choice actually might work out, but still need to set up an interview and tour it. If that place doesn't work out, we'll either look into nanny share/babysitter options, or my husband will have to juggle full-time care + working from home.

Is anyone else only touring/looking at 1 place? I feel like it is pointless to tour places we won't end up using, but also feel bad only looking at 1 place in person since this is a big decision.

mllelibbington · August 2015

I live near San Francisco and daycare centers are insanely expensive and have long waitlists. In-home daycares, to my knowledge, are regulated almost as strictly as centers but the owners just have less overhead, less employees to pay, etc so they're much much cheaper. Like, I'm finding in-home providers that cost 1/2 to 1/3 of what centers cost. The difference with in-home is that they're much smaller and they don't know about openings until pretty much right before they happen, so I've deferred my search to next year when both my husband and I will be done with leave and need care.

The thing with nanny shares: I don't know what it's like in other states, but here in CA, with nannies you are their employer which means it's going to complicate your taxes big time. It also means giving them vacation time, sick pay, a lot of the things you don't think about. I don't recommend paying under the table. Do a lot of research before going very far into the nanny zone, you may find it prohibitively expensive and/or troublesome. Maybe care.com makes it easy or something, I dunno.

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