Daycare thread (and some data about cost)

KirstinH88 · November 2016

Resurrecting this old thread as I figured it might be useful for some of us now.

I am going to tour a daycare center near my work tomorrow. It is currently my top choice as my previous top choice was WAY too expensive. Keep your fingers crossed for me and good luck to all of you out there that are daycare shopping!

Missa0830 · December 2016

Fingers crossed for you @KirstinH88! We toured a center that came highly recommended by several friends. We were impressed, but they don't have an opening until September. I'm hoping for 4 months leave but that only brings us to Early August.

KirstinH88 · December 2016

The daycare tour went great. They cannot guarantee a spot or even tell me what order in the waitlist I am because their waitlist fluctuates by priority. Siblings get first priority. Then people who work for the state department in which the daycare is housed. Then all other state workers (I fall in this category). Then any outsiders. There are 3 locations each allowing 8 infants (6 weeks to 1 year-ish). I will label them P, H, and I for ease. P is located .4 miles from my office and the one I initially visited. But they have 12 siblings on their waitlist, so chances of getting baby boy in there for August/September is very slim. I then went and visited H which is .8 miles from my office. The facility was pretty similar and they only had 1 sibling on the waitlist. I did not visit the I facility, but assume they are similar to P and H. I put baby on the waitlist for all three centers, so basically I will put baby in whichever one offers first. It's kind of weird because they are the same company, just different locations and the locations are not far apart at all, the prices vary fairly significantly. P is $996/month and H is $838/month (discounted prices for state workers).

cafedisco · December 2016

@KirstinH88 for infant care, that's a great price, at least compared to what we'll end up paying! Where does your son go? Is it nearby too?

KirstinH88 · December 2016

@cafedisco Right! I told my sister and mom what the prices were and they said it was too expensive! Mind you, my mom hasn't had an infant in 28 years and my sister has always been a SAHM. I was budgeting much more than those prices so I'm pretty stoked that my discount is pretty nice. DS currently is at a free preschool (so lucky!) and by the time baby brother starts daycare, he will be in Kindergarten. His school is not near home (though not super far) and not near my work either, but it's the school my stepsons go to so will be easy to take them all to the same school. My morning schedule will be to take the older three boys to school, then jump on the train with baby brother, take him to whichever of the 3 daycares he gets into, and then get to work. On the way home, I'll just pick up baby brother and hop on the train and come home. DH will have all the other boys by then.

cafedisco · December 2016

@KirstinH88 is it an all-day preschool that is free?

We could move DD into the free district preschool that I teach at but it's not all day...we'd have to pay for care still the second half of the day and I worry she'll miss nap (she still needs 2-3 hours).

KirstinH88 · December 2016

@cafedisco No. He goes from 8-11 and then my MIL picks him up. He could go all day but then I'd have to pay. He has/had stranger anxiety. Heck, he even had family anxiety, so I figured it was best to just ease him into a school day.

catem07 · January 2017

Reviving this thread because I'm super excited that we got a spot for July 24 at the most affordable daycare nearby that also happens to be in a location where DH (who takes public transportation to work) can do drop-off. I'm so relieved that I won't have to spend what I feared I'd have to spend...

KirstinH88 · January 2017

@catem07 That's great that you have already heard that your spot has opened! I have put Samuel on the waitlist at a daycare (3 different locations that would work for us), but I won't hear until a month before his spot is opened.

catem07 · January 2017

@KirstinH88 I was surprised to hear so early. I expected this stress to last until at least May.

schef070911 · January 2017

I'm glad this thread got revived because I was trying to find it late last week! I feel super behind, but I just recently started cold calling daycares. I think I was putting it off because we know we'll be moving back to TX over the summer, but we don't really know which area (although we *hope* it'll be one city in particular) and, even within that city, we could be north, south, west, etc. Waiting until all of that plays out (several months from now) seems like waaaaay too long to wait, so I've been trying to cover my bases and get on waitlists in different locations, etc. I've been trying to use mostly recommendations from others as I may not get to make an in-person visit before we accept a spot.

I've got Nugget on 1 waitlist so far (at a church we used to attend that I feel very comfortable with), and I'm hoping to get her on another one ASAP that some good friends of ours use for their 1 year old. The biggest obstacle I've encountered (besides cost - obviously - and not knowing where we'll be) is that I'm looking for part-time childcare (either afternoons only, or 3 days/week) and many daycares don't do part-time arrangements until 12 or 18 months. It makes me wonder why... like I am going to confuse or hurt my infant child by having her in daycare one day, then home the next. Did anyone else do part-time with an infant and run into this issue when looking for childcare?

SnarkasaurusRex · January 2017

@schef070911 I know that the issues with part-time infant care stems more from the fact that, legally, they have to maintain a certain staff member to infant ratio. Having an infant who is there some days and not others or who only comes for part days makes scheduling their staff more difficult. In my state, the ratios are 1:4 for 0 - 15 month olds (so 1 caregiver for every 4 infants), 1:5 for 15 - 23 month olds, and 1:8 for 2 - 4 year olds. So, as the kiddos get older, they're able to have more flexibility with scheduling their staff.

For us, we might run into an issue where our current, in-home daycare center won't have room for an additional infant. There is one baby who should be 15 months by the time DD would need to start, which would free up an infant spot, so our day care provider is holding that spot for us (DD should be about 4 months when we start her in daycare). The only issue is that, if another established family comes in with an infant who needs childcare before we do, we might get bumped. She's been talking about hiring an additional person, though (she just needs approval from the county), so it may wind up being a non-issue all together.

schef070911 · January 2017

@SnarkasaurusRex Yeah that makes sense. The one waitlist LO's currently on I had to choose MWF or TTh for part-time and I knew that was for staffing purposes.

Daycare thread (and some data about cost)

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