October 2018 Moms
knottieamusements
member
Day Care
knottieamusements
member
I’m not sure if I’m a braincase or a control freak, but I’m already trying to figure out daycare. I’m not sure if I’m doing this too early, but I am freaking out about costs and budgeting. For those of you who went or are planning to go the daycare route:
1) When did you start looking into it? Is it better to start sooner, or closer to the due date?
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation?
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center?
4) Other thoughts?
1) When did you start looking into it? Is it better to start sooner, or closer to the due date?
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation?
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center?
4) Other thoughts?
Re: Day Care
I don't know how you ladies in the USA do it with most of you having to go back to work at 12 weeks. Just doesn't seem fair.
TTC since 2016
Due: October 12, 2018
Location: Ontario, Canada
3. There was a local high profile case about sexual assault in an in home daycare, and it just freaked me out too much.
i know many people that are VERY happy with in home daycare, so I recommend checking out as many as possible!
Depending on where you live, wait lists can be really long. I would encourage you to get on 3-4 lists ASAP. I got on lists for three local daycares between 8-12 weeks and still didn’t have a guaranteed spot until the week before I had to return to work from FMLA. Your area might not be as constricted in infant spaces, but it won’t hurt for you to call around and see what is typical for local waitlists. Good luck!
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation? No idea, this is my first kid
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center? This may ruffle some feathers, but I would not go for a home daycare simply because there isn't as much oversight and you never truly know who is watching your kid, vs with a larger center there are multiple people/checks and balances etc... My H was in the military for 4 years and I remember a few of the wives set up their own home day-cares and I remember thinking, '....but shes crazy!' about a few of them and thinking how I would NEVER want my kid to be watched by some of these people. They would put on a good face in front of parents I assume, but their lives were messes- screaming at their husbands while the kids were at the house, taking cigarette breaks and then they smelled like it...it turned me off home based forever. I am sure there are great ones out there, I am just scared to weed through them.
4) Other thoughts?
I started researching months before I got pregnant just to get pricing which seems to be about $200-250 a week.
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation?
From what I've learned in my area, the more expensive ones have been around long enough to have built up a good reputation so they can charge more.
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center?
I didn't find much for day care centers in my area so I will probably just be going with a home day care.
4) Other thoughts?
No I just cringe at the cost of day care, it's the reason I waited to long to get pregnant.
I’m going to stand up for in-home providers. My DD is in an in-home and has been since we started her around six months. Our provider is absolutely amazing and her entire family (husband and two kids in 20s) are an extension of our family. I found her by accident and one of my moms colleagues (school counselors) sent her daughters and had glowing recommendations. I work with sex offenders for a living, so trust me when I saw that my antenna is up, probably more so than the average person. It’s been amazing for us—the effort she puts into these kids is amazing. She considers us family too. Don’t nix an in-home just because of one or two bad ones. See what works for your family and do your homework.
I worked in multiple centers through HS and college and decided that they weren’t for me to send our kids(s). We deal with the fact that my provider takes vacation days, but we have flexibility with our jobs and backup care from my mom.
Ok, back into lurking mode
I was never comfortable with a home daycare and stuck with a large center. I love it there. She moves classes every 6 months. Every day they go to the playground twice a day, she has art time, nap time, story time. They have music classes and even did baby yoga! She loves her teachers and she learns SO MUCH there. We paid about 1200 a month while she was an infant it it went down to 1050 when she turned 1
BFP: 8/11/18 Due: 4/26/18
I'm a STM. I have a son in daycare since he was 11 weeks old. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan
1) When did you start looking into it? Is it better to start sooner, or closer to the due date? I started making appointments to do daycare tours where I asked a ton of questions and got a feel of the director and teachers when I was 11 weeks pregnant with my son. I would have done it sooner but I had a m/c prior and wanted to be sure prior to doing the tours. I put myself on the waitlist for 5 daycares and I was only able to get into one of them by the time I needed my son to start. I would start no later than 12 weeks if you're serious about daycare. especially if you want your top choice. I was able to get into my top choice because I had a lot of friends who had their kids at that daycare and they knew we worked right across the street so they said they would put stars on our name because they knew we were serious. However, I was like number 10 on the list. so I got lucky
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation?
From my experience, the expensive ones are typically the ones that are accredited nationally. They have tighter security and more background checks on the teachers and directors. In Ann Arbor, Michigan all the accredited daycares are $1500-2000 a month. Plus majority either include diapers, food or something. mine includes food, milk, diapers and wipes. they also have an app and send us a daily log of everything that happens to him from diaper changes, activities, storytime, nap, snacks, meals, pictures, videos. I LOOOVVEE it. When I miss him, I ask for a picture and they send it right away. They have lesson plans and write about what they taught that day --- like ABCs, colors, counting. they send pictures of the art/crafts of they day. they do music class and yoga. it's pretty awesome. I can say, his vocab and talking is way more advance than my other friend's kids.
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center? I never looked at home-based daycare. When I was in residency, a technician I worked with got a phone call from the home daycare owner her daughter used to go to for the first 4 years of her life. The daycare owner was a grandma. She called stating that a lawyer was going to contact her soon because they discovered while her daughter was at the home daycare, her grandson who used to come to her house once in a while was molesting the babies. This freaked me out. I swore to myself to never do home daycare. I'm sure there's great ones out there but I can't take the risk.
4) Other thoughts?
interview a bunch of places and you'll get a gut feeling of which one you like and trust.
hth
I dont know that price is a huge deal as long as you’re willing to make concessions. His old place didn’t provide diapers or food. Like the place that we’re moving him to and that this baby will be at is expensive, but it includes snacks and lunches and diapers for the babies. Which is nice. I am always late for work because of his dang lunches and trying to scrape together something healthy. Now I will just be dropping him off.
Our daycare is kind of a mix of in-home and a center. The owner actually has 3 locations, but they’re all in our town. The one DD goes to is out of her house, but it is sectioned off so it’s separate from the rest of her home and only accessible with a code or key. I like it because they don’t use much technology, the kids play outside every day, and learn how to take care of farm animals. The downside is I don’t get photos of her throughout the day which I would love. But their family has been in the same town for generations and have lived in the same house for the whole time as well. It costs $210/wk and they supply the milk & meals.
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation? I think that’s just dependant on each center. They all have different philosophies and a center can really be impacted by the staff that runs it.
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center? Visit and interview. In home was the right choice for us because the babies interact with the older kids. In a center I don’t think infants get as much stimulation.
4) Other thoughts? WE LOVE OUR IN HOME! This women has literally done a better job raising my child then I could. She teaches him things way before I would have thought to try. She is just an all around good person and she takes all of her daycare kids on as family.
1) When did you start looking into it? Is it better to start sooner, or closer to the due date? I agree that it's better to start looking as soon as possible. If you wait until closer to the due date, you may not be able to find a spot at the daycare you prefer.
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation? I think it kind of depends. I only have experience with one daycare that my daughter has been in since she was 10 weeks old, but there are a lot of really expensive daycares in our area. Some of them probably have great curriculum for teaching that might justify the high cost. We got really lucky with our daycare. It's less expensive than some in our area, and it's on the smaller side, so I've always been so happy with the attention my daughter receives.
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center? At first I wanted to look into in-home daycare, and I know several people who just love their in-home providers. But for me, the idea of checking out several daycares and not being sure of their quality seemed really daunting. If I had friends that recommended an in-home that they loved, I would have probably done it, but I don't know anyone in my immediate area that has their kids in a home-based daycare, so we felt much more comfortable with a center.
4) Other thoughts? I didn't see anyone else mention this and I found it really helpful when trying to choose a center: there are tons of lists of questions online to ask daycares when you interview them/tour the facilities. Definitely bring lists of questions with you so you know what to ask. I had no idea what to ask and there were tons of questions I would have never thought of that are really important. For example: we found a cheaper center we were tempted to use, but when I asked about their sick policy they didn't have an established answer and it made me nervous, so we decided we weren't as comfortable with that one.
DD1: 8/2014
TTC #2: 6/2017
BFP 8/3/2017 | CP 8/4
BFP 10/16/2017 | CP 10/21
BFP 12/18/2017 | CP 12/28
BFP 2/15/2018 | EDD: November 2nd | It's a girl!
DD2: 10/2018
with DS I was fortunate enough to have my mom watch him for the first 12 months. I told her I would put him in daycare at 12 months. When he turned 9 months I started looking and everywhere I looked did not have openings until he was 14 months. The earliest I could get in anywhere was if I was on a 6 month waiting list.
DS goes to an Early Learning Academy here in Atlanta that is ran by a national non profit organization. The monthly tuition for his age group (he will be 2 in April) is $1089. That was considered LOW in Atlanta. We toured several places and the prices ranged from ~$900 to $3000 per month. As the children get older the tuition typically decreases. As a lot of people have indicated the prices are highly dependent upon your area and the demand. I find that the more expensive places have better facilities and technology. For example, my son does not have cameras in his class. However, rather than increase tuition we are trying to raise money by fundraising to do this.
Here is how I decided:
The teachers. Some of the more expensive places didn’t even allow me to speak to the teachers. Other places the teachers were on their cell phones while I was touring. That was a huge turn off. When I toured our place, the teachers were SO sweet and many of them had been there for 10+ years. My gut said, these teachers are going to take care of my kid and show him love.
Pre-K program. My son will be able to graduate to the Pre-K program when he’s 4. Georgia has a lottery funded program where Pre-K is free. Like daycare, there are waitlists for these but since my son is already enrolled he can get in.
Re: in home. My friends who have done it, love it!
as soon as I have the green light on a healthy US and I’m past 12 weeks I’m putting my name on the wait list. sorry for the long post I just wish my mama friends would have told me this stuff...
I just looked at University of Michigan hospital affiliated ones since my husband and I work there. Since they were full to the max on wait list I started looking at Gretchen house and childtime. It's pretty daunting looking for child care so I narrowed it to just the big centers
I'm just asking because these are my concerns with home daycares. Unfortunately, I experienced sexual abuse as a child (not at a home daycare) and so I have a lot of concerns. A home daycare not being registered/certified/inspected for safety in the home also concerns me.
1. Ask about the staff retention rate. If they have a hard time keeping teachers, there's probably a good reason why. I worked for a Goddard School (which is considered high end) and I wouldn't send a goldfish to the location I worked at. In the two years I worked there, they went through 42 staff members. It was awful.
2. Ask to see their inspection reports. In PA you can actually view the inspection history of any licensed center online. I actually started checking the inspection reports of centers I applied to, and I refused a position once based on what I found.
3. Video monitoring of classrooms is great. Video + audio is amazing. I've seen a teacher escorted off the premises for "slamming" a toddler on the floor for a timeout. The video evidence they had was irrefutable and this woman will never be able to work with children again.
4. Find out if you can drop in unannounced to check on your child. If they say no, ask why. Most centers are fine with this.
5. Home based daycares scare me a bit because *trigger warning*
About a year ago there was a home center about 30 minutes from my house that had an infant pass away in their care on the child's very first day of daycare. It turns out that the infant was placed on its stomach to sleep in a room by itself, which was basically a walk in closet. This center was licensed.
Depends on how long the wait list is. Some are 2 years and some don't have a list. Start looking now.
2) Do more expensive daycares actually provide a better service, or are you paying a premium for reputation?
Not always. Tour as many as you can. Ask them about curriculum for ages 2-4.
3) How do you decide between a home-based daycare and a daycare center?
I went with my gut. I know people who love their home based day cares and sitters who come to their house. For me is was about accountability. My daughter's day care has closed cameras in all rooms, open window cut-outs so you can't block sound, and about 40 other teachers there to make sure they are treating my kid right. I just can't have 1-2 people that are responsible for my kid's welfare. Everyone has bad days and I don't want it to happen to my kid at home alone with only 1 person looking at them. No thanks.
4) Other thoughts?
Do they pick up at local school for after school care? What are their extras? Do they spend a lot on art supplies? Does it smell clean? Does the staff seem to like the kids? Is there a lot of yelling? What is the nutrition like? What type of lunch/snacks are served?
Me 32 and DH 40
Fur-baby named Bella
1 MC Nov. 2013
DD born Nov. 2, 2014
Little 2 EDD Oct. 1
I hate how in-homes get such a bad wrap because of a handful of shitty people. Our provider treats us all like family, has an open door/pop-in policy, and has taught my daughter more than I could have being a working mom. She loves it there and cries at pickup and never drop off. I worked in centers and that was what solidified me not wanting to send my child(ren) to one. Personal preference...just don’t assume that all abuse happens at in-homes, because it can happen in centers too.
Not to mention that only two of the four places I called definitely had waitlists. The others said they expected that they may have openings around that time frame.
So, more research and tours, and yada yada.
Strangely- only one person congratulated me on my pregnancy.
I know she's good, and we have friend who use her too. However, she was a coworker of my husband's ex wife and they are still on good terms. I just feel weird about the situation, even though I shouldn't. I worry that she'll be bitchy to me because I'm the "new wife".