Daycare Q & A/Discussion

AGK2015 · April 2018

@tumbleweed-1 That's a really great bit of perspective. As somebody who does consider turnover, but who has really only thought about it from the perspective of consistency for my kid, thank you for giving me something else to think about. How caregivers are paid and treated by their employers (including parents AND administrators) matters

krob · April 2018

@lexidawg we live in Harlem. I currently work in Brooklyn and H works in Rock Center area

maureenmce · April 2018

@tumbleweed-1 That is such an important point and thank you for sharing that perspective! It is so crucial that caregivers are also taken care of and feel happy in their jobs. When I mentioned in one of my posts about how important it is to see if everyone is happy, that *1 million percent* includes the teachers. If no teachers are smiling or seem happy with their jobs, they may not be treated well and that sucks, especially because caring for small children is so important and SO demanding and difficult!

One of the things I love most about our daycare is that we make a huge point to appreciate the teachers - we all pool money to give them bonuses for Christmas and they have multiple staff appreciation outings throughout the year (they went to Disneyland this year!) and days where we send baked goods and treats - it is a big part of our whole daycare experience, making sure both the staff and kiddos are happy and well taken care of, and it's super important.

mckcak23 · April 2018

I wrote my daycare provider a thank you note the day before Thanksgiving and I was shocked when she told me no one had ever done that before. I also get her gifts throughout the year but especially Christmas and Mothers day.

trucksntutus · April 2018

maureenmce said:

@tumbleweed-1 That is such an important point and thank you for sharing that perspective! It is so crucial that caregivers are also taken care of and feel happy in their jobs. When I mentioned in one of my posts about how important it is to see if everyone is happy, that *1 million percent* includes the teachers. If no teachers are smiling or seem happy with their jobs, they may not be treated well and that sucks, especially because caring for small children is so important and SO demanding and difficult!

One of the things I love most about our daycare is that we make a huge point to appreciate the teachers - we all pool money to give them bonuses for Christmas and they have multiple staff appreciation outings throughout the year (they went to Disneyland this year!) and days where we send baked goods and treats - it is a big part of our whole daycare experience, making sure both the staff and kiddos are happy and well taken care of, and it's super important.

I love that y'all pool funds together to do that for your teachers!! What an awesome idea and such a caring community. My daughter goes to an in-home daycare and I'll get her small gifts thru the year. Only one other parent brings her kids to my provider, but I'm going to see if she'd want to do this with me to get her a bigger gift for Mothers Day or something.

whaat · April 2018

My 18 month old has been in daycare since 6 months, and that's only because they couldn't take younger kids. He absolutely loves "school" and he has learned so much more there than he would have elsewhere. He loves his teachers and they are great about helping me with parenting challenges as they arise (like when my kid was biting) because they do this professionally. It's so much more than childcare. Plus you get awesome daycare art.

hkom · July 2018

This thread has been dead for a while but I'm going to revive it because I have some questions. We are going to look at a few places hopefully this week and I feel very much in over my head. I was told that one place as an "extensive" waiting list. I'm not sure what that means, though I suppose I'll find out soon. I don't want to get discouraged by a big waiting list, but I also want to be realistic. How typical is it for spots to open up sooner than expected? Any other insight is appreciated. I'm feeling very overwhelmed and regretful that I didn't put ourselves on waiting lists, like, last year.

katy0990 · July 2018

@hkom obviously, I cannot speak for all daycares, but the one I worked at always kept the infant rooms full (more $) so there was technically always a wait list. Also, parents hear that there is a wait list and panic, so they sign up to be put on it more quickly. Ultimately, when the time came for a new infant to start, they transitioned kids up to the next rooms to make room.

ETA: I cannot access the spreadsheet, but for some reason, @hkom I think you live somewhat near me. I’m in a suburb of Dayton. I know what I shared above is pretty typical for this area.

hkom · July 2018

Thanks @katy0990 I'm in Bellevue, just on the other side of the river from Cincinnati. It's certainly not NYC or Chicago or LA in terms of demand and cost, and I've never heard of anyone here having a ton of trouble finding a place, but I'm nervous for some reason. The one we are most interested in is run by our parish, and I was hoping they might give some kind of priority to parishioners. But she didn't mention it, so we'll see.

lexidawg · July 2018

@hkom Good luck!

I am starting phone calls this week and setting up tours because of what the wait lists here are. I am also trying not to choke at the expense.

hoosiermama-2 · July 2018

Just popping in to say that childcare is my least favorite part of growing a human and parenting.

I'll take teething and food throwing but finding childcare suuuuuuuuuccckkkks.

...but I look forward to reading through the discussion more thoroughly as we need to fill some gaps between DH's district going back a month before DD's school starts.

mag1cbeli3ver · July 2018

@hkom Good luck with your daycare search! Hopefully your parish center will work out.

RE: long waiting lists
DH and I went on a tour of a center on campus a couple weeks ago and the lady who gave the tour said the next expected opening for an infant room is June 2019! For one spot! Are you kidding me?!? There were 7 or 8 other pregnant women on the tour farther along than me, and I can't even imagine how many others are already on the list. While the campus would be the most convenient for me b/c I could walk over to see baby bean whenever I had a break, I don't think it's going to work out. The search continues!

maureenmce · July 2018

@hkom I think the key is just to get on as many waiting lists (for good places that you would actually be happy with) as you can. We got into our first choice eventually, but not until DD was 8 months old, so she had to be in a backup daycare until we got into the one that actually made sense with our location/commute, etc. I've heard of many friends who have had this similar situation - they do eventually get where they want to be (or at least in their top 3) but may have to scramble for a couple of months in between and go with either a back up choice daycare or even a nanny in the interim. Good luck!

Katzalia · July 2018

@hkom thanks for reviving this thread.

I’ve made a list of nearly a dozen places to follow up with, but am so not looking forward to this hunt. We’ve only been in the area here for a year, so I am starting from scratch as a STM with finding a daycare. When I brought up the search for childcare with my husband, he was totally confused and thought I meant patching together childcare from 3-6 months because I don’t want to put a 3 month old in daycare if I can help it. Which is true, but not what I was talking about. When I asked him what he thought the child care arrangements would be for this baby, he said the name of our 4 year old’s preschool. Where the minimum age is 2 years 9 months!

Anyway, I’m nervous about trying to find good care, and horrified at how expensive it is in my urban metro area. Thankfully we will only have 3-6 months of overlapping daycare & preschool tuition before our older daughter starts public kindergarten.

hkom · July 2018

Thanks, guys. We have a meeting with our parish CDC next week and with the one run by our city independent school in a few weeks once the director gets back from vacation. Fingers crossed one of them will work and I won't have to search the entire tri-county area.

artemis618 · July 2018

@hkom Yes, thanks for reviving! I didn’t even know this existed because I’d just gotten my BFP like two weeks before it was started.

@lexidawg This is definitely one area in which PGAL brain does NOT serve us (but also daycare wasn’t really on my radar because I was planning to stay home till DH recently brought up changing his job situation). I just recently came out (as 16 weeks pregnant) when I saw a friend for her birthday over the weekend. They personally had terrible experiences with nannies and good experiences with a branch of a center. I swung by the center location four blocks from my office today at lunch and paid $150 to wait on a list for the opportunity to pay >$2500/mo for infant care (I was expecting $2k...ugh). Another family daycare I contacted over the weekend hesitated to even put me on their list as they only have 4 infant spots and the list is 30 families deep.

We haven’t even decided whether I’ll go back to work, but if we don’t get on lists now (or even if we do?) it may not be an option. My reasoning at the moment is that it’s easier to quit my job than to find something similar (great benefits, work/life balance, flexibility, low stress) later - but that’s not really any sort of long term plan. And if I can actually manage to have baby 4 blocks away, at least I could visit during the day. But I definitely agree all this is overwhelming.

lexidawg · July 2018

@artemis618 Remind me where you live? Your wait lists and pricing sound like mine. It's ridiculous.

maureenmce · July 2018

@artemis618 If I'm remembering correctly, we live in the same city, right? If you want to PM me exactly where you're looking, I may be able to get you some recs from friends or my moms facebook group! Our daycare sadly discontinued its waiting list after it grew to 2 years (yikes) but I can ask around for other places. And yes, the prices are...insane. But there are places you can find that are more like $1700-2000 rather than $2500. Don't be too discouraged yet!

artemis618 · July 2018

@lexidawg @maureenmce is right - I work in downtown Los Angeles and live on the Westside (I just saw another family care place nearby with a wait list with a $675/week rate for infants - which makes the center look relatively “better?”).

@maureenmce Ugh two years?? Staying home is sounding better and better...

maureenmce · July 2018

@artemis618 Oh yikes, that is high! We're in LA too and send our DD to a daycare in downtown LA and the rate when we started in fall of 2016 was $390 a week and we thought that was high! Now it's $410 a week for infants, but that's still lower than what you're getting quoted (by a lot!) Definitely keep shopping around! I'll let you know about any openings or waiting lists I hear of!

lexidawg · July 2018

@artemis618 Gotcha. Similar to NYC.

scaredunprepared · July 2018

Omg seeing these numbers is so scary. I think it will financially make sense to stay home, as I don't think my monthly take home would even cover childcare costs!

katy0990 · July 2018

@scaredunprepared It all depends on where you live. In my area, in home is about $30-$35 per day and a high end center is $300/week, but $200/ week is about average.

scaredunprepared · July 2018

@katy0990 that sounds more reasonable. But so overwhelming. I definitely need to start calling around.

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