I am a nanny. The family I nanny for has 5 kids, and their youngest has one year left next year before kindergarten. I am taking the summer off, and then my twins will be coming to work with me. After was next school year I’m hoping to find a new family that would potentially drop off their kids at my house vs me going to theirs.
Any previous experiences? Nope
Cost/location (if you choose to share) and if you are using a Dependent Care FSA?
@adventuresawait2 yeah, here is more expensive than almost every rate people have posted so far too, sadly. It’s a little over $1700/month for an infant 5 days a week. Some centers do not have published rates, but I do expect them to be competitive.
A few of you mentioned food. If you have sent a child to daycare that provides food, can you give a few examples of what they might typically serve for lunch or snack? Just curious.
@adventuresawait2 ours would be that expensive for an infant and a toddler if we didn’t get the partially subsidized rate for H being a district employee. At that point my entire salary would go to childcare.
Jeez I thought $1500/month for FT infant daycare was a ton for suburban Philadelphia but apparently that’s a bargain compared to some places! I think if it cost almost $5k a month, one of us would have to be a stay at home parent, or we would have to figure out a different work schedule to reduce the time in daycare.
What type of childcare are you planning? We are torn. Daycare vs nanny. I’m a teacher so my maternity leave will take me to the end of the school year. Then I’m off July and August. My husband’s current job offers 2-4 months paid leave which is way better than mine. That’s what you get for working for a European company I guess. If he stays there we can be covered September through October or even December. Then we would only need a nanny January 2021 - June 2021.
Any previous experiences? Nope
Cost/location (if you choose to share) and if you are using a Dependent Care FSA?
The local daycare is $545/week but there’s a teacher discount so it would be $490/week for infants. That price drops to $500/week or about $400/week once they hit toddler age. We were discussing maybe holding out on daycare and having a nanny for the first year.
We do get up to $5000 FSA but with daycare costing that much the $5000 doesn’t get us very far, and it can’t be used for private nannies.
Anything else you want to share? So my husband is currently negotiating an offer for a new job so we can’t make any real plans until we find out about his new role.
@babyfoxden10 Are you sure it can’t be used for nannies? My understanding is that you can use a dependent care FSA for anyone you are paying “over the table.” The recipient has to claim the income on their taxes, because you have to provide their SSN to get the reimbursement.
@ruby696 haha thank you! If I can’t get cost-effectiveness, I can at least get sympathy!
@soprano19 glad you get that subsidy! It’s so great when employers are able to offer that kind of thing.
@p@pirateduck our current daycare provides food. There is a schedule they share every month in advance and if there are dietary restrictions / preferences they accommodate that (eg one child eats all vegetarian.) They do a breakfast at 9/9:30 (although we do breakfast at home at 7) that is bagel and cream cheese, cereal and milk, chilaquiles, hard boiled eggs and toast, oatmeal and toppings, all with fruit to accompany (banana, pear, orange, pineapple). For afternoon snack, cheese, yogurt, fruits (berries, melon, apple etc). For lunch, it’s a variety, chili, stew, pasta, stir fry, etc, all served with a fruit or veggie and milk. I think some daycares here have more “American” type food, but ours skews more vegetarian and Latin-American and I feel DD eats better there than at home!
@catem07 I’m pretty sure I can’t use it on someone I pay in cash they need a certain code or something. I’ll have to look closer into it. $5000 still wouldn’t be enough to cover it though. My friend pays her nanny about $20/hr plus travel expenses. I would look for someone local it’s silly to pay for gas/travel if you don’t have to.
@babyfoxden10 I don’t think $5000 usually covers it, plus that $5000 comes straight out of your paycheck and is your money from your salary, it’s just a savings account, it’s just a way of giving working parents a tax break because it’s $5000 you don’t have to pay taxes on. That is more of your money in your pocket vs going to the government. If you can use it to pay a private person it would be worth it. I believe I read the same thing that they need to claim it as income on their taxes and you need a SSN or FEIN from them.
@babyfoxden10 I’m pretty sure it can be used towards private nanny’s as long as they are claiming it as income, you can use the SSN or tax if number I believe. Now if you are paying them under the table, then no you wouldn’t want to use it, since it would force them to claim the income. And yes, the $5000 limit rarely pays for the whole year of daycare. It’s really not meant to, it’s meant to give you a break on your taxes and have the money already set aside for a portion of your child care costs for the year.
@pirateduck her are a couple days of our daycares food. They have a 4 week rotation schedule.
Regarding food provided by daycare, personally, I didn't find it to be anywhere near worth the cost difference between the center that provided lunch and the center that didn't. Ours provides breakfast and afternoon snack, but you have to provide lunch. My kid doesn't eat nearly enough food to make it worth the cost difference just for lunch. We just toss together a sandwich and some fruit in the morning to send to school with him. Or sometimes leftovers from dinner the night before.
**TW**
Me: 35 | H: 40 Married Sept. 2013 DS1: Nov 11, 2016 MMC: 11/16/18 (9w6d) CP: 2/3/19 (5w3d) BFP! 8/24/19 DS2: May 10, 2020
I was trying to look through this thread a bit... has anyone ever considered a nannyshare? Have opinions/pros/cons? I've started looking into it more and the thought of spending over $50k next year on daycare makes me want to vomit. I'll have 3 kiddos, and my across the street neighbor has 2. 3 of the 5 will be in some amount of part time preschool by the fall... is that too much to handle for a nanny? @bender29 what are your thoughts on the age ranges (starting in the fall) of 4, 3.5, 2.9 (all in preschool), 1.5 & 3 months (full time at home)
That is a lot of kids, but I think it would depend on the nanny, what you're willing/able to pay, if you're covering taxes on top of the salary, and what else you expect the nanny to do outside of direct childcare.
When I was a nanny I had two completely different experiences. The first one emphasized that childcare came first and though they wanted me to be able to help out with dishes/laundry/cleaning/dinner when I could, they didn't hold it against me when I couldn't get to it it because of things I was doing with the two kids. The second family had high expectations (with a newborn added a year after I started working for them) and I was expected to adequately care for three children, a puppy, dishes/laundry/cleaning, and making two meals every night (one for the kids and one for the parents) - and honestly, the childcare part of that position suffered because I was trying to do so much else. With both families I asked them to do the taxes to keep it above-board and I probably would not have taken the position if they'd refused.
ETA: I would have considered a nanny share with five kids given three are in school some of the time so I think the workforce if out there if you want to pursue it. Also, look into your state regulations, there may be a regulation regarding when a nanny share dips into the territory of being an unlicensed daycare at a certain number of kids.
What type of childcare are you planning? We plan on sending this one to the same in home daycare that DD goes to currently provided the spring goes well and hopefully she stops screaming and crying when we drop her off there. Currently the woman has 2 - 3year olds, 2 infants, and DD who is 18 months. Next year one of the 3 year olds and infants will be gone, I don't know if she'll pick up any new ones by next school year, but she's pretty high in demand for teachers at our school because she's right next door.
Any previous experiences? I'm a teacher and so is MH. My maternity leave will take me to the end of the school year likely 3-4 weeks and then we both have the entire summer off until August (same with DD). So baby and DD will go back to daycare when school starts for us at the end of August. With DD we had our friend watch her, she has a son who is 2 months older than DD and she also was watching another baby a week older than DD part time. We pulled her from there in December as our friend is due for another baby the first week of February and we didn't want to make her watch DD while also having a newborn. MH doesn't want to go back to having her watch the kids in the fall because he doesn't like how they keep their house and that DD is always messy when we pick her up. I'm more for keeping her where she is now instead of going back to our friend because she likes to sit the kids in front of the TV all the time, and she feeds her foods I wouldn't feed her, but she's good and my daughter loves her so I feel bad.
Cost/location (if you choose to share) and if you are using a Dependent Care FSA? So we paid our friend $20/day and didn't pay when we didn't send our daughter. At this new place we pay $25/day but we have to pay even when we keep her home when she is sick or we just keep her when we are sick. We will also have to pay a small amount during the summer to hold our place for both kids. We haven't done the DCFSA before because we paid our friend under the table. This new place does pay taxes so we will be able to do the DCFSA if we choose to.
Anything else you want to share? I grew up going to daycares and loved it, but I would still choose a more one on one option if it can be afforded especially when they're little. I feel they need to be snuggled and held and at most daycares they don't have the man power to do this all the time. I was a nanny for a few different families in college and before I got my teaching job. You can pay nannies with taxes and be able to claim through an DCFSA or tax credit. The family that did this, used inuit I believe to do all the calculations and was able to actually do direct deposit for me which was nice as I wasn't carrying around a bunch of cash like other families would pay me in.
I’ve been a nanny for the last 15 years, and I’ve done two nanny shares. One was with three families who were neighbors and they all had their own days, but they tended to over lap a lot. Some times I had 11 kids at a time.
I’m currently a nanny for two families with 7 kids total, and it’s a blast. It is a lot of work, but when the ages work out together they entertain each other and there is less fighting than when it’s only siblings. When I go back after maternity leave I will stick with the one family of 5, and my twins.
ETA I’d be happy to answer any logistics questions and or give you tips on contracts, what to ask a potential nanny, and more.
I also wanted to mention that I used to work for a babysitting service. All employees had background checks and had to be CPR certified. The service however was able to refer people to be more permanent/steady nannies. If you have a sitting service in your area and are looking for a nanny it might be worth calling them to see if any of their staff is looking for a more permanent position. They can generally provide references etc. as well.
Thanks everyone for your input!! I'm a pretty by the books person so totally agree that I would need to understand the regulations and limitations. Everything would be over the table. My husband runs a company, so we're pretty familiar w/ how all the taxing and payments would work. I could even look into putting the nanny on his payroll as a legit employee and she could have workers comp, 401k, paid vacation, and sick days all legitimately. I think the biggest things for me is the added stress of the weekly unknowns/drop offs/sick days/bad weather/potential home messes/finding a quiet place to work (I work from home)/and overall shorter hours. We pay a lot right now, but all of that is eliminated because we have extended hrs, food/diapers included, open all but major holidays so I never have to take my PTO, and they don't close for snow unless the govenor closes the roads. I also tend to like the check and balances of a multi-teacher setting. I know we just have to make a decision that makes sense for us, but it's helpful to hear all of your comments/pros/cons. I appreciate it!
this discussion is timely, I just yesterday started reaching out to local daycares to start scheduling tours.
@bananapanda I think it was you who said that people in your area had to get on the list for daycare at 7-8 weeks pregnant? Holy cow! I can't even imagine how painful it would be if something happened with the pregnancy and the parents had to then call the daycare, etc. Even now I feel like I'm jinxing things by planning to go more or less full term and then stay home with the twins for 16 weeks -- if they wind up being premature then who knows what could happen.
I used a small center for my older girls and I think we will do the same with the twins in spite of the cost of it. I just feel better that there are lots of people around the kids all the time. It's no joke financially though. We will be using the Dependent Care FSA for sure.
@sunshinesea22 I always ask if they're equipped to handle kids who wind up with a disability and how they track developmental milestones. I have no reason at this point to think anything is amiss with my children's development, but I would hate to be scrambling for care if an issue did present itself. I also feel more confident in general with a facility that's comfortable with aides for special needs kids, administering diabetic finger pricks, talking about classroom inclusion, etc.
I was talking about child care with a coworker this week because there was another article in our local paper about the shortage in our area and the fact that there are 250+ children currently on wait lists in town. Sometimes I feel like I should be getting on this list but I really don’t want to go back to work anytime soon and my husband does not want to send our child to one of these facilities. I’m just worried that if I want to go to work later that the lists will be just as long and it could delay me starting work again at some point. How long before needing child care should I realistically be on the wait list? This is probably a question I need to ask at each specific center. Like if I don’t need child care until summer 2021 (or later) should I be on a list now? Thinking about this makes my brain hurt.
@pirateduck It may depend a lot on your area, but I would say that if you know when (more or less) you may want care, it may make sense to get on the lists now, provided you have the time now to do the research. When we moved this fall, we found out that a lot of the full-day preschools here have people get on the list for their babies when they are pregnant, even though the kids don't start until 2 years old. That means we are waaay down the list and basically have no shot of getting in. In the DC area, it helps to get on the lists for center daycare at least a year out from when you will need the care. Which of course is totally insane, but...better to get on early if you know what you might want!
I would add that in-home daycares operate on a much shorter timeframe, as do nanny shares or other more informal arrangements, so if you are open to those as options or those are prevalent in your area, you may be ok with waiting much longer. I also know that some places in the country are just a lot less competitive and if that's your situation, then that's awesome!
@pirateduck agreed with the above, I've found that waitlists can vary anywhere from 6 months to 2+ years so if you're thinking summer 2021 there is a chance you need to be on a list now.
@pirateduck Most waitlists ask your preferred start date, so you can always get on the list and then be confident you'll have a spot. However, my daycare requires you check in and confirm you still want the spot every 3 months. So that could get annoying.
@sunshinesea22 I always ask if unvaccinated children are accepted. (Obviously not newborns). If that's important to you, you may want to ask.
@pirateduck Get on the list now if you think you might want it on the next year ish. It's not an obligation for you to take the spot when it gets here.
**TW**
Me: 35 | H: 40 Married Sept. 2013 DS1: Nov 11, 2016 MMC: 11/16/18 (9w6d) CP: 2/3/19 (5w3d) BFP! 8/24/19 DS2: May 10, 2020
Thanks ladies. There is also an in home daycare less than a mile from my house that people speak very highly of. I think her wait is typically shorter, so I should probably pay her a visit as well. It’s probably better to be on a list and not need it, vs the other Way around.
@ruby696 I’m all about those vaccines. I hope they all say it’s a requirement. But if my top picks say it’s not a requirement, will that make them less of a top pick is the question? I don’t know. I guess it depends what they all say tomorrow. @pirateduck I don’t envy your daycare situation. I can imagine it’s also extremely expensive since the demand greatly outweighs the supply. It seems like a good idea to at least get on the lists, even if you decide to never use a daycare, just to keep your options open
I keep meaning to ask this, do you ladies think it’s better for the daycare to be close to your work or close to your home? (Obviously this doesn’t really apply if your work is very close to home)
@pirateduck Close to work is good for a) spending more time with kid since you can talk in the car and b) can pick-up faster if kid is sick. Also I've found a snack in the car goes a long way towards helping a kid decompress from the day. Close to home is good when you are sick and still want to bring them. I wouldn't want daycare to be further than 20-30 minutes from home.
Also this shouldn't be a huge consideration, but traveling in a car is relatively dangerous from a "things we do every day" standpoint, so it is good to limit car time, if you're really looking for a detailed pro/con list...
In Boston, our daycare was close to home (walkable). One of the greatest things about that was it didn't close all the time for snow and there were occasions where we were told to work from home and daycare was still open. Those days were nice.
Now daycare is close to DH's work, but it's only 10 minutes from home (I WFH).
ETA: Was just reading @soprano19's comment in randoms and made me think of this. If you want or are planning another child, how far do you or your spouse want to be driving your kid to daycare while you're on leave?
DD #1: April 2017 DD #2: May 2020 Baby #3: EDD May 2023; MC October 2022
@pirateduck - when DS was first enrolled in daycare I went with a center close to my work - like literally 2 minutes away. I made this decision because I felt more comfortable with the idea that if something happened I could get to DS super quick. I also planned to go during my lunch break and nurse - which I only ended up doing a few times because to me it was a lot harder for both of us to do the whole goodbye thing twice in a day instead of just once. When we moved DS was 9 months old and I enrolled him in a center close to our home - this was mainly because MH and I would be sharing drop off/pick up duties based on our daily work schedules and commitments. Here in CO I like DS being enrolled close to home b/c during the winter it's less time I have to drive with him in the snow and I have about a 35 minute commute to work. I'd rather just pick him up and be home quick then deal with a long car ride - also in the afternoon especially when DS was younger 1-2 years old he would more likely fall asleep in the car on the way home if we had more than a 15-20 min drive which would then make the evening/bedtime difficult.
@pirateduck for us, it made a lot more sense to put DD in daycare near where we work. H and I work within about 3 miles of each other, maybe less, and DD's daycare is at one of the elementary schools in H's district, which happens to be right down the street from his office and also a very convenient drive to/from my school. It's also on the way home from work for both my mom and my MIL, so they often pick her up when H and I have stuff going on in the evenings, like during marching season.
The main reason we chose to have her in daycare near work and not near home is because of where we live. We live in a small mountain town about 45 minutes away from where we both work. There are far fewer childcare options in the area where we live, especially ones that would be even remotely convenient to our commute. Plus we drive on windy mountain roads every day, and those are the roads that tend to get washed out or have fallen tree branches or mudslides during a storm, and my big fear would be for DD to be stuck at daycare because we couldn't get home easily during a storm to pick her up. That, plus the partial subsidy we get because of it being H's school district, was the main deciding factor for us.
Thank you @soprano19 that is exactly what I needed to hear. I live in a small mountain town with a population of under 1,000. I work about 45 minutes away in a more populated area with more daycare options. Home town and work town are on opposite sides of a mountain pass, so an unreliable drive in terms of time and conditions. I think most people that live here choose to have daycare near their work as well, but I wanted to hear what others have to say. There is a coworker of mine that does it the other way around because that’s the facility that a spot opened in the quickest, I will need to ask her about her experience as well.
@pirateduck So I have a slightly different perspective. DD's daycare is within walking distance from our house and it's so nice. Granted, my commute home is 7-14 minutes, so I can get there pretty fast, regardless. On the other hand, DS goes to school within walking distance of my office. There isn't really a noticeable perk, although I enjoy our chats on the way to school. However, when I'm home sick, or on my day off, I hate having to drive across town to pick him up. It's a major PITA. So I'd say daycare close to work is great when you'll be there, but if you're out, it's super inconvenient.
@pirateduck for our situation we are opposite of what most others have said so far. We ended up going with a daycare closer to home. We both work 30-45 minutes from home (on a good day), and I was concerned initially about being able to pick her up when sick etc, but it's actually come up a lot less than I thought it might. My job is pretty flexible in that I can leave early if needed if the weather is bad or she's sick so I can get her in the middle of the day and avoid some of the traffic which makes it a non issue really to get to her in about 40 minutes. For us it's more often that one or both of us have a day off or need to do something and send her to daycare still. If it was near work it wouldn't really make sense to do that. And also we don't work exactly in the same direction so then only one of us could be responsible for pick up/drop off so for example if she went somewhere close to my work and I was home sick one day or had a dr appointment then it would be way out of the way for DH to take her or me to have to take her. Just another perspective to consider to see if any of that applies to you.
Re: Childcare
Any previous experiences? Nope
Cost/location (if you choose to share) and if you are using a Dependent Care FSA?
A few of you mentioned food. If you have sent a child to daycare that provides food, can you give a few examples of what they might typically serve for lunch or snack? Just curious.
We are torn. Daycare vs nanny.
I’m a teacher so my maternity leave will take me to the end of the school year. Then I’m off July and August. My husband’s current job offers 2-4 months paid leave which is way better than mine. That’s what you get for working for a European company I guess. If he stays there we can be covered September through October or even December. Then we would only need a nanny January 2021 - June 2021.
Any previous experiences? Nope
Cost/location (if you choose to share) and if you are using a Dependent Care FSA?
Anything else you want to share?
So my husband is currently negotiating an offer for a new job so we can’t make any real plans until we find out about his new role.
Eta: spelling
DD #2: May 2020
Baby #3: EDD May 2023; MC October 2022
pineapple). For afternoon snack, cheese, yogurt, fruits (berries, melon, apple etc). For lunch, it’s a variety, chili, stew, pasta, stir fry,
etc, all served with a fruit or veggie and milk. I think some daycares here have more “American” type food, but ours skews more vegetarian and Latin-American and I feel DD eats better there than at home!
@pirateduck her are a couple days of our daycares food. They have a 4 week rotation schedule.
- BFP: 3/10/16 — Baby Girl born 11/20/16
TTC#2 April 2019Married Sept. 2013
DS1: Nov 11, 2016
MMC: 11/16/18 (9w6d)
CP: 2/3/19 (5w3d)
BFP! 8/24/19
DS2: May 10, 2020
ETA Though I do think in home daycares in my state you can have 5 kids and 1 adult, so it's not unheard of.
DD #2: May 2020
Baby #3: EDD May 2023; MC October 2022
When I was a nanny I had two completely different experiences. The first one emphasized that childcare came first and though they wanted me to be able to help out with dishes/laundry/cleaning/dinner when I could, they didn't hold it against me when I couldn't get to it it because of things I was doing with the two kids. The second family had high expectations (with a newborn added a year after I started working for them) and I was expected to adequately care for three children, a puppy, dishes/laundry/cleaning, and making two meals every night (one for the kids and one for the parents) - and honestly, the childcare part of that position suffered because I was trying to do so much else. With both families I asked them to do the taxes to keep it above-board and I probably would not have taken the position if they'd refused.
ETA: I would have considered a nanny share with five kids given three are in school some of the time so I think the workforce if out there if you want to pursue it. Also, look into your state regulations, there may be a regulation regarding when a nanny share dips into the territory of being an unlicensed daycare at a certain number of kids.
Any previous experiences? I'm a teacher and so is MH. My maternity leave will take me to the end of the school year likely 3-4 weeks and then we both have the entire summer off until August (same with DD). So baby and DD will go back to daycare when school starts for us at the end of August. With DD we had our friend watch her, she has a son who is 2 months older than DD and she also was watching another baby a week older than DD part time. We pulled her from there in December as our friend is due for another baby the first week of February and we didn't want to make her watch DD while also having a newborn. MH doesn't want to go back to having her watch the kids in the fall because he doesn't like how they keep their house and that DD is always messy when we pick her up. I'm more for keeping her where she is now instead of going back to our friend because she likes to sit the kids in front of the TV all the time, and she feeds her foods I wouldn't feed her, but she's good and my daughter loves her so I feel bad.
Cost/location (if you choose to share) and if you are using a Dependent Care FSA? So we paid our friend $20/day and didn't pay when we didn't send our daughter. At this new place we pay $25/day but we have to pay even when we keep her home when she is sick or we just keep her when we are sick. We will also have to pay a small amount during the summer to hold our place for both kids. We haven't done the DCFSA before because we paid our friend under the table. This new place does pay taxes so we will be able to do the DCFSA if we choose to.
Anything else you want to share? I grew up going to daycares and loved it, but I would still choose a more one on one option if it can be afforded especially when they're little. I feel they need to be snuggled and held and at most daycares they don't have the man power to do this all the time. I was a nanny for a few different families in college and before I got my teaching job. You can pay nannies with taxes and be able to claim through an DCFSA or tax credit. The family that did this, used inuit I believe to do all the calculations and was able to actually do direct deposit for me which was nice as I wasn't carrying around a bunch of cash like other families would pay me in.
ETA I’d be happy to answer any logistics questions and or give you tips on contracts, what to ask a potential nanny, and more.
@bananapanda I think it was you who said that people in your area had to get on the list for daycare at 7-8 weeks pregnant? Holy cow! I can't even imagine how painful it would be if something happened with the pregnancy and the parents had to then call the daycare, etc. Even now I feel like I'm jinxing things by planning to go more or less full term and then stay home with the twins for 16 weeks -- if they wind up being premature then who knows what could happen.
I used a small center for my older girls and I think we will do the same with the twins in spite of the cost of it. I just feel better that there are lots of people around the kids all the time. It's no joke financially though. We will be using the Dependent Care FSA for sure.
baby/20-questions-for-your-daycare-tour
Any another questions that we don’t even know we should ask about?
I would add that in-home daycares operate on a much shorter timeframe, as do nanny shares or other more informal arrangements, so if you are open to those as options or those are prevalent in your area, you may be ok with waiting much longer. I also know that some places in the country are just a lot less competitive and if that's your situation, then that's awesome!
FTM
BFP: 9/5/19 ~ EDD 5/15/20
@sunshinesea22 I always ask if unvaccinated children are accepted. (Obviously not newborns). If that's important to you, you may want to ask.
Married Sept. 2013
DS1: Nov 11, 2016
MMC: 11/16/18 (9w6d)
CP: 2/3/19 (5w3d)
BFP! 8/24/19
DS2: May 10, 2020
@pirateduck I don’t envy your daycare situation. I can imagine it’s also extremely expensive since the demand greatly outweighs the supply. It seems like a good idea to at least get on the lists, even if you decide to never use a daycare, just to keep your options open
Also this shouldn't be a huge consideration, but traveling in a car is relatively dangerous from a "things we do every day" standpoint, so it is good to limit car time, if you're really looking for a detailed pro/con list...
In Boston, our daycare was close to home (walkable). One of the greatest things about that was it didn't close all the time for snow and there were occasions where we were told to work from home and daycare was still open. Those days were nice.
Now daycare is close to DH's work, but it's only 10 minutes from home (I WFH).
ETA: Was just reading @soprano19's comment in randoms and made me think of this. If you want or are planning another child, how far do you or your spouse want to be driving your kid to daycare while you're on leave?
DD #2: May 2020
Baby #3: EDD May 2023; MC October 2022
The main reason we chose to have her in daycare near work and not near home is because of where we live. We live in a small mountain town about 45 minutes away from where we both work. There are far fewer childcare options in the area where we live, especially ones that would be even remotely convenient to our commute. Plus we drive on windy mountain roads every day, and those are the roads that tend to get washed out or have fallen tree branches or mudslides during a storm, and my big fear would be for DD to be stuck at daycare because we couldn't get home easily during a storm to pick her up. That, plus the partial subsidy we get because of it being H's school district, was the main deciding factor for us.