Picking Infant Day Care

[Rhiannon8404]

@Dangerosa

We went with center. That way her sick/vacation days weren’t our problem. We missed enough work when the kids were little because THEY were sick, didn’t need to miss it because the daycare provider was sick. And scheduling my vacation is something I want to do on my schedule. Also, a lot of my friends that did home had the “well, I’ve decided to stop doing daycare” experience and had to scramble. Home has its advantages too, though - I’ll let someone who did home let you know why they chose it.

This was a big reason we went with a center. I also like the fact that it wasn’t going to be one person looking after my child. With a single care provider, the provider doesn’t have the option of taking a break if s/he’s feeling stressed; if s/he takes a shower or goes to the bathroom, no one is watching your kid; if s/he has his own kids they will always be first priority.

[ZipperJJ]

@pinkyvee

My suggestion:

Continue to work from home.
Hire a babysitter to come to your home for a few hours a day, so you can work.
Day care outside the home for infants would be way more expensive than a babysitter for, say 5 hours a day a few days a week.
Not to mention, you can oversee your child’s caregiver whenever you want.

Better yet, hire a grandmother!

My brother’s got a 9-month-old and this is what he does. My mom and the other grandma take turns watching the baby during the week. Two days she goes to other grandma’s house, and the other three days my mom goes to their house to watch her.

SIL is a teacher, like the OP’s wife, so it’s not that bad. The grandmas have the summer off, and SIL generally gets home before 5.

Don’t count on being able to watch the kid and still get work done. It’s just not feasible.

ETA: They’ve been doing this babysitting setup since the baby was about 3 months old. Before that - maternity leave.