Anyone have a toddler and infant in daycare?

[Anonymous]

We are expecting No. 2 in the fall and are considering having but DD (who will then be 2) and the new baby in daycare. Our daycare doesn't discount for the second kid, and so cost-wise, we would be paying just a little less than we would to hire a full-time nanny (although not including classes that might put DD in while in the care of a nanny). However, we like our daycare and find that DD is really thriving in it. Any one else have 2 in daycare, and what is your experience?

[Anonymous]

I have two in daycare and we pay $2500/month. We get a discount for the older child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two in daycare and we pay $2500/month. We get a discount for the older child.

Same here. $2550 with toddler discount. If I made more, I'd have preferred to have baby with a nanny. But what it boiled down to is, both kids have to be in the same care, nanny or daycare, and the toddler was really ready for daycare/preschool.

[Anonymous]

I had three age three and under in an in-home family day care and got no discount - but it was totally worth it. Kids loved it, the provider was amazing and since she had helpers, she was rarely closed.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 under 3 in daycare and get no discount. It is a fortune!

[Anonymous]

Also have 2 under three in an inhome daycare, we pay just over $2000 a month. It will soon be more, because the older child turns 3 this summer and will be going to preschool in the fall. Ugh!

[Anonymous]

For awhile I also had my 3yr old in daycare along with my infant daughter. We get no sibling discount and my daycare provider actually raised the rates for my daughter. The two kids together cost $2120 (based on a 4 wk month). It was nice however to have both kids in the same location for awhile. They were together about 6-8 months before we moved my son into preschool. We love our daycare provider so it's totally worth it. We juggle now with the kids in different locations. It's gotten even more expensive now that our son is in preschool. I would keep both kids in the same place for awhile and move your older child to preschool next year. It'll be nice for you to have both kids in the same spot and your daughter can watch out for the little one as well.

[Anonymous]

We're in almost the same boat, a 3 year old with an infant on the way.

Our older child is really thriving at day care (e.g. "school") and I hestitate to pull him out; but I really want the baby to have more personalized care, either a nanny or an in-home provider. What i'm leaning towards now is leaving our older son in day care and finding seperate care for the infant.

It will be expensive (estimate $2400-2600/month) to do this (Silver Spring), and a hassle to deal with 2 drop offs/pick ups,....but it's only for 20 months until the baby is ready for 'school' too. And shortly after that our son will be ready for kindergarden, so we'll be paying single day care - what a luxioury that would be!

[Anonymous]

We do, and it's busy, but as other posters have mentioned, it is most efficient to have them both in the same place. The 2-yr-old loves it and although I'm not crazy about the infant room (I wish there was a higher ratio of teachers to kids but that's daycare for you), the baby is doing fine. Plus a lot of the teachers are moms and their kids go to the same daycare, so the infant teacher has a son in the toddler room, etc. The added bonus is that we won't have to do the daycare transition when the baby is older; with #1, we had him in a nanny share until he was 13 months, so it was a bit of a transition (though not a bad one).
I have found that most daycares thrive under a good director, so if management is approachable and staff are happy, then no matter what classroom you're in, it will be a good fit. Especially since at least in our daycare, the teachers rotate quite a bit - only the lead teacher is in their room all the time.

[Anonymous]

We have a 2 yr old in the toddler room and a 10 m.o. in the infant room at our center and we couldnt be happier.

We thought about a nanny instead (DC1 was with a nanny until she stated day care after DC2 was born) but we wanted the kids to be able to have their own schedules, instead of having to drag DC2 around and have her sleep in the stroller or make DC1 stay in during DC2's naptimes.

I also like the accountability of a center. If a nanny has a bad day, thats all the kids have (and we all have bad/lazy days). But in a center, there are other teachers to pick up the slack.

We also really like having them both in the same place and, despite being approx $2400 a month, its still slightly cheaper than a nanny which would have been about $600 a week + taxes and other expenses, including classes for DC1. And we dont have someone who is financially dependant on us - which was very difficult for me to deal with.

Commuting is a pain (bus or walk < 2 miles) but it has gotten easier as we got into a groove. They are used to it now.

We love our center and absolutely made the right decision.