Wow planning care during school holidays and closure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello fellow parents. I am looking for inputs from parents where both has/have demanding careers.

Our child is going to go to school PK3 this fall in DC, public for now and we will revisit at PK4+.

I am shocked at the days the school is closed plus all the holidays. We were thinking about using school aftercare untill we can pick our child up.

How did you plan for this? I am so shocked and looking for inputs from other parents so I can plan proactively.

Thank you

Yeah umm I dont know what to say besides if you dont have lots of money or family/grandparents then you dont take a vacation for a few years because all of your leave will go to sick days and days off.
Yes, aftercare can be utilized. It will cover some days but there's a wide range in programming (thats my nicest way of putting it).

What have you been doing prior to this? Daycare or nanny?

We have a nanny. This is eye opening as a FTP.

Debating if we should keep a nanny for after care so we can use her wreb school closes

I mean if you have that type of income then sure! You could ask if he/she would be willing to move into a hybrid house manager/nanny role. Or this is when a few families we know utilized an Au Pair. The Au Pair was in charge of morning and afternoons with the day for their own schooling or short trips. They typically did not cover if class was in session but that can be agreed on ahead of time. They did cover all known off days including summer.

Because on top of days off during the year you also have 6-9 weeks of summer to cover. Daycare summer camps for that age do exist but spots are limited. We did not choose to move outside of daycare summer camp until after 5 but did do shorter breaks like spring and winter with an outside forest program.

[Anonymous]

Keep your nanny. You will need them.

[Anonymous]

It's hard. DCPS takes an *incredible* number of days off.

[Anonymous]

I just want to pop in to say that while, yes, this is a pain and a big expense, it’s till not nearly the cost of a full time nanny. Our full time nanny at $32 per hour costs us about $6400 a month all in (taxes, etc). That’s about $77k a year, and she gets 3 weeks PTO you’ve got to cover. Once my kid went to PK3 it became:

Aftercare: $100 a week, or $4000 a year
Summer camp: $600 a week x 8 weeks a year: $4800
WHN fees for 25 random days off: $1500
Nanny cost for 25 random days off: $7200

Now, that’s not zero for sure, but $18k is a LOT less than $77k.

[Anonymous]

Also, check if your employer offers backup childcare as a benefit. My association offered back up childcare and for like $10/day I could sign up my kid to use the Bright Horizons facility near my job, up to 10 or so days per year. That helped a lot.

[Anonymous]

They have school for 180 days. A year has 365 days. School is NOT comprehensive childcare the way a nanny or daycare is.

Plan accordingly. Some people keep a nanny, some parents shift to part time, some people use day off camps and grandparents.

[Anonymous]

Aftercare and day-off camps. Our kids’ school ran camps for all days off that were not federal
Holidays. I signed up as soon as they opened up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They have school for 180 days. A year has 365 days. School is NOT comprehensive childcare the way a nanny or daycare is.

Plan accordingly. Some people keep a nanny, some parents shift to part time, some people use day off camps and grandparents.

Many schools, especially charters, are not in session 180 days per year. They use accounting tricks to inflate the number of days they're open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have school for 180 days. A year has 365 days. School is NOT comprehensive childcare the way a nanny or daycare is.

Plan accordingly. Some people keep a nanny, some parents shift to part time, some people use day off camps and grandparents.

Many schools, especially charters, are not in session 180 days per year. They use accounting tricks to inflate the number of days they're open.

Theres 104 weekend days though. Its not like you and husband work all day Saturdays and Sundays.
DC Way, Busy Bees on the hill are the cheapest day off options aside form school aftercare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have school for 180 days. A year has 365 days. School is NOT comprehensive childcare the way a nanny or daycare is.

Plan accordingly. Some people keep a nanny, some parents shift to part time, some people use day off camps and grandparents.

Many schools, especially charters, are not in session 180 days per year. They use accounting tricks to inflate the number of days they're open.

Theres 104 weekend days though. Its not like you and husband work all day Saturdays and Sundays.
DC Way, Busy Bees on the hill are the cheapest day off options aside form school aftercare

104+180=312.

So you still have to account for 50 days. Double FT working parents need to do some serious accounting to make this work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just want to pop in to say that while, yes, this is a pain and a big expense, it’s till not nearly the cost of a full time nanny. Our full time nanny at $32 per hour costs us about $6400 a month all in (taxes, etc). That’s about $77k a year, and she gets 3 weeks PTO you’ve got to cover. Once my kid went to PK3 it became:

Aftercare: $100 a week, or $4000 a year
Summer camp: $600 a week x 8 weeks a year: $4800
WHN fees for 25 random days off: $1500
Nanny cost for 25 random days off: $7200

Now, that’s not zero for sure, but $18k is a LOT less than $77k.

Correct but there is a lot of energy that goes towards arranging all of that and staying on top of it and whatnot. If I could afford it, I would keep one on for house and childcare. Plus, OP- any plans to have more children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some daycares allow drop-ins. We continued to be at our old daycare as needed.

Yes and some employers have this as a benefit. We did not use my employer’s day care downtown for our child before DCPS, but we did use it for days off once the child was in school so they just commuted with me on those days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have school for 180 days. A year has 365 days. School is NOT comprehensive childcare the way a nanny or daycare is.

Plan accordingly. Some people keep a nanny, some parents shift to part time, some people use day off camps and grandparents.

Many schools, especially charters, are not in session 180 days per year. They use accounting tricks to inflate the number of days they're open.

Theres 104 weekend days though. Its not like you and husband work all day Saturdays and Sundays.
DC Way, Busy Bees on the hill are the cheapest day off options aside form school aftercare

104+180=312.

So you still have to account for 50 days. Double FT working parents need to do some serious accounting to make this work.

Sorry bad math! 104+180= 284.

365-284= 81

OP, just recognize that you have 80 days of childcare that you need a solution for.

[Anonymous]

There are a ton of day-off camps run throughout the city, both based at schools and independent businesses. Most won't take PK3 but many take PK4 and nearly all will take them starting in K. I'm in upper NW so I am only familiar with the ones around here, but off the top of my head, the following offer day-off camps: Capitol Language Services, HoopEd, Red Panda, Silver Stars Gymnastics.

[Anonymous]

not the main reason, but the schedule was one of the many reasons we switched from DCPS to private