When should you start looking into childcare for first baby?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree, the lowest I've seen in DC is $1680 and the rest are $1800+

Agree! Where are you finding anything under $1400/mo.????

[Anonymous]

How did you find a list of home daycares in the dc area?

[Anonymous]

Agree with the other posters that you need to be looking now. I started looking when I was about 3 months pregnant. I work in DC and live in Fairfax and knew from reading this board that it would be very difficult to find center-based care in DC, so I only looked in Fairfax. The downside of having daycare near home is that I have to race against the clock to do dropoff and pickup every day and still manage an 8-hour workday. (and my daughter is in care for 10 hours.) The upside is that on the days I telecommute or she has a doctor's appointment, I don't have to take her into the city when I don't have to be there.

Center-based care is likely to have a waiting list, so get on a few lists now. Home-based daycares won't often know about openings as far in advance, so you can wait until later in your pregnancy - I think I started researching those early, but didn't visit till later on. Nannies seem to operate on the same principal, though if you want to do a share, it wouldn't hurt to find your share family early and then start looking for a nanny. (the downside of nanny shares: if the share family's situation changes - like they decide to move or someone loses their job - you may be stuck finding another share family and temporarily paying the nanny all by yourself.)

We pay $1240/month in Fairfax, or $286/week. The other centers I looked at were about $290-300/week and the home-based daycares ranged from $250-$275/week or so. (this was last year, so they might have gone up.) DC is definitely more expensive.

oh, and if you're lucky enough to have a choice between two very similar situations, pick the one that is a less stressful commute. I love our daycare, and it's only 3 miles from home and metro, but the road I have to take to get to it is a MESS during rush hour, and I sometimes wish I'd gone with one of the three home-based centers I visited that were not on that road.

[Anonymous]

DC home daycare list: http://dchealth.dc.gov/doh/frames.asp?doc=/doh/lib/doh/services/administration_offices/hra/crcfd/dev_homes_crcf.pdf

I will counter the wait list horror stories. I got on lists when I was about 9-10 weeks pregnant to start in August 2009. We found a home daycare in June that we were ok with and put down a deposit to make sure we had something lined up. We got a spot at a downtown Bright Horizons the same week, but starting too early so we declined it. In July, we got into two centers, canceled with the home daycare, and went with a center that we've been really, really happy with so far.

[Anonymous]

You might end up doing a nanny share for the first year. It is arguably little easier on the children, and is much easier to set up. There tend to be more spaces in centers the older children get.

On the waitlists, while the official waitlists are always really long, in reality, if you phone around every couple of months, you can end up in a right time right place scenario and get in very easily. this is what happened to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might end up doing a nanny share for the first year. It is arguably little easier on the children, and is much easier to set up. There tend to be more spaces in centers the older children get.

On the waitlists, while the official waitlists are always really long, in reality, if you phone around every couple of months, you can end up in a right time right place scenario and get in very easily. this is what happened to us.

I agree with this. It MIGHT be even be a little less expensive. My ideal childcare situation is nanny or nannyshare 'til maybe 18-24 months, then daycare/preschool. We were able to do that with #1 and I was very happy with it. We found a share right in the neighborhood, so the baby's commute was nothing, paid about what we would for daycare, he got lots of one-on-one attention and we were able to avoid the endless ear infections and colds for the baby's first two winters. Now he's a little older and plays with other kids more, thrives in a structured environment, daycare/preschool is perfect.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I had no idea that DC wait lists were so long... I'm in western FFX Co (Centreville/Clifton) and we contacted a number of centers (4-5) and all had availability. The in-home daycares were about 50/50. We never had to be put on a waitlist... maybe it's just because of where we are, although I assumed it was the economy and people taking their kids out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I had no idea that DC wait lists were so long... I'm in western FFX Co (Centreville/Clifton) and we contacted a number of centers (4-5) and all had availability. The in-home daycares were about 50/50. We never had to be put on a waitlist... maybe it's just because of where we are, although I assumed it was the economy and people taking their kids out.

I'm sure it's two completely different worlds. DC daycare spots are as competitive as ever!

[Anonymous]

Do you think that a 2 year wait is typical for northern virginia (arlington) too? I signed up when I was 8 weeks, and now this thread has me worried.

[Anonymous]

Now is good, and follow up regularly - once a month or so to see how things look. I was told our preferred daycare had no spaces until March 2010, even though I was first on the waitlist since March 2009 (5 wks pregnant). Called on a whim a few weeks ago (currently on maternity leave) and they said they had space! If there is no fee to get on the list, get on the list now. Even if there is a fee, for your preferred place, $75 or $80 is a drop-in-the-bucket compared to securing a space for your little one... and the eventual daycare costs you'll be paying.

[Anonymous]

Noticed you haven't received any responses on the nanny part of your question. If you are interested in a nanny (not a share), you don't need to start looking until you're on maternity leave - they rarely know about their availability more than a couple of months in advance. However, would be a good idea to put the word out among friends and colleagues that you will be looking -- because they may know of someone with a great nanny who may no longer need them at some point in the future (for example, their child is starting pre-school.) Cost of a nanny if you don't share will definitely be more than double the cost of day care if you hire someone with experience, who is legal and you pay their taxes. Our nanny's salary was about $34,000 a year, but we spent probably another roughly $5,000 on employer's share of taxes, worker's comp insurance, payroll service, etc. -- so I think our all-in cost was just under $40K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think that a 2 year wait is typical for northern virginia (arlington) too? I signed up when I was 8 weeks, and now this thread has me worried.

The daycares I looked at in Arlington all had waitlists longer than a year, and some close to two years.