Is everyone back in daycare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious if anyone has gotten sick at the center?

If so what were the procedures

No one has at our center (been open since June). Knock wood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our center closed in March, and we recently learned it is opening again in mid August. We're definitely sending DD back as we are both exhausted. I genuinely feel I'm on the verge of a breakdown.

If you are feeling similarly, why not take 20 minutes to call around (I know for me those 20 minutes even feel overwhelming so I get it)? Some places are opening back up now and may have some families not returning.

We just returned a couple weeks ago and I feel like a weight has been lifted. It had been really rough the last few months. I agree, call around because a number of families did not return to ours and I know of some new ones that were offered spots, even with the reduced capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched to a new daycare and started back at the beginning of July. It’s been great.

Our old daycare finally just reopened and had a teacher test positive the second week. I don’t think they did anything wrong, they had all the protocol in place, just unlucky. So far no other staff or students there have tested positive (we still get their emails and speak to some families there). But it is a good reminder that daycare is still risky. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were lots of shut downs again as local cases go back up.

In other words, if you don't mind the risk of Covid, sending kids to daycare is fine.

PP here. There’s risk everywhere. It’s a calculated risk and for us the benefits outweighs it. Benefits include keeping our jobs and socialization for our 3 year old. Daycare is the least bad option we have right now.

I agree. It could be a year or longer until a vaccine is available. For some high risk families, it may make sense to keep kids home until then, but that isn’t the case for us. My DH’s workplace is more risky than daycare, but I doubt many people would suggest he just quit his job.

[Anonymous]

I think most have been back since June.

[Anonymous]

We sent ours back in June. It's been a huge weight off our shoulders, but also, our kids are so much happier back in their old routines. Even my kid that doesn't usually prefers to stay home with us is so much happier. There are very few kids back so they get a lot of individualized attention and they don't have parents trying to work AND play with them. We assume that there will be a full shut down again at some point so we are using this time to fully re-engage ourselves at work and not burn through more vacation/FFCRA time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched to a new daycare and started back at the beginning of July. It’s been great.

Our old daycare finally just reopened and had a teacher test positive the second week. I don’t think they did anything wrong, they had all the protocol in place, just unlucky. So far no other staff or students there have tested positive (we still get their emails and speak to some families there). But it is a good reminder that daycare is still risky. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were lots of shut downs again as local cases go back up.

In other words, if you don't mind the risk of Covid, sending kids to daycare is fine.

You're right, we women should just quit our jobs if we can't afford a nanny. It's not like our jobs are important anyway.

For some people daycare is a necessity.

Wow, I don't understand the snakiness in this post. PP was saying the truth, there is a risk to sending kids back to daycare. For most, the benefit outweighs the risk. My child has been back for a month now and it's fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched to a new daycare and started back at the beginning of July. It’s been great.

Our old daycare finally just reopened and had a teacher test positive the second week. I don’t think they did anything wrong, they had all the protocol in place, just unlucky. So far no other staff or students there have tested positive (we still get their emails and speak to some families there). But it is a good reminder that daycare is still risky. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were lots of shut downs again as local cases go back up.

In other words, if you don't mind the risk of Covid, sending kids to daycare is fine.

You're right, we women should just quit our jobs if we can't afford a nanny. It's not like our jobs are important anyway.

For some people daycare is a necessity.

Wow, I don't understand the snakiness in this post. PP was saying the truth, there is a risk to sending kids back to daycare. For most, the benefit outweighs the risk. My child has been back for a month now and it's fantastic.

Um I'm pretty sure the previous PP was being fairly snarky ("In other words, if you don't mind the risk of Covid, sending kids to daycare is fine") in response to a very reasonable post stating that yes, daycare carries a risk.

[Anonymous]

My daycare is in a federal building and the building has not allowed them to reopen. However, my employer has been pretty flexible so it's been okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched to a new daycare and started back at the beginning of July. It’s been great.

Our old daycare finally just reopened and had a teacher test positive the second week. I don’t think they did anything wrong, they had all the protocol in place, just unlucky. So far no other staff or students there have tested positive (we still get their emails and speak to some families there). But it is a good reminder that daycare is still risky. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were lots of shut downs again as local cases go back up.

In other words, if you don't mind the risk of Covid, sending kids to daycare is fine.

I mean... that is the worst case scenario that one has to accept in sending kids back to group care. I have decided that is a risk I am willing to take because all of the information I have seen indicates that our family's most likely outcome from covid-19 infection would be asymptomatic or mild cases for the children and potentially unpleasant, but not life-threatening, cases for the adults. I'm taking all of the precautions to mitigate the risk otherwise because I'm not TRYING to get it, but in my own risk-benefit analysis daycare is worth it. If you are a person who for whatever reason does not want to take that risk then daycare is not for you right now.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. Good to hear that there may be spots. Maybe we should just see what's out there. Also agree that we'd probably assume we have COVID at all times if DS was back in group care. I've never been sicker than his first year at daycare with all the random things he brought home, so it's hard for me to imagine a scenario where COVID wouldn't, at some point, spread through a daycare and home. But as others said, that may be the cost of doing business. Hard choices all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. Good to hear that there may be spots. Maybe we should just see what's out there. Also agree that we'd probably assume we have COVID at all times if DS was back in group care. I've never been sicker than his first year at daycare with all the random things he brought home, so it's hard for me to imagine a scenario where COVID wouldn't, at some point, spread through a daycare and home. But as others said, that may be the cost of doing business. Hard choices all around.

My kid has been going virtually the entire time (save 2 weeks when MD mandated that all childcare facilities close). She hasn’t been sick once and they’ve had no cases.

[Anonymous]

It seems like a lot of centers are opening back up. Ours is opening next week. We'll pay to hold the spot for August, and maybe September while we figure out what to do.

If my older one can't go to school in person, I'll need to rely on my mother for help with childcare and/or online school. So if the elementary aged kid is going to be home, it doesn't make sense to send my younger one in person and then have to cut off our main family support. So we may look at leaning on my mom and maybe hiring another babysitter to help with my 3 year old/online school to keep our risks low.

We just aren't sure yet, but I don't want to lose our spot because we may want to use it.

[Anonymous]

Ours has been going for a few weeks now. Sounds like they're full now (with reduced capacity, that seemed inevitable). My wife's workload got insane once quarantine hit, so she hunkered down in our office and was knocking out solid says. While my job is more flexible and I can work odd hours to get my things done, it was beginning to impact my work quality with so many projects + toddler time. With ours going to a new daycare/preschool, it's lessened the pressure on everyone, and the mood is certainly brighter around our house.

So yes, dads do sacrifice too, so hop off your horse about it being only moms. I'm sure if you poll the nation, it sadly probably is more moms than dads though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. Good to hear that there may be spots. Maybe we should just see what's out there. Also agree that we'd probably assume we have COVID at all times if DS was back in group care. I've never been sicker than his first year at daycare with all the random things he brought home, so it's hard for me to imagine a scenario where COVID wouldn't, at some point, spread through a daycare and home. But as others said, that may be the cost of doing business. Hard choices all around.

Mine has been open for a month and has had one case (in a child, no symptoms while in care, parent noticed symptoms in the evening and took the child to be tested). Only that classroom was closed, and there were no additional cases that stemmed from that one case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ours has been going for a few weeks now. Sounds like they're full now (with reduced capacity, that seemed inevitable). My wife's workload got insane once quarantine hit, so she hunkered down in our office and was knocking out solid says. While my job is more flexible and I can work odd hours to get my things done, it was beginning to impact my work quality with so many projects + toddler time. With ours going to a new daycare/preschool, it's lessened the pressure on everyone, and the mood is certainly brighter around our house.

So yes, dads do sacrifice too, so hop off your horse about it being only moms. I'm sure if you poll the nation, it sadly probably is more moms than dads though

There are numerous robust surveys that show that lack of access to child care (pre Covid and during Covid) impacts women's workforce participation far, far more than men's. While of course some men are impacted, it's absolutely accurate that women by and large bear the burden.