daycare downtown or nanny share/in-home on the Hill?

[Anonymous]

I'm 8 weeks along with my first baby and I have no idea where to look for childcare! Husband and I both work downtown around McPherson Square and live on Capitol Hill.
Any suggestions or preferences for infant daycare or nanny shares/in-home care? Are nanny shares or in-home care any less expensive than the $1400-$1600 per month costs I'm seeing at the daycares downtown?

[sybersus]

Good for you for planning ahead of time. If you are thinking about daycare, get on waitlists now, as they are generally at least a year. You do have to pay to get on most waitlists, but it is worth it, considering how much more expensive nanny care is. It costs $50-$150 to get on each waitlist, but with Bright Horizons (which are on the expensive side for wait-list fees), you get to put your name of 3 waitlists for 1 fee. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I am seeing about $1600 per family for an infant nanny share, less for daycares (but I am a Federal employee so get a "discount".)

[Anonymous]

We live on the Hill too. Are you on MOTH? It's a great resource for figuring out all of this stuff and for finding a nanny share if you decide to do that.

First order of business is get on daycare waiting lists. If you are a federal employee you have priority at the federally subsidized centers, which are quite good (Library of Congress, Dept. of Labor, etc.) If you're not a federal employee you can get on the list but you probably won't get in. There are also a couple of Bright Beginnings centers downtown and the Thurgood Marshall center by Union Station. Don't count on getting into any of these by the time you go back to work, but it's worth getting on the waiting list because you may want to switch arrangements later on. I believe you can expect to pay $1400-1700 per month for a center.

I don't know anything about in-home daycares because I didn't explore that option, but MOTH is a good place to start asking about those. They are likely to be cheaper than a center and probably don't have waiting lists, or not long ones.

For a nannyshare you can expect to pay the nanny $17-20 per hour (total), so if you need full-time care you're probably looking at between $350-450 per week for each family. I'm a HUGE fan of the nannyshare, and I think the Hill is one of the best places to find one. Many people do a nannyshare for the first year or so until their child is a bit older and they can get into a daycare. I also know of some people who do nannyshares with more than two babies, which I'm sure would be cheaper. You don't need to worry about setting up a nannyshare until you are close to having the baby, but if you happen to know someone or meet someone in your travels who is pregnant too and lives close by, you may want to discuss the possibility. I have found that it's harder to find a like-minded share family than a good nanny, so I would do that first.

Good luck!