Is great childcare a reason to put off a move? Also what are nannyshare/daycare in Arlington?

[Anonymous]

DD is 15 months old. We live in DC. I work part-time, usually around 22-25 hours a week, but I commute to Tysons so it ends up being basically four full workdays with all the driving. We have an absolutely fantastic nanny share that has been working wonderfully since DD was 3 months old. The other family is great, it's convenient, and we ADORE the nanny. I drop off DD without even the tiniest worry, and when I pick her up she is happy. We pay $425, which is actually for 5 days a week even though we usually only use 4.

Anyway, I'm sick of the long commute and we are ready for a bigger house, yard, etc., and we will probably start trying for # 2 before the end of the year. We've found a house we like in Arlington and are considering making an offer, but all of a sudden I am getting cold feet about childcare. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to wait until at least the fall, when DD will be a bit older. I feel like she's still so young, and she is thriving so much with the personal attention from the nanny.

Ideally we'd love to find another nannyshare. We will need 3.5 or 4 days of care. We don't mind paying for more hours than we will use, but we can't afford more than $425 a week. Less is even better, but we know that might not be possible. We can't take our current nanny with us as she doesn't drive. We're flexible about hosting but if we don't host we'd want it to be reasonably close to our home our my drive to work. We're open to a daycare center as well.

So my question is, do we move now or wait? Is a great nanny share a reason to stay where we are for a while longer, or am I just being short-sighted about the childcare opportunities in Arlington? Is it easy to find a nannyshare in North Arlington? What are my daycare options (I know what's in Tysons but are there any other options in the western part of Arlington?) Can I find something great for less than $425 a week?

[Anonymous]

I think Nannyshares are relatively common in Arlington (well, common compared to how often they are used in other areas) but finding a good one will demand some good amt of lead-time on your part to hunt for one and get lucky.

Personally, we are struggling w/ this now as DH wants to move to something bigger and my number one concern while the kids are little is childcare i like. We too have a nannyshare (it's the nanny we love though - we've switched famliies a few times) and although the nanny might follow us to a slightly different MD neighborhood, we'd still have to work to find another family yet again and for sure she would not make the trek if we up and moved to VA. I'm trying to convince DH to wait at least a few years until we're done w/ a nanny (to avoid having to find a new one) since we'd have more $ then to work w/.

So in my book, great childcare is aboslutley a good reason to postpone the move.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of nannies in Arlington. We didn't do the nanny route, but neighbors of ours found a nannyshare by simply using the neighborhood list serve.

There are also a lot of in-home daycares. Some good, some bad. But lots of options (which to me was kind of like a larger nannyshare).

[Anonymous]

We are delaying moving because of a great nanny situation. I am very comfortable with the idea of postponing a move if it means excellent childcare.

[Anonymous]

We are delaying move because we don't want to lose ou nanny. Makes sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Of course the nanny can just up and give 2 weeks' notice.

But that might be a sign it wasn't meant to be and that a move is in the cards.

FWIW, younger kids are more resilient to a move of convenience than older kids -- my wife and I decided to move before our DD hit elementary school.