Going back to work -- childcare

[Anonymous]

I am a SAHM looking to going back to work. Not sure when to look into childcare. Now or when I get a job or somewhere in between? I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but OTOH it can be hard to find childcare at the last minute.

Any others been through this and have some thoughts?

[Anonymous]

How old is your kid? It can be hard to find a spot in a newborn room at a daycare, but much easier for an older child. The legal ratios of caregiver to child are different, so there are more spots available. If you have an older child and you aren't sure you will land a job quickly, you can probably wait until you are pretty far along in the interview process to inquire. You could call a few places you would target and ask them about their normal wait times for a child of the same age.

[Anonymous]

I have a 3-y-o and she is already in preschool 3 mornings a week. I am hoping they would accommodate her full time every day, but I don't know. My older child is in ES and we will need to find some kind of after-care or a sitter for her.

[Anonymous]

With a three-year-old and an ES aftercare situation, you can wait. There are a lot of different ways to slice this one and it will depend heavily on the specific schedule of the job that you get.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP, it seems like one more thing to stress about, but I am happy to kick than can down the road.

[Anonymous]

It seems simple enough to ask your 3 year old's school if they could take her full time if the need came up. Same with the school aged child, I would start asking now so you don't have the stress of finding someone within 2 weeks. Anyone can investigate childcare without it being binding.

[Anonymous]

After I had posted my resume, but before I had a firm lead, I began looking at daycares and preschools for my then 3 year old. I had a list of places so that when I did get an offer, I had already done the leg work. After that it was as simple as confirming they had a spot still availabe and completing the paperwork.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I spoke to the preschool and they do not have any room for her, so that is out.

If I get the job, I will have to look into babysitters/nannies, at least until the summer.

[Anonymous]

I was in your situation and had to put DC in daycare so I had time to job search, interview, network, etc. and it really made a difference.

[Anonymous]

Look at the child find services for your area so you can get a list of both in-home and daycare services locally. Make sure you are part of the listserve for your kids school. Sometimes people post on there to find someone to do afternoon pickup. Look into which places can provide daytime babysitter services. You need flexible but you also don't want to be scrambling at the last minute to find where to look and verifying the quality of those options. I know people that have had good luck with Monday morning moms http://www.mondaymorningmomsmcmd.com/ for in- home if you are in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

I am in MoCo, thanks for the tip PP!