Torn on childcare issue

[Anonymous]

Our nanny of several years is taking a month-long trip for the month of February, and then retiring. We have two kids, 5 & 3. Long story short, she agreed to push back her retirement a few months work for us through June, so we had secured back-up care for the month of February. Our back-up care, who is someone the kids know and love, fell through, so now we are scrambling. Our 3YO attends morning-only preschool for 2 mornings per week and our 5YO is in kindergarten.

We're considering two options:

Option 1) Put 3YO in daycare, 5YO goes to aftercare
Pros-- flexibility with scheduling, reliability, and it would be our 3YO's only change in care before starting junior K at our older child's school in fall 2021. plus, if it wasn't working out after a month, our nanny would be willing to step back in
Cons-- 3YO would potentially be sick more frequently, especially having him start right in the middle of cold & flu season (he has asthma and sometimes colds are a big deal); he would need to leave his morning preschool mid-semester

Option 2) 5YO goes to aftercare, 3YO joins nanny share
Pros-- 3YO finishes semester at preschool, and is potentially sick less frequently
Cons-- there are some logistical challenges that we will need to compromise on with the other host family, and also, this would be a temporary solution, with the share ending in the fall, at which point we would send our 3YO to daycare for one year - so that would be two changes in care

WWYD? Cost is roughly equivalent for the nanny share and daycare.

[Anonymous]

Option 1. 3 is a good age to start day care and its good when they are 4 to be in full day so they can get used to it for K. Nanny share is hit or miss depending on the nanny and other family.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know that your kid will necessarily get more sick at full time daycare than half day preschool. I think the difference between zero or almost zero exposure to other kids compared to daily exposure is probably huge but half days to full time I would guess is not that huge. And he has an older sibling who is in full time care with other kids at elementary school. So you are germ exposed anyway. I would make the change now and get him adjusted. Since it is full daycare, you have coverage all summer too, which is awesome, and then he is already established in the school routine. Our nanny retired when our DD1 was 18 months. We have planned to be with her until DD was 2.5 and could start preschool but the change was great for us. We found a daycare we loved, the hours were better and DD left for kindergarten knowing how read, write all letters and numbers, and a bunch of other things. It was a happy push.

[Anonymous]

Option 1 - no question. Agree with PP that he is already being exposed to germs anyway by his sibling and the kids at his morning preschool.

[Anonymous]

Option 1. Daycares aren’t any more germy than preschools.

[Anonymous]

Option 1

[Anonymous]

Option 1. I’d go for what’s easiest for your family. You never know about illness and there really aren’t any great benefits to option 2. Option 1 will give you a better family life.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here.

Option 1. Have nanny help transition now through the end of January. By the end of January, kids should be full-time in aftercare/daycare. She needs to remind them that she’ll come see them after her vacation, and I’d suggest having her do date nights or weekend meetups (if she’s willing and it works with your schedule).

[Anonymous]

Option 1. Your kid isn’t really upping his germ exposure risk if he’s already in preschool with a sibling. And 3 is a good age to transition, lots of kids start full time preschool/daycare at 3.

[Anonymous]

Option 1 - if sickness if your major concern, it's better to get it over with while they're young than while they're in school. A three year old will learn something in an all day preschool or daycare with preschool curriculum. They won't learn anything in a nanny share. PLUS you'll have a hard time finding a nanny share with another three year old - most people move their kids to preschool at that time.

[Anonymous]

Also option 1 vote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here.

Option 1. Have nanny help transition now through the end of January. By the end of January, kids should be full-time in aftercare/daycare. She needs to remind them that she’ll come see them after her vacation, and I’d suggest having her do date nights or weekend meetups (if she’s willing and it works with your schedule).

+1. It’s important that your kids have a continued relationship with her and that she, the nanny, helps them transition to daycare. When we did this with our son, our nanny took him to daycare and stayed for a few hours. Then we would drop him off and she would pick him up. Nanny is a very friendly person so she was friendly with his teachers and the other kids which I think make my son feel it was all okay. She still sees him every week. His transition was seamless and easy for him. And he still loves his old nanny!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Option 1 - if sickness if your major concern, it's better to get it over with while they're young than while they're in school. A three year old will learn something in an all day preschool or daycare with preschool curriculum. They won't learn anything in a nanny share. PLUS you'll have a hard time finding a nanny share with another three year old - most people move their kids to preschool at that time.

Disagree with the bolded, but the rest is spot on.

[Anonymous]

Option 2. I have an asthmatic child and they missed over 30 days of school last year. I needed a back up anyway and transitioning in the midst of that sounds horrendous

[Anonymous]

Do you actually have a daycare spot available? I would say option 1, but if you haven’t actually secured a spot it may be a moot point.