Nanny or Daycare?

[Anonymous]

I have an almost 4-month-old and I’m going back to work part-time. My MIL will be watching our baby until we hire a nanny or put him daycare at six months old. My hope was to go back part-time for the first year, but we are finding it hard to find a nanny willing to commit long-term working part-time. We are on the waitlist and have a spot opening up for us when my son will be six months old. The daycare is highly rated and close to us. There are pros and cons to both but I think having a nanny while young will be the best option. We would like to have a nanny but I will likely have to go back full-time. I’m really struggling with what to do.

[Anonymous]

If you want a nanny for part time you will have to pay enough to make it worth their while. Most nannies work full time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want a nanny for part time you will have to pay enough to make it worth their while. Most nannies work full time.

OP here. My Hsiang and I do not want to pay a full-time salary for a part-time nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want a nanny for part time you will have to pay enough to make it worth their while. Most nannies work full time.

OP here. My Hsiang and I do not want to pay a full-time salary for a part-time nanny.

* husband.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want a nanny for part time you will have to pay enough to make it worth their while. Most nannies work full time.

OP here. My Hsiang and I do not want to pay a full-time salary for a part-time nanny.

* husband.

OP here. I understand the value of a nanny. I was a former nanny for 10 years. We are willing to pay a higher rate, but not willing to pay a full-time salaries. Most of the nannies we talked to want full-time hours and pay.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked into a nanny share?

Honestly people say it on this board and I agree- a good daycare and a good nanny are both really great for kids. Obviously pros and cons of both. My children all went through a daycare center from about 4-6 months and it was a great experience for us.

[Anonymous]

Have you found a daycare that will take him PT?

I found a daycare that took DD part time but she was 17 mos so in the toddler room not the baby room, A PT schedule in the baby room is a unicorn.

I would do a Nanny or Nanny share. If you pay a good hourly rate you should be able to find someone.

[Anonymous]

Keep looking for a nanny. Part time nannies are available if you present workable hours (like mornings only so the nanny can pick up another family’s kids from school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want a nanny for part time you will have to pay enough to make it worth their while. Most nannies work full time.

OP here. My Hsiang and I do not want to pay a full-time salary for a part-time nanny.

* husband.

OP here. I understand the value of a nanny. I was a former nanny for 10 years. We are willing to pay a higher rate, but not willing to pay a full-time salaries. Most of the nannies we talked to want full-time hours and pay.

Then you understand that most nannies work full time. Part time isn’t going to pay the bills. Either you pay a higher rate or you look into daycare. It’s that’s simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep looking for a nanny. Part time nannies are available if you present workable hours (like mornings only so the nanny can pick up another family’s kids from school).

Students are another option if you have a university nearby. There are always students who deliberately stack their class schedule so that they can have a job. The risk is that they are less reliable, but if you have your MIL as backup that could help.

Otherwise, I agree with the PPs that it’s difficult to find a professional nanny part time.

[Anonymous]

My daughter started at a great daycare at 4 months and had absolutely thrived there. The first year sucked illness wise, but stabilized after that. Now she’s grown into more of a preschool curriculum but it’s so nice how we run into her infant and toddler teachers and they know and love her too.

We could afford a nanny but ultimately I didn’t trust my ability (and time) to hire and manage that person to the quality that our excellent low turnover daycare does.

No regrets here. If we hadn’t gotten this spot we would have done a nanny and that would have worked too I’m sure.

[Anonymous]

Go with a good educated and experienced nanny. Our nanny has a teaching background and a skill set neither DH nor I possess. Our son is leaps and bounds ahead of milestones in large part due to his nanny’s engagement. And he loves her and she loves him. Plus he can sleep in his own bed, rarely gets sick (has never needed antibiotics in his life so far), never has to be schlepped to daycare on cold winter mornings, goes to concerts, playgroups, park or story time every day plus is well socialized in play groups that nanny sets up.

Nanny also makes homemade food for him from scratch, does all his laundry and toy clean-up.

Basically I highly recommend a good nanny!

And only you can decide on going back to work full time or part time. I don’t know what field you’re in but I’ve known several mothers who attempted part time and it just didn’t work out. In all cases, they ended up doing full time work on part time salaries at home and into the wee hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want a nanny for part time you will have to pay enough to make it worth their while. Most nannies work full time.

OP here. My Hsiang and I do not want to pay a full-time salary for a part-time nanny.

Then... I guess you are going to have to do daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep looking for a nanny. Part time nannies are available if you present workable hours (like mornings only so the nanny can pick up another family’s kids from school).

Students are another option if you have a university nearby. There are always students who deliberately stack their class schedule so that they can have a job. The risk is that they are less reliable, but if you have your MIL as backup that could help.

Otherwise, I agree with the PPs that it’s difficult to find a professional nanny part time.

Students are a great option if you want someone on their phone the whole time, who doesn’t clean and doesn’t cook.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm a huge fan of a good nanny for the flexibility but a good daycare is marvelous too. If you want something specific, it will just take a while to find (as with anything in life).