Nanny vs Daycare?

[Anonymous]

I had my first child in May. I am going back to work in September. We have looked into a nanny but it is expensive. We will be paying legally and most nannies quoted us $18-20/hour. We need someone 40/hours a week. We found a daycare for $2k/month. We will be paying like $50k/year for a nanny. I have been deciding whether we want to daycare, nanny, or quit my job. I want to go back to work but considering taking a year off and then enrolling in daycare when he turns one. What would you do?

[Anonymous]

You aren’t going to get an educated nanny for $20 an hour so start looking for a really good daycare.

Not everyone can afford a nanny and there is no shame in that.

[Anonymous]

Covid aside, I prefer daycare for an infant. There is coverage if one teacher is sick, and more accountability, and usually a better PreK-like program later on.

But, you could also consider a nanny share.

[Anonymous]

The first three years of a child’s life are the most important. I would have quit my job if we hadn’t found our nanny who was a preschool teacher and has all the course work for her masters in early childhood development completed. She engages and teaches my son better than we ever could. And she loves him and teaches him mindfulness! That said she is $30 an hour.

Your best bet is to stay home for at least a year and a half and then find a really, really good daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Covid aside, I prefer daycare for an infant. There is coverage if one teacher is sick, and more accountability, and usually a better PreK-like program later on.

But, you could also consider a nanny share.

NP here. Although it is impossible to put covid aside! And I disagree about infant care. Any loving nanny is better than infant daycare.

[Anonymous]

Where are you, OP? We have a well-educated and excellent nanny and pay $19/hr (legally, so we pay the employer taxes too). So while I agree with PP that there's certainly no shame in not being able to afford a nanny and there is absolutely nothing wrong with daycare, which has a lot of socialization advantages for one, I disagree that you can't find a great nanny in the $18-$20 range, at least in the suburbs. We are in VA just outside the Beltway. But yes, it's more expensive than daycare, no way around that. Less expensive than one of us leaving the workforce, though (which neither of us wanted to do in any case).

[Anonymous]

The nanny vs daycare has been asked, answered, and debated 100 times on this forum. Just do a search.


That said, now due to covid, the only good answer is take a year or two off and stay home with your baby. If you can afford to not work - this is the time to stay home.

[Anonymous]

OP, I was faced with the same choice when I had mine. I wound up quitting my job because I knew I would be able to pick up freelance work, and I just hired part time care to cover my work when I had projects. It was much more affordable than daycare/nanny would have been and it enabled me to spend a lot more time with my baby, which I really wanted. I have not regretted it.

A deciding factor for me was that the two daycares that we had spots at, I didn’t like. If we’d found a daycare I felt good about, we probably would have sucked it up financially for that first year just to keep two FT salaries. But when I thought about leaving my baby at either of those places, just to go to a job where my entire take home would go to the daycare, it made me feel sick.

Trust your gut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You aren’t going to get an educated nanny for $20 an hour so start looking for a really good daycare.

Not everyone can afford a nanny and there is no shame in that.

OP here. I live in Chicago where a nanny is cheaper. The going rate for an experienced nanny is $18-20/hour. I don’t care that much about education because I feel experience outweighs a college degree. We can afford nanny but it does seem like a lot of money to pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The first three years of a child’s life are the most important. I would have quit my job if we hadn’t found our nanny who was a preschool teacher and has all the course work for her masters in early childhood development completed. She engages and teaches my son better than we ever could. And she loves him and teaches him mindfulness! That said she is $30 an hour.

Your best bet is to stay home for at least a year and a half and then find a really, really good daycare.

OP here. I will not be staying home for at least 1.5 years. I like my career and do not want to take that much time off of work.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We can afford a nanny. That is not an issue. I don’t know if the nanny is worth that much more than daycare. I love my child but I do not want to stay at home FT. I’m not interested in being a SAHM and staying home for 2-3 years.

We live in Chicago where a nanny is cheaper. We care joe waning experience than a degree. There are many educated nannies out there who do not have actual experience and do not have a clue how to care for a baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You aren’t going to get an educated nanny for $20 an hour so start looking for a really good daycare.

Not everyone can afford a nanny and there is no shame in that.

OP here. I live in Chicago where a nanny is cheaper. The going rate for an experienced nanny is $18-20/hour. I don’t care that much about education because I feel experience outweighs a college degree. We can afford nanny but it does seem like a lot of money to pay.

What does your gut tell you?

I agree with others that if you can afford to, and you want to, now is a good time to take time off and stay home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We can afford a nanny. That is not an issue. I don’t know if the nanny is worth that much more than daycare. I love my child but I do not want to stay at home FT. I’m not interested in being a SAHM and staying home for 2-3 years.

We live in Chicago where a nanny is cheaper. We care joe waning experience than a degree. There are many educated nannies out there who do not have actual experience and do not have a clue how to care for a baby.

There are also nannies out there with an education and experience. If nannies are less exton Chicago than here, you’d be nuts not to get your baby a good one.

Yes, even before covid, a nanny is worth much more than daycare. Your baby will be sick a lot in daycare and you’ll end up missing a lot of work not to mention your baby being sick and miserable. Plus having to drag him out of the house on cold mornings and him not napping in his own bed. Daycare for infants just isn’t great for them.

And then there’s covid exposure.

[Anonymous]

In normal times, babies get sick a lot in daycare. Any little fever and you’re home with the baby for a couple days. With covid, it’s even worse and certainly more frightening.

Go with a nanny. Plus a good nanny will do child-related chores like the baby’s laundry, washing bottles, cleaning play area and toys, and making baby food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In normal times, babies get sick a lot in daycare. Any little fever and you’re home with the baby for a couple days. With covid, it’s even worse and certainly more frightening.

Go with a nanny. Plus a good nanny will do child-related chores like the baby’s laundry, washing bottles, cleaning play area and toys, and making baby food.

+1

The nanny will be more expensive but will make your transition to work so much easier. There is no advantage to socialization before your child is preschool age, and he will get a lot more out of the one-on-one attention of a loving caregiver than the less individualized attention at daycare at this age. And yes, even before Covid daycares have policies where children must be sent home if they exhibit any symptoms, from a slightly raised temperature to a cough, in order to protect the other children. But because they are in daycare, they are also exposed to more and get sick more often. It's a frustrating cycle. With a nanny, you're kid will be sick less and the nanny should be fine caring for him when he is, as long as she doesn't get sick. Much more reliable.