Reply to giving up nanny

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[quote=Anonymous]
Here's my take on it after 13 years of parenting and observing the families around me in Bethesda:

1. It's very stressful to scramble if you have no back-up childcare on days when schools close without warning. It's fatiguing for the children to have to constantly schlep over to places for planned days off and vacations, when they might just want to relax at home for a bit.

2. Meaningful after-school activities (as opposed to activities to park children before they need to be picked up) are never on school grounds so transportation is a must. The best instrumental teachers, orchestras and choirs, for example, are always in their own spaces and studios. Same for gym, ballet, same for horseback riding, etc. For children's development and future college applications, good extra-curriculars make a difference, and some of them start early in elementary school.

3. Unless you live in an area where schools are dangerous or your children have very specific needs, private school will not have nearly as much benefits over public school as you might think, particularly in STEM, where public schools receive a lot of funding for labs. Regarding college positioning, a child can stand out just as well if not better among a public cohort than a private cohort. If your children are weak in an academic area, it's cheaper to pay for a top-notch tutor for that subject than pay private school tuition. There will also be SAT prep, and college tuition to pay later.

Conclusion: for families with multiple kids who cannot afford it all, I believe a nanny/au pair works better than private school, as long as she can drive, has a good rapport with the children, and has enough education to answer basic questions and help with elementary homework. My friends have graduated from full-time kiddie nannies to part-time college helpers hired to drive their tweens and teens to and from extra-curriculars in the afternoon, and perhaps help with dinner prep and homework.

Good luck. It's hard.[/quote]

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