Anonymous wrote:You can get a starter nanny for 4500 a month. Much better than daycare.

What is a starter nanny?

You can get a starter nanny for 4500 a month. Much better than daycare.

The centers that brand as “high end” have more money spent on extra administrators and unnecessary “curriculum” that kids don’t need. Agree with looking for a warm and happy place. Best indicator is happy teachers - ask how long they’ve been there.

Anonymous wrote:High end does not mean high quality. Find a place that feels warm, with caregivers who have low-turnover and who have the activities and environment that you think your baby will thrive in.

My kids are in "regular" daycare by your standards probably but they played in bright classrooms with loving teachers who cared for them deeply like their own and spent so much time outdoors under a beautiful tree canopy. It was super lo tech with the only updates being a piece of paper at the end of day but they came home happy, fed, dirty from a day playing outside or painting pictures, and learning new things.

This. So much. We went with a non “high end” daycare and the teachers have been so lovely. I can’t express how much I deeply appreciate their care. We toured the more expensive places with lots of bells and whistles…..and distracted teachers always on phones and just going thru the motions. We opted for daycare for a number of reasons, but one of which is how hard it is to find a truly good nanny (this was during COVID so was nearly impossible). Four years later on our second kid, I have taken some time off the last several weeks to take care of the kids and have been totally horrified by the nanny behavior I’ve seen at NW parks. Now, I’ve also seen the exception - if you can find one of these, grab them and don’t let them go. If you can’t, daycare w excellent caregivers is the way to go.

It’s called a nanny share.

Why are posts deleted here?

High end does not mean high quality. Find a place that feels warm, with caregivers who have low-turnover and who have the activities and environment that you think your baby will thrive in.

My kids are in "regular" daycare by your standards probably but they played in bright classrooms with loving teachers who cared for them deeply like their own and spent so much time outdoors under a beautiful tree canopy. It was super lo tech with the only updates being a piece of paper at the end of day but they came home happy, fed, dirty from a day playing outside or painting pictures, and learning new things.

We have been at some amazing, low-turnover, low-ratio, organic homemade food type daycares but at the end of the day they are institutions -there will be frequent illness and they will not be able to keep the same schedule/routine that they have at home.

We did not care about how facilities looked; we cared about turnover, ratio, and ample outside time when looking at infant care. my oldest went to a daycare in Vermont where they napped the children outside in the winter. They slept so well!

For toddlers and up we looked more at outside time, a play based curriculum, whether there was somewhere to go run around if the weather was bad (a gym or gross motor room, for example). So you can think about what matters most and look for those specific things. But you will not find a bespoke situation. If that is what you need, you will need a nanny.

If you’re happy to pay more, get a nanny or do a nanny share.

Oxymoron

This would be a nanny. So much better, almost as good as a full time parent caregiver.

Anonymous wrote:Daycare is 3000 a month, nanny is 5-6000 (or more) a month. So in between would be a nanny share? Part time nanny? Any daycare is going to max out their ratios because it’s better to have 3000 a month from 6 kids than 6000 a month from 3 if you’re trying to run a business.

What are you talking about? The Maryland ratio is 1:3 for kids under age 2.

And a lot of daycares have 3 teachers in the 6-baby infant rooms (or 2 all the time and a floater there for busier parts of the day).

Just get a nanny. You will avoid having a constantly sick baby, will have someone at home to do the baby’s laundry, keep the nursery arranged, etc. It’s worth every cent

Daycare is 3000 a month, nanny is 5-6000 (or more) a month. So in between would be a nanny share? Part time nanny? Any daycare is going to max out their ratios because it’s better to have 3000 a month from 6 kids than 6000 a month from 3 if you’re trying to run a business.

Does something like this exist? We aren't sure about getting a nanny but we also haven't loved any of the standard daycares we've toured. Is there a day care with smaller teacher-baby ratios that offer more individualized attention? We are happy to pay more for it.