Hi DC Urban moms & dads! This is Jen, co-founder and mom-in-chief at CareLuLu. Thanks so much for all the kind words, it really is amazing to see how we’ve been able to help parents in the DMV! We get emails every day of thankful parents (and child care providers) so it makes all the hard work worth it To the mom/dad who did not care for CareLuLu, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m not sure what you considered spam (we do send emails to parents who use the site, but it is to offer suggestions of child care programs that could fit their needs and related information; I wouldn’t call that spam for parents searching for child care.) Also, every email we send has an “unsubscribe” link, so you can opt-out of our emails at any time.)

We try to keep information up to date but with thousands of child care programs on the site in the DMV (yes, thousands), it’s hard for a team of less than 10 people offering a service 100% free to parents. To the person who thought all child care programs had to pay to be listed, thank you for taking the time to correct that. We indeed have both free and paid options for child care programs (some can pay for additional marketing and services.) Over 95% of child care programs listed on CareLuLu are not paying anything. We do vet the thousands of providers on the site: not in person (again, impossible with a team of less than 10 for thousands of child care programs), but programs need to be licensed/permitted to join the site (we do verify licensing). We send our own photographers to some child care programs (the ones with a “Verified” seal). We can’t do that for the thousands of child care programs on the site because we don’t charge parents (not sure how many providers work with Monday morning moms in MD and how much they charge parents for the back-up care service.)

Anyhow, to the original person who posted the question, here’s my response about how CareLuLu compares to other services (please forgive me if I’m a bit biased, I’ll try not to be Child care network and CareLuLu both help parents find child care that fit their needs (they’re a search website, where you can find options and information). CareLuLu has many more filters to narrow down options (I’d list them all, but we have 30 – compared to a handful of filters for child care network.) We also have photos for a lot of the child care facilities and staff (not all, but we’re working on that.) I don’t think any other website offers the level of detail that we do. We basically do the homework parents typically do, so you can save time and find the right child care program for your family. The best thing about both child care network in MD and CareLuLu is that they are 100% free to parents (unlike Monday morning moms, which charges for their service and does not allow parents to search/browse child care options, like another post suggested – however, they offer a different service for the extra fee; it depends on what you are looking for.)

Sorry for the long answer, as you can tell, I’m passionate about families and child care providers! In the end, none of the online resources you use should be a substitute for visiting a child care program in person. Only an in-person interaction with the caregiver/teacher will tell you if this is the best place for you little one! If you have questions or if I can help any of you, feel free to send me a note at jen [at] carelulu.com

Anonymous wrote:The downside of Carelulu is that you'll only see centers that agree to pay for being listed. You should be able to get a more complete list from each jurisdiction's daycare licensing entity, but with less amount of detail.

Me again. Sorry, scratch that, they do have a free listing option.

The downside of Carelulu is that you'll only see centers that agree to pay for being listed. You should be able to get a more complete list from each jurisdiction's daycare licensing entity, but with less amount of detail.

Carelulu is great! The site has filters that made it so much easier for me to find a daycare center. I live in Reston but I work in DC, so I needed a center that opened early, and I wanted online video streaming to check on my baby during the day. The filters saved me so much time, not having to call a bunch of places just to ask about ours and online video. Like another post said, I also saved money with Carelulu! (I didn't get $150 off, but I got free registration)

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard mixed things about monday morning moms. Seems like they charge extra? If you use them to find a daycare, your tuition will be higher than if you find the same daycare on your own (or child care network or Carelulu). Not sure about the quality of their providers though. Both Carelulu and child care network were useful for me (they both have lots of daycare options in MoCo), but I ended up enrolling in a home-based daycare that a friend recommended.

I think the difference with Monday Morning Moms is that if your daycare is closed for holiday/vacation or the provider is sick, then you are guaranteed coverage somewhere.

As PPs noted, Carelulu and childcare network are a sort of child care database and both gave me a list of programs based on my location and age of my son. Monday morning moms doesn’t work like that. You can’t search and browse different child care options. You can only contact them by filling out a form on their site and they work with a limited number of providers... It’s a different kind of service, it just depends on what you’re looking for (fees are involved, too.) Like someone else said, Carelulu has photos and more information than other sites.

I used child care network and found daycares, but they didn't have enough info. They had fees and ages/hours which was great, but not much beyond that. I didn't know Carelulu, it was one of the daycares I called who told me to visit her profile on carelulu.com to see photos of her home. Many daycares had photos and the site had more information about the caregivers. One thing that bothered me is that some daycares I contacted didn't get back to me. Most did though, so it was okay. I also wanted a Spanish home daycare and it was the only site where I could filter by Spanish. Overall, I found it very useful.

Carelulu had more information about our daycare than daycare's own site. It also had a coupon that saved us $150 in the beginning and useful reviews.

I’ve heard mixed things about monday morning moms. Seems like they charge extra? If you use them to find a daycare, your tuition will be higher than if you find the same daycare on your own (or child care network or Carelulu). Not sure about the quality of their providers though. Both Carelulu and child care network were useful for me (they both have lots of daycare options in MoCo), but I ended up enrolling in a home-based daycare that a friend recommended.

Carelulu is good for what it is - a database you can search. The filters are nice and they include tuition rates that a lot of other websites don't offer, because of the reason PPs note above - it's nearly impossible to keep those figures current, but it gives you a ballpark of what to expect, which I find useful.

If you're expecting it to function like Monday Morning Moms, then you will be disappointed, because they are not that kind of service. They do no vet the providers. They do not provide quality assurance. They are a consolidated database, mostly pulled from publicly available information, but providers have the option to supplement the data available. Their coverage is most impressive in NoVA, but they're also getting better in MD.

I booked a couple tours through them and it was fine, like a PP said, for some daycares they had the most up to date info. But when I tried to do another a Carelulu person said that daycare wouldn't have any spots (10 months from the time) and started suggesting ones that were too far away. I managed to contact said daycare directly through a friend and they were happy to give me a tour and put me on the wait list, so I'm not sure where the breakdown in communication was.

I used carelulu and it was really useful. It wasn't the only site I found but it was the one with the most info, like hours, cost, and photos of the facilities & teachers (the info was accurate for the 3 places I visited.) Saved me a lot of time and I found a great child care center! (I live in Nova so I'm not sure what MD care is or how it compares to carelulu)

Do not care for Care Lulu. Lots of spam! I also hate going through them if I want to connect to a provider. Their info is not current either.

I did. It was fine - I had an ok experience. Ended up using MD care as providers were closer and in price range.

Has anyone used Carelulu to find childcare? Was wondering how it compared to something like MD Childcare Network and Monday Morning Moms.