You are trying to be penny wise pound foolish.

You want to go back to work in a way that you have the least amount of stress. I would plan for putting the kids in full day daycare OR getting a nanny (no preschool) at least for the 1st 6 months.

After you get the routine worked through, you can figure out what is working, what can be better.

Unless you do an au pair, you will be scrambling to cover days where the person is sick, just doesn't show up, has car trouble, whatever. Usually, the people are nannies looking for a fulltime (40-50 hrs) position, and they will leave once they find one. Your kids, who sound pretty young, will find the transition to you working hard enough without a rotating cast of caregivers too. (Plus the stress on you to coordinate all of this!)

That preschool is for SAHMs, and won't work for your situation. You really do need a full-time daycare (the one where you are working would seem perfect if you liked the place well enough when you toured).

$1400 is very, very reasonable for a FT preschool.

Some preschools offer an early drop off care option, so check with your preschool first.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry -- OP here again....where we are working they do have a full daycare/preschool for $1400 a child. Open from 7- 6pm Is this reasonable? really, I feel quite clueless--I figured 910 in preschool and 2K in a nanny would come out the same and the girls would be able to be at least home part of the day plus I could get some meal prep and starting of the house? But I agree about the other posters about someone being flaky b/c they are looking for 8 hours a day (which I can't afford) and ran into the problem of the morning drop off.

thanks again so very much

Yes, this is reasonable.

How far is your commute? You may find that options closer to your house cost a little less--though, frankly, if you're in Arlington that probably won't apply by much. It didn't when we lived there.

$1400/month seems very reasonable for daycare. I have a friend who tries to cobble together sitters and she is always looking for a new sitter. You can't start a new job and be taking off all the time because your sitter quit. Do daycare.

Sorry -- OP here again....where we are working they do have a full daycare/preschool for $1400 a child. Open from 7- 6pm Is this reasonable? really, I feel quite clueless--I figured 910 in preschool and 2K in a nanny would come out the same and the girls would be able to be at least home part of the day plus I could get some meal prep and starting of the house? But I agree about the other posters about someone being flaky b/c they are looking for 8 hours a day (which I can't afford) and ran into the problem of the morning drop off.

thanks again so very much

Thank you so much!!

"We do full day preschool. You have to look around to find one with hours that work for you. Partial day wouldn't cut it for us"

where do you go? Thank you!.

This is all correct, or, you can get an au pair. Not sure whether those economics would work with private preschool, though.

Anonymous wrote:You won't find someone for morning dropoff. Hire full day nanny until you get daycare.

+1. And if you do find someone, they won't be reliable. They will be looking for a full time job and will leave as soon as they get one.

We do full day preschool. You have to look around to find one with hours that work for you. Partial day wouldn't cut it for us.

You won't find someone for morning dropoff. Hire full day nanny until you get daycare.

Anonymous wrote:You need daycare with a preschool curriculum, not a part-time preschool.

+1

Sorry those preschools are for SAHMs, you need a full day preschool. It's too stressful to have to hire people for morning and different people for afternoons.

You need daycare with a preschool curriculum, not a part-time preschool.

Hi all--

Thank you for reading this. I have been a SAHM for 5 years and we are moving to Arlington and I am going back to work. I have our girls enrolled in pre-school for the fall. School doesn't begin until 9:20 and ends at 1:20. I was thinking of a nanny/babysitter to pick up the girls up at 1:30 and stay until 5:30. My concern is the morning. We would have to be off to work before drop off time. Do you have any advice on getting transportation to school? what do you all do? Would I just get a sitter to come in the morning as well and run them over to school?

I know this may sound silly but I really l appreciate the advice and am trying to do this the most affordable way.