I live in a neighborhood with lots of older folks with large homes, and almost everyone has had their kids and grandchildren move in for some period of time. One couple I know of has been here from NY since March, and some have come and stayed a few weeks. Most seem to plan to go home at some point, but there are a few who are looking to buy houses.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, that was long. Sorry!

TL;DR Are we out of our minds thinking of renting a furnished house in the Midwest for 6 months so grandparents can babysit our kids while we work?

It’s totally reasonable. It’s hard working and taking care of 2 young kids at the same time. Every cloud has a silver lining. Make this yours - the kids would also probably enjoy the attention and love of grandparents.

I’m so glad my child is grown and I don’t have to deal with this. These kinds of decisions must be agonizing. In any case, if both of your jobs allow you to work remotely anywhere in the country, then I don’t see a whole lot of drawbacks to moving back ‘home’ - as long as you have a good relationship with the in-laws and trust them with your kids. I would have local family scout out possible rentals, especially since you may have problems finding a lease for less than a year. If the local schools where you’re moving to are opening in person for the school year, you might consider sticking it out longer there (if you are comfortable with that). While you’re gone, you could ask (or pay) a neighbor or their kids to check up on your property periodically. Sadly, there are no perfect solutions during this pandemic. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the input.

I wish we had thought to do this this summer. We’ve sort of been white knuckling it thinking we’ll see what our options are at the end of the summer. But in retrospect we should have gone already.

DH’s employee has already said no one has to come back this year. My employer has not said anything one way or the other, but I plan to discuss with my supervisor this week.

I get along well with my in laws and we’d be renting our own house, so not on top of each other. They like their own space and will give us ours. Very lucky in that respect.

If your supervisor okays it, no brainer then. Go for it.

OP here. Thanks for the input.

I wish we had thought to do this this summer. We’ve sort of been white knuckling it thinking we’ll see what our options are at the end of the summer. But in retrospect we should have gone already.

DH’s employee has already said no one has to come back this year. My employer has not said anything one way or the other, but I plan to discuss with my supervisor this week.

I get along well with my in laws and we’d be renting our own house, so not on top of each other. They like their own space and will give us ours. Very lucky in that respect.

In your situation I'd consider it. A colleague of mine is planning to do just that, even with older kids.

It's not crazy. Child care is a real need, especially with younger kids. We had a relative watching ours (3 and 6 year olds) in the afternoons this summer and it was incredible what a difference it made to have 4 straight solid hours for us to work. I'm not sure what we're going to do come fall! (Relative is a teacher so will be back at work.)

Sounds like a good idea. We know two families in our DS's ES who did the same thing. They had young kids, FT jobs, and no one to help. They took covid tests, then moved in with the in-laws in another state, so they had someone to watch the kids.

We did this for six weeks this summer. Wish we could for the year but don't know when we'll be expected back in the office. Living in the suburbs is fine right now. You're not enjoying the perks of city life and culture the way you normally would. Your kids will play outside. The family help will be so amazing - we only had help a couple hours a day and it still made a huge difference, because it would be the hours when we both had a video meeting.

Yes go. At worst you can come back. At least 2 sets of friends in the same situation left for the summer to their parents horn towns (also our west and not high in cases). Can't blame them. They have to work and the kids (one is an only) will get more socialization with the grandparents.

Not a bad plan. How well do you get along with your in laws?

I don't think it's a bad idea. But, do you have any idea when you are returning to in person work? Lots of companies are developing their plans. Mine is starting in October.

At home college student as babysitter?

If you can’t afford a nanny not sure how you would swing daycare in this area.

Are the grandparents actually socially distancing?

I think it makes sense.

Wow, that was long. Sorry!

TL;DR Are we out of our minds thinking of renting a furnished house in the Midwest for 6 months so grandparents can babysit our kids while we work?

Maybe this has been covered before, but I didn’t find it.

We have no nearby family, a preschooler and a toddler. We’re both working full time from home and we’re nearing our breaking point. Best we can hope for from DCPS is 2 days F2F, but that doesn’t seem likely and we’re not sure we would want to do it anyway.

All of our options for help are imperfect at best. We’re seriously considering packing up and driving to DH’s midsized Midwest hometown where he has 2 sets of parents who could each watch the kids 2 days each - giving us 4 full days a week to work. We’d rent a furnished house there for less than the cost of a part time babysitter here. Realistically I think we’d be gone until February if we went so we could spend holidays and the preschoolers birthday with family instead of home alone just the 4 of us. Assuming things don’t get much better of course.

We don’t want to leave our home. We love it here. We love our neighborhood. Leaving feels kind of like running away. We’d be going to suburbia, which we don’t like. We’d have to drive everywhere, every day. We drive maybe weekly now, if that.

On the other hand, we need help. We can’t afford a nanny or full time babysitter. We haven’t been able to find a part time babysitter that will work with just our family, which increases risk beyond our comfort zone. We’re equally uncomfortable with daycare, plus our older child would be very unhappy retuning to that setting and being much other than the other kids there. And they’re only offering reduced hours now.

Feeling very stressed and unsure of what to do or what the best thing is for our family.

Is a short term to be near family for help crazy? We haven’t heard of others doing this. What haven’t we thought of that might work for us to stay at home?