Anonymous wrote:OP - you'll lose flexibility but gain $$$ by switching. We decided to keep our nanny at least until all of our children are in elementary school. Good luck with your decision.

But won't it be nice to not have a stranger in your home all day? I can't stand when my cleaning ladies are here. It would pain me to have someone sitting on my sofa and using my bathroom all day everyday.

We are so happy we switched to daycare when my oldest was 18 months old. At the time, the savings wasn't THAT great (we were in share- so maybe about $250 a month?) but I can't imagine my child being at home now with a nanny and her little sister and getting the sort of stimulation and activities she does now. She did get sick a bit more at the beginning (as my ped says, "Now or Kindergarten") and the snow days are a pain, but we couldn't be happier.

Anonymous wrote:$65k / year? Wow. Yeah, we were in a nanny share, so we didn't pay that much, but the switch to a center has been better. Now we pay about $17k / year, and they include food for our very hungry caterpillar.

We save a ton on paper towels alone.

Seems quite high. What is your hourly rate? At 50 hours a week 50 weeks a year, your all in cost is $26/hr? That is a pretty top end nanny. I'd say you could easily save close to 25% off that with a less expensive nanny.

OP - you'll lose flexibility but gain $$$ by switching. We decided to keep our nanny at least until all of our children are in elementary school. Good luck with your decision.

Anonymous wrote:OP: "Are there financial benefits to spending less money? Thx."

You lose flexibility: if you need to go to work early or stay late you will need to find and pay a babysitter. You lose control over what or when your child eats (if you care about that). If nanny does any small housework (which she should do a lot of for that salary) - laundry, dinner prep, tidying up - that's not getting done, so it's you or you'll need to hire someone. Lastly, commuting in the rush hour with the child is hellish as well as getting the littile one ready and out of the door in the mornings. I don't know how to quantify that, but it's literally shortening your life due to stress...

Anonymous wrote:Most nannies are 3-40k a year, wasn't worth it for us

meaning daycare wasn't worth it to us, we are in mclean and nannies are around 3-40k/year. I always wondered who hired the care.com nannies asking 35+/hour