Honestly whether this is a bad thing or not it depends on your child's body clock. Would not work for me at all because DD is a naturally late riser; at age 3 her natural wakeup time was 8 o'clock, and now at age 5 her natural wakeup time is 7 to 7:30 (though she occasionally sleeps till 8). Waking her in time to drop her off somewhere at 6:30 would have been disruptive to her sleep.

In contrast, my friend's kids wake up at 5:30/6 on their own, so for them this would be no big deal.

I'd say see what happens after a week or two and if your kid seems consistently tired, then look into the unicorn of a morning-only nanny.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but I'm also in the camp that it's not good for kids' development to wake them up early. Kids get up when their bodies are ready. It's fine for there to be an exception here or there for emergencies and genuine schedule conflicts, but I'd never do this every morning.

My younger one routinely got up at 4.30am...and now at 9 years old, "sleeps in" till 6. So, some kids are just ready early.

Anonymous wrote:Yes the center does provide breakfast, on the 2 days my husband drops off, he can drop her off at 8.

If your husband can drop her off at 8, on the days he's not dropping off, why can't he get your older kid on the bus at 7?

Why cant your dh do more than 2 drop offs?

Everyone is crazy. I know plenty of kids up at 5:30 and ready to go. And the early pick up is awesome! Your kids will be fine. Congrats on the new position!

Anonymous wrote:Yes the center does provide breakfast, on the 2 days my husband drops off, he can drop her off at 8.

If she is getting up at 5:30 three days a week, she's unlikely to sleep in the other days. He'll have some nice morning time and breakfast with her but it's not sleep.

Unrelated but I'm shocked a six year old's bus comes that early. The earliest elementary school bell time in my area is 8:30.

My kid has never slept past 630 in his life, is up before 6 90% of the time. I wish I had this set up, we would have so much more time in the evenings together. I think this is way better than a 6 pm pick up.

Anonymous wrote:Where on earth would you find a morning nanny from 7-9 am? I can’t imagine anyone willing to work such short hours.

My friends have a young lady who comes to their house before her full time job starts. She gets the kids up, ready, and drops them off at school, and then goes to work. I think they found her through care.com and she's been with them for over a year.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds very unhealthy for everyone’s sleep TBH. Won’t be good for child’s development.

Maybe if she had a teenager! I have to leave the house at 6:50ish this year with my 14 yr old DS so I can drop him off at school on the way to work. Now THAT will be painful.

Anonymous wrote:Where on earth would you find a morning nanny from 7-9 am? I can’t imagine anyone willing to work such short hours.

There are people who would be willing to work 10-15 hours a week in the morning for some extra money. A college kid who has classes later in the morning or someone who can watch the kids in the AM and then go to a 9:30-5:30 job. Maybe a SAHM with older kids who wouldn't mind some extra money. I suspect that if you looked on CARE.com or talked to a service you could find someone. It is not that different then a college kid who picks your kids up from school and watches them until you get home. I have several friend who have this arrangement.

OP, it's fine! Everyone can just go to bed early and get up early. Just shift the sleep schedules a bit. It's great that you will be home so early in the afternoon and great that you have summers off. People shaming the OP are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Wait - you are dropping your youngest off, and then going back home? That's terribly inefficient. Can your husband get your oldest on the bus?

We do early drop offs with all 3 of my kids. We are leaving the house no later than 6:10 (I really need to leave earlier). Yes, I feel guilty at times but I have such a bad commute, it is what it is. It's a mad house in the morning but overall my kids are in a good mood and we still have time in the evenings to play outside and chill out before the bedtime routine starts.

Where on earth would you find a morning nanny from 7-9 am? I can’t imagine anyone willing to work such short hours.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds very unhealthy for everyone’s sleep TBH. Won’t be good for child’s development.

Oh please. I did it a 6:30 drop off for nearly the entire time my kids were in daycare (and for a few years at before-care at elementary school). They're now 16 and 12 and don't seem to be scarred for life. I won't mention they're straight A students, strong athletes, and all around good kids.

OP, don't feel bad. There's *always* something to feel guilty about, but your kids will be fine. And they have the advantage of early pick-ups and afternoons/evenings with you. There were plenty of kids who weren't dropped off until close to 9 but Mom/Dad didn't get them until 6:00 and they had what, 2-3 hours with Mom and Dad before they were put back to bed?

My only tip is with my kids I used to put them to bed wearing the clothes they'd wear to daycare the next day. Getting them up and out in the morning was a lot easier.