If you have extra money at all and have been sending your kids to daycare, consider tipping each worker in cash before the holidays. Put your money where your mouth is on all the appreciation you have for these people who are also most likely black and female and well underpaid with no sick leave and crummy health insurance if any.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Unless they are mandated to close, my one and 4 year old will go.

+1

I actually feel safer about dropping the kids off at daycare than taking them to XYZ errands for example. At least at daycare, there are firm health protocols in place and daily/continual cleanings...can't say that about other places.

Kids shouldn’t be going on errands. Why wait to do errand until souse can watch b

You realize single parents exist, right? Like, a lot of them? Or even parents whose partners are essential and have to work out of the home during the hours the post office or pharmacy are open? Use your imagination.

Now

Anonymous wrote:Since you all feel child care should be used no matter how bad the numbers get, child care workers deserve hazard pay and the same kind of respect we give other frontline workers.

Hope you are VERY nice to your child care workers.

Who is suppose to pay this additional pay with less kids? Owners of preschools aren’t making any money and are paying just to keep the lights on and pay their teachers. But I guess that doesn’t matter right? Teachers have a choice to have a job or not. If owners shut down because they are not making money, everyone loses, teachers, owners and parents. Owners deserve a ton of credit for ensuring front line workers have a place for teachers and students to come.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since you all feel child care should be used no matter how bad the numbers get, child care workers deserve hazard pay and the same kind of respect we give other frontline workers.

Hope you are VERY nice to your child care workers.

Get over yourself. Where do you see disrespect for daycare workers?

Also thanks to the GOP, they would not have replacement pay if daycares closed. And many of them would not open again.

My point is that child care workers are cleaning and caring and getting exposed to your family’s germs for VERY little pay. Most have no benefits and very little PTO.

It seems like daycares should be charging hazard pay so they can pay the workers more during this time. Like double salaries. That would make sense to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since you all feel child care should be used no matter how bad the numbers get, child care workers deserve hazard pay and the same kind of respect we give other frontline workers.

Hope you are VERY nice to your child care workers.

Get over yourself. Where do you see disrespect for daycare workers?

Also thanks to the GOP, they would not have replacement pay if daycares closed. And many of them would not open again.

My point is that child care workers are cleaning and caring and getting exposed to your family’s germs for VERY little pay. Most have no benefits and very little PTO.

PP here. A pre-COVID problem for many workers. So much wrong with our national priorities

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since you all feel child care should be used no matter how bad the numbers get, child care workers deserve hazard pay and the same kind of respect we give other frontline workers.

Hope you are VERY nice to your child care workers.

Get over yourself. Where do you see disrespect for daycare workers?

Also thanks to the GOP, they would not have replacement pay if daycares closed. And many of them would not open again.

My point is that child care workers are cleaning and caring and getting exposed to your family’s germs for VERY little pay. Most have no benefits and very little PTO.

Anonymous wrote:Since you all feel child care should be used no matter how bad the numbers get, child care workers deserve hazard pay and the same kind of respect we give other frontline workers.

Hope you are VERY nice to your child care workers.

Get over yourself. Where do you see disrespect for daycare workers?

Also thanks to the GOP, they would not have replacement pay if daycares closed. And many of them would not open again.

Since you all feel child care should be used no matter how bad the numbers get, child care workers deserve hazard pay and the same kind of respect we give other frontline workers.

Hope you are VERY nice to your child care workers.

Anonymous wrote:A 1 year old was probably < 6 months old at the start of the shut down, right? You can kind of get by without childcare at that age, but 1 year olds nap less, are more mobile, and generally need a closer eye. Unless at least one parent has an endlessly flexible job, or one parent plans to leave their job, you probably want to keep your kid in daycare as long as possible.

OP here - yes, this it exactly. Work was very flexible in the spring and the baby slept more. Now neither is true.

Cases are up to 20 per 100k in our county now, though, and DC is in a home day care where I do think it could spread. At some point it becomes statistically inevitable if rates continue increasing this way. So this sucks. If we take DC out now we lose all of our minimal progress in adjusting to a new place and people, plus my work is just deadlines on deadlines right now.

Anonymous wrote:I think we are going to pull around Thanksgiving. The numbers are insane right now and I don't trust other families to not have holiday gatherings.

The numbers are greater because testing wasn't available in at the beginning of the pandemic as it is now. If we could have tested at the beginning of the pandemic, you would have noticed much higher numbers than their are today. You can do what you want, but to pull your kid during the holidays I believe would not be a smart move for several reasons. Firstly, preschool spots are in high demand as many preschools have closed and closed for good. People have been returning to work for some time now and need spots for their children. Secondly, every bit of research out their notes that preschools are very low risk to catch COVID. Also, children statistically much less likely than adults to contract COVID. Yale did this recent study:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/daycare-centers-are-very-low-risk-for-covid-19-transmission-study-says-11602699914#:~:text=Children%20in%20day%2Dcare%20programs,57%2C000%20U.S.%20child%2Dcare%20providers.

Again, do what you want, but make sure you review the facts. Science matters.

Anonymous wrote:We just started our one year old in day care a few weeks ago after hobbling along without childcare for months and realizing we can't do this. (No, we're not sick of our kids, we just don't have endlessly flexible jobs.) Now covid cases are rising, before DC has even adjusted to the new environment. We're in MD but not MoCo, so I don't think day cares will be shut down again, no matter how bad it gets. At what point will you pull your kid out, if any? What metrics or decision making process will you use?

If we start hitting the point that we are concerned about hospital capacity, we'll consider keeping them home. We and the kids are low-risk in general so we're generally comfortable with the risks (and we don't see my parents or anyone else at risk except for outside from a distance with masks), but if we're starting to hear that hospitals are so strained/understaffed that the quality of care is dropping notably and people are dying who would have been saved earlier on, we would take that very seriously.

Right now our plan is to keep our kid home for a week after thanksgiving and Christmas just in case someone catches something during the holidays, but it would be really hard to do this for an extended period of time again. We didn’t have daycare for 6 months.

I think we are going to pull around Thanksgiving. The numbers are insane right now and I don't trust other families to not have holiday gatherings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Unless they are mandated to close, my one and 4 year old will go.

+1

I actually feel safer about dropping the kids off at daycare than taking them to XYZ errands for example. At least at daycare, there are firm health protocols in place and daily/continual cleanings...can't say that about other places.

Same. We actually had a covid case at our daycare/preschool in July and no other kids caught it. The class quarantined for 2 weeks and now it's back to normal. I actually am expecting there to be another case sometime soon but until then, my kids are going. I need the care!