Welcome to the DMV, we moved here from Boston and were shocked as well. I was just telling someone the other day this would be a normal day in Boston. Even with much more snow we would just shovel and arrive late after a major storm. I think they are not as equipped as places like New England. I find it scary to travel myself as many here dont know how to drive in snow either so best to stay home unless you really have to go out. Ice storms would keep me home though even in Boston. Wait until your little one goes to school, they shut down here for forecast of snow.....

Anonymous wrote:We recently moved from Boston and things would have been business-as-usual with such a light dusting as today. But here in VA, daycares close and nannies say they can’t travel, even though it’s a light snowfall! We are WFH so that still continues, and we have to juggle kids or cancel meetings. Should we just set our mind to accepting it?

I’m from Michigan (6-12” of heavy, wet lake effect snow is normal) and North Dakota (minimal accumulation at times, awful visibility as very light crystals are whipped around, unsafe temperatures). DC is a totally different climate, with different budgeting needs and different priorities. They don’t close for fog, worried about kids getting hit at bus stops. They don’t close when it’s -10 or -20 and too cold for kids to be at the bus stop. Instead, they worry about so many drivers from even warmer climates trying to tackle roads that experience rain followed by a cold snap, creating visible and black ice.

Rule of thumb in this area: plan ahead. If the feds call it, nannies for feds don’t go in. If your school calls it, daycare might be closed. And this area (more than most) will call a snow day based on expected rather than actual accumulation, that way they don’t have to worry about getting kids home.

Yup. Be prepared for school to be cancelled for a little bit of snow also, OP.

My nanny lives close but is a bad driver. I pushed my meetings later. Went and got her snd then went to the office. Dh is WFH and started at 8:30 so he watched the kids have breakfast while i drove to get nanny. He dropped her off this evening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Realize how big counties are, and how varied plow services, school closings, actual weather, and other factors can be.

Considering entire states manage this just fine, that's not a really good excuse. This area just doesn't care to prepare itself and would rather shut down than spend the money to prepare for winter storms. Thats fine, you just have to deal with it, but it is always going to be annoying to those of us who have lived in places where, for example, schools never close if it's snowy or icy, they only close if it's too cold to stand out at the bus stop (and that's well below freezing).

The amount of snow this are gets is not enough to invest in equipment and more importantly man power on retainer to plow all the secondary and tertiary neighborhood streets so its safe for school busses etc. so they buildnin snow days and close. There are winters with like 3" of snow total, no jurisdiction wants to spend the limited funding on things not used.

This. I grew up in a place that regularly got enough snow that the city owned a fleet of snowplows. So we rarely closed for snow. That is not DC and the many surrounding counties. It would be silly for DC and the surrounding area to maintain the necessary equipment and staff to deal with the few days a year, so things close.

Also, there are ice storms here that are very dangerous, even if there isn't a lot of snow accumulation. The roads can be really, really, really bad without there having been a ton of snow. It's just different weather.

OP-you should care more about ice. Also, snow where people aren't good drivers in snow is a recipe for disaster.

Pretty sure you can handle a day, OP. You would've found a way to manage if she was was in a car accident, regardless of snow or ice. Sometimes things just happen. If it isn't safe for them to show and they don't then they are showing good judgement.

Why do people move somewhere and then act all surprised aren't exactly the same as where they move from?

The roads are treated differently in the midwest and north. Also when I lived in the midwest as a kid and most of my friends who currently live there all walk to school. It was really icy this morning. No school system wants the liability of a school bus sliding off the road.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Realize how big counties are, and how varied plow services, school closings, actual weather, and other factors can be.

Considering entire states manage this just fine, that's not a really good excuse. This area just doesn't care to prepare itself and would rather shut down than spend the money to prepare for winter storms. Thats fine, you just have to deal with it, but it is always going to be annoying to those of us who have lived in places where, for example, schools never close if it's snowy or icy, they only close if it's too cold to stand out at the bus stop (and that's well below freezing).

The amount of snow this are gets is not enough to invest in equipment and more importantly man power on retainer to plow all the secondary and tertiary neighborhood streets so its safe for school busses etc. so they buildnin snow days and close. There are winters with like 3" of snow total, no jurisdiction wants to spend the limited funding on things not used.

Anonymous wrote:DC folks are huge babies when it comes to snow.

- Hearty Midwesterner

It’s ice. Snow plows were sliding around today.

- Person from Buffalo who thinks it’s stupid to act macho about ice

Nannies are lazy and won’t go to work but daycare should have been open.

I have a truck and the roads were just fine. And I’m further out in Leesburg. You needed 4wd for the neighborhood roads. We took our kids to the nanny today.

The roads were treated. It's often a question whether rain will wash the treatment away before the ice comes. Or if the temperature is too cold, then salt doesn't help much.

Know-it-alls know better but don't even know that roads were treated here. Maybe they don't know it all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you were referring to today the conditions were icy and dangerous. Cars were flipping over and it was not safe to drive.

I think OP's point is that the roads would never even have gotten to that point if the local governments pretreated the roads and were plowing/salting all night long, but they don't do that here.

Well, local governments in the DMV have different priorities than the ones in Massachusetts. Snow/sleet/ice mitigation is obviously going to be a larger function of state government than it is in Virginia.

Offer to go get you nanny or tell her its leave without pay. Simple. You work from home so its easy for you to judge others so fix the problem instead.

Anonymous wrote:Have you been out on the roads at all? We got a lot of ice. It was not safe to drive.

because the roads weren't treated.