I’m an outlier - we picked work in a similar situation. I do find it frustrating at times but think it is worth it overall.

Factors:
- work daycare was similarly cheaper
- work daycare takes infants, and baby 2 is on the way… neighborhood daycare does not so we would have two locations
- I want to go back to work in person after baby (or at least I did pre delta… it’s a bit of a game changer)

Both places are otherwise well recommended and I’m confident my kid(s) would do well at them.

Would it be nice to walk ten minutes down the road to daycare? Yes, but instead I drive ten minutes. So time wasn’t a big factor either.

Work definitely

Pre-Covid, I loved being close to work. I could easily pick her up if she was sick, volunteer over lunch, I didn't have to race out of work to get to a daycare far away. Now, close to home. The idea of driving downtown every day when I don't need to is awful.

Anonymous wrote:Home, unless you have a very short commute.

No, that's wrong. A LONG commute would necessitate having child care close to the office. Otherwise, how would you get your child in under an hour in case of emergency.

If you have a short commute, whether you pick close to home or close to office, you're close to both.

When I only had one kid, having daycare close to my office was great. Then the pandemic happened and I had a second kid, and I really wish it were closer to home, but we like the place and have stuck with it.

Benefits for close to work:
- You don't have to worry about getting caught up at work or stuck in traffic at the end of the day, because you're only a few minutes away.
- You're close by in case of an emergency, you can be there right away.
- It's easy to pop in for their holiday parties (during before times)
- On early mornings, you don't have to wait for daycare to open to start your commute.

Negatives for close to work:
- Working from home means you have to do double the commute.
- If one kid is sick, or you're on maternity leave, you have to do a double commute.
- If your child's doctor is close to your house, you need backup care to take the other kid to a well visit.
- If you change jobs, you most likely have to change daycares.

I would 100% choose close to home if I did it again, and might pull my son for pre-K somewhere closer to home when my daughter starts Kindergarten in a few years.

When we started daycare 4 years ago I was so disappointed that I couldn’t get a spot closer to my work. But then we got a spot in walking distance of our house. It gives me the freedom to take a vacation day and still drop my kid off. It’s the best.