Anonymous wrote:It’s all blurry. But the best part-time preschools (nonprofits governed by boards) have very little in common with daycare, and that’s why people pay so much $$ for it plus nanny or sahm.

At our school, the entire operation is focused on 2.5-5/6 year olds, including professional development, facilities, special events, etc. There is no napping, allowing parents to handle sleep as they prefer. No meals are served allowing much greater control over nutrition. Our kids had the same cohort and teacher team for three years. (No one is shifting between classes based on potty training status.) This allowed them to build deep relationships and alums are devoted to the place. There is a clear pedagogy that everyone is on board with, and parents can participate in class on a weekly basis (at least).

I get that it sounds pretentious and dcum will say it’s about pathetic sahm’s needing control, but in reality it’s meeting kids in the most age-appropriate way, and it’s a shame that it’s so expensive and rare.

Also, about a third of the parents go on to public elementary—for most this is not about feeding into elite privates. They’re willing to deal with the cost for these early years, even when dcps offers free preschool.

Anonymous wrote:There's can be a huge difference in the qualifications and education from a preschool teacher to that of a day-care worker. It's insulting to preschool teachers who are already one the lowest paid workers
for their levels of education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So there is a big difference, op, and I’m not sure why you would want to keep misnaming it. Pre school isn’t really set up covering childcare during working hours at all. Pre school (half days) generally starts out at 2 days a week for 2 year olds, 3 days a week for 3 yo, etc and is focused on early socialization and skills. If you use pre school you still need child care for most of the day. It generally requires potty trained kids and doesn’t stat before 3. It’s more like supplemental places like my gym, music classes, mothers morning out, or coop pre schools.

Daycare is group childcare that is obviously structured around dual working parent hours. I have done both. There’s some evidence that the less hours/younger age for group care is healthier for kids in the long but obviously is a big financial sacrifice for any family to sah or get a nanny for the bulk of care through those years and what’s best for each family is different. But I think it’s confusing to say you are using pre school when you are doing daycare, because it does imply you are either not working or have a nanny/family caring for your child most of the time. So yes I would clarify that with you if we met on the playground and started talking about childcare.

If we had this conversation on the playground, I would literally turn my back to you and walk away from your judgmental big fat ass.

Anonymous wrote:Dp. Most of the time DCUM is super judgemental, but I think DCUM is probably less judgemental on this topic than you'd actually find irl. Try the same thread on reddit and I'd bet more people would care and say that "daycare" is correct.

Anonymous wrote:So there is a big difference, op, and I’m not sure why you would want to keep misnaming it. Pre school isn’t really set up covering childcare during working hours at all. Pre school (half days) generally starts out at 2 days a week for 2 year olds, 3 days a week for 3 yo, etc and is focused on early socialization and skills. If you use pre school you still need child care for most of the day. It generally requires potty trained kids and doesn’t stat before 3. It’s more like supplemental places like my gym, music classes, mothers morning out, or coop pre schools.

Daycare is group childcare that is obviously structured around dual working parent hours. I have done both. There’s some evidence that the less hours/younger age for group care is healthier for kids in the long but obviously is a big financial sacrifice for any family to sah or get a nanny for the bulk of care through those years and what’s best for each family is different. But I think it’s confusing to say you are using pre school when you are doing daycare, because it does imply you are either not working or have a nanny/family caring for your child most of the time. So yes I would clarify that with you if we met on the playground and started talking about childcare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Btw nanny shares are unlicensed daycares, no thanks.

Yup. And in home daycares sketch me out. Sure, the people that work there on paper are licensed, but what about their creepy male relative that lives there? I’m not letting my two daughters near anyone that hasn’t been CORI checked (might be a Massachusetts thing although I’m sure something similar exists in each state).

I’m the PP who pays my nanny $70K a year and she’s our nanny - it’s actually not the same as an unlicensed daycare center but I guess since you think daycare and preschool are the same thing you hear “nanny” and instead of assuming a caregiving for children in a family you bizarrely hear “unlicensed daycare center with sketchy male relative hanging around.” And thanks for congratulating me. I work very hard as does my nanny and it’s important to be to provide fair compensation to her and the teachers at my children’s preschool. A distinction that I am making between daycare and the set up that I pay for (nanny + preschool) - for the poster who asked what the point of this comment was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Btw nanny shares are unlicensed daycares, no thanks.

Yup. And in home daycares sketch me out. Sure, the people that work there on paper are licensed, but what about their creepy male relative that lives there? I’m not letting my two daughters near anyone that hasn’t been CORI checked (might be a Massachusetts thing although I’m sure something similar exists in each state).

I’m the PP who pays my nanny $70K a year and she’s our nanny - it’s actually not the same as an unlicensed daycare center but I guess since you think daycare and preschool are the same thing you hear “nanny” and instead of assuming a caregiving for children in a family you bizarrely hear “unlicensed daycare center with sketchy male relative hanging around.” And thanks for congratulating me. I work very hard as does my nanny and it’s important to be to provide fair compensation to her and the teachers at my children’s preschool. A distinction that I am making between daycare and the set up that I pay for (nanny + preschool) - for the poster who asked what the point of this comment was.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not reading this whole stupid thread but the answer is glaringly obvious. Free standing centers that for full-day don’t go beyond an age of 3 or 4 are day cares (depending on when pre-k starts). For centers that have nurseries through Pre-K and even on into elementary school, those are preschools.

We use a preschool that also has daycare services to extend the day because we both work.

It seems stupid to acquiesce to DCUM stupidity and call it Preschool and Daycare. We call it school, because we want our kids to begin to get socialized to the idea of school and that it’s what they do during the day. There’s an excitement about it because at this age it’s nothing but fun. They also see older kids going to school and this gets them to understand that this is their school equivalent.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not reading this whole stupid thread but the answer is glaringly obvious. Free standing centers that for full-day don’t go beyond an age of 3 or 4 are day cares (depending on when pre-k starts). For centers that have nurseries through Pre-K and even on into elementary school, those are preschools.

We use a preschool that also has daycare services to extend the day because we both work.

It seems stupid to acquiesce to DCUM stupidity and call it Preschool and Daycare. We call it school, because we want our kids to begin to get socialized to the idea of school and that it’s what they do during the day. There’s an excitement about it because at this age it’s nothing but fun. They also see older kids going to school and this gets them to understand that this is their school equivalent.