Childcare

[alotofyarn]

Any advice for childcare? I'm looking at the center that's affiliated with the university at which I'll be working, and it seems good so far. I'm hoping to tour it next week. Faculty get moved to the top of the waiting list, it's located in the building next to the building where I'll have an office, tuition seems reasonable, and they have an open door policy for parents visiting. It's a Bright Horizons program.

[SuzySunshine]

We had BH in Rochester, also affiliated with the hospital and we loved it. I thought they were very good.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

We've used BH in MA, NC, NJ, and CT (DD travels with me for work and we've done drop-in care in NC). I have to say I'm pretty impressed considering that my kid is a drop-in and therefore you'd expect things to be a little rocky. They're always super nice and remember her when she comes in. I think they're on the high end of price (the one in MA is apparently the most expensive daycare in the country on a monthly basis) and I know I pay a LOT for drop-in rates but I think this means they treat their people a little better.

They seem to have fairly low turnover. See if you can get a sense for how long the infant teachers especially have been at the center. That'll give you a sense of how well they're treated. If they're all new, they may have high turnover which can be rough on young kids.

We went the nanny route. I adore her and our schedules (DH is an intern, I travel a great deal) require it but I do often wish we could just do daycare for financial reasons.

[alotofyarn]

Thanks for the feedback so far! I only have minimal ideas about what reasonable rates for daycare are, but they told me $885/month for infants, and I was expecting around $1000, so it seemed reasonable, given its convenience.

[oceanchild]

We're on the waitlist for a Bright Horizons affiliate on the hospital/med school campus. Our friends who use it are happy with it. The full-time infant rate is $310/week, which seems on par with what people charge around here.

Here's my tortured thought process thread from a few months ago, in case it helps: http://www.medicalspouse.com/forums/...ldcare-options

[diggitydot]

Holy shit, I totally forgot how much good day care costs. Yikes.

[HouseofWool]

Yep. For my 4 year old I was paying $600/month and that was on the low end for the area.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Depends on where you live. I was thinking those were good prices. Our BH here in RTP is $1,300/month and the Goddard down the street is $1,500 for an infant.

[GrayMatterWife]

Any nursery care should welcome parent drop-ins, whenever and for whatever reason. If they don't, run away. Far and fast.

My older three have all attended university-affiliated nursery schools--here and back in St Louis. Both have been absolutely fantastic. Really. Better than care I could have provided. haha! Have the fourth on the waitlist for entry in August.

[SoonerTexan]

Wow $800 is good for a newborn.

[alotofyarn]

Thanks Julia! It's only $25 to get on the waitlist, so we'll definitely look at the BH first. There's one closer to our house too that looks like it might be good, so we may go check that out and get on their list as a backup, just in case.

[metroguy]

there was BH near my work. it was very cheap - subsidize by the company-- something like $15 per day but can only be use for a few weeks.

[oceanchild]

Currently having waitlist-related freakouts in our house. Not how I wanted to spend this time before the baby's born. So stay tuned, I guess.

[scrub-jay]

*hugs* they never know WTH they're doing w/spots until the very last second. It'll work out, promise.

[alotofyarn]

So we visited the daycare today, and overall I think I liked it. It's in a slightly sketchy part of town, but it's a block away from my office, and they have great security. It's hard because I've never seen a daycare and have no idea what to expect, plus they're in the middle of repainting the place and it looks a little rough - but it's good that they're keeping things up, right? The ratio of teachers to infants is 1:4, and most of the staff have been there since the place opened, even since the university passed it off to BH for management. They have an outdoor play area, and an indoor area for when it's too hot. They allow drop-ins anytime, have a lactation room, and will feed breastmilk. The manager knew all 100 kids by name, and she's a retired kindergarten teacher and elementary school principal. The kids all seemed happy and well behaved, except a few crying infants (to be expected, I imagine), and it was a good mix of races (I know this doesn't matter too much, but I looked up some places and if our kid went there they'd be the only white one). They have a sick policy, follow state guidelines on immunization, and they seemed super organized and clean. Am I missing anything? I need to ask about schedules and how well they try to stick to those if you establish one at home first, but I'm out of things to ask, and I have no idea how we'd go about finding another one, especially as convenient and inexpensive.