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Oy. We're in good shape. We've toured two daycare centers that are close to our house, and we like them both. But it feels like there's still so much to sort out...
The baby is due in June. My tentative, not approved by any bosses yet, plan is to stay home for 3 months (until mid-September), and then come back to work 3 days a week. I'll probably end up having to add a work day when the legislature comes back in January, but then back down to 3 days a week when they leave in May. So, 3-4 days a week for the foreseeable future. DH's fellowship is primarily research in the 2nd and 3rd years, although he'll have a few months on service each year, and some call nights. He thinks he'll be able to do a fair amount of the research from home.
I'm thinking we can get by with 3 days/week of daycare. (We would prefer daycare, just general gut feeling... we like the fact that it's regulated and minimum standards have to be met.) If I have to work the 4th day of the week, DH can hopefully cover, or if not, my sister is in town and can probably be bribed. Or we have some extended family who might help out. Plus both sets of parents are eager to come visit frequently.
So here's the two daycare centers. Like I said, we liked them both, and they didn't raise any red flags or anything, so I'm mostly only pointing out the differences.
Daycare A is on DH's medical campus and run by a national chain. It's a new facility, really clean, and restricted to campus employees ("campus" includes adult hospital, children's hospital, and med and other health professional schools). We live by campus, so it's convenient to home, but obviously it's also really convenient to DH, who likes that he would be able to stop by during the day sometimes. (You may all be laughing at that, but I believe him that he might occasionally do it.) Because it's on campus, it has ridiculously long hours (6:15am-7:30pm) and is open on basically all holidays. We have friends who use it and are happy with it. They don't allow cloth diapers, which is something we were considering but not set on. They have what they call an "extensive" waitlist, and they won't give any indication of when we'd get a spot.
Daycare B is a little further away, but still only 2.5 miles from home. It's Montessori model with a separate K-5 charter school attached. It's an older building and a little less sterile-feeling, but it felt fine. They do allow cloth diapers (and will actually allow you to use a service through them for a small weekly fee, which I think is really cool). They close for basically every holiday, including the whole week between Christmas and New Year's, and they close daily at 6pm. We should nearly always be able to get there by 6, but it's possible there would be times when that's a problem. They have a few months' waitlist but say we'd be fine waiting until June to apply.
The big difference is that Daycare A (which DH likes better) won't do part-time. Obviously, we wouldn't have to bring the baby in every day, but we'd be paying for full-time regardless. DH thinks, the difference between 3 days at Daycare B and 5 days at Daycare A is only about $250 a month, which we can afford, and it might be useful sometimes to have all 5 days a week available. On the other hand, I can't help but think that $250 a month is a round-trip flight to visit family, and shouldn't we be saving that money if we can?
I think we'll probably get on the waitlist for Daycare A (nonrefundable $100 fee) and reassess come June. But what do you all think? I guess part of me is worried that having full-time care will put pressure on me to go back to work full-time, which I don't want to do, even though DH insists he's supportive of my working part-time. Is this just dumb first-world problems? What else should I be thinking about? What would you do?
The baby is due in June. My tentative, not approved by any bosses yet, plan is to stay home for 3 months (until mid-September), and then come back to work 3 days a week. I'll probably end up having to add a work day when the legislature comes back in January, but then back down to 3 days a week when they leave in May. So, 3-4 days a week for the foreseeable future. DH's fellowship is primarily research in the 2nd and 3rd years, although he'll have a few months on service each year, and some call nights. He thinks he'll be able to do a fair amount of the research from home.
I'm thinking we can get by with 3 days/week of daycare. (We would prefer daycare, just general gut feeling... we like the fact that it's regulated and minimum standards have to be met.) If I have to work the 4th day of the week, DH can hopefully cover, or if not, my sister is in town and can probably be bribed. Or we have some extended family who might help out. Plus both sets of parents are eager to come visit frequently.
So here's the two daycare centers. Like I said, we liked them both, and they didn't raise any red flags or anything, so I'm mostly only pointing out the differences.
Daycare A is on DH's medical campus and run by a national chain. It's a new facility, really clean, and restricted to campus employees ("campus" includes adult hospital, children's hospital, and med and other health professional schools). We live by campus, so it's convenient to home, but obviously it's also really convenient to DH, who likes that he would be able to stop by during the day sometimes. (You may all be laughing at that, but I believe him that he might occasionally do it.) Because it's on campus, it has ridiculously long hours (6:15am-7:30pm) and is open on basically all holidays. We have friends who use it and are happy with it. They don't allow cloth diapers, which is something we were considering but not set on. They have what they call an "extensive" waitlist, and they won't give any indication of when we'd get a spot.
Daycare B is a little further away, but still only 2.5 miles from home. It's Montessori model with a separate K-5 charter school attached. It's an older building and a little less sterile-feeling, but it felt fine. They do allow cloth diapers (and will actually allow you to use a service through them for a small weekly fee, which I think is really cool). They close for basically every holiday, including the whole week between Christmas and New Year's, and they close daily at 6pm. We should nearly always be able to get there by 6, but it's possible there would be times when that's a problem. They have a few months' waitlist but say we'd be fine waiting until June to apply.
The big difference is that Daycare A (which DH likes better) won't do part-time. Obviously, we wouldn't have to bring the baby in every day, but we'd be paying for full-time regardless. DH thinks, the difference between 3 days at Daycare B and 5 days at Daycare A is only about $250 a month, which we can afford, and it might be useful sometimes to have all 5 days a week available. On the other hand, I can't help but think that $250 a month is a round-trip flight to visit family, and shouldn't we be saving that money if we can?
I think we'll probably get on the waitlist for Daycare A (nonrefundable $100 fee) and reassess come June. But what do you all think? I guess part of me is worried that having full-time care will put pressure on me to go back to work full-time, which I don't want to do, even though DH insists he's supportive of my working part-time. Is this just dumb first-world problems? What else should I be thinking about? What would you do?
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