Who’s Watching the Kids?

I am transitioning childcare this month and I am a bit overwhelmed. My current sitter gave me six months notice that she was returning to outside work (bless her), so it isn’t a big shock. But we’ve been using the same at-home care provider for four years, so the change is still traumatic, at least for me!

The first problem is that because of the transition, the care has been very unreliable recently. My sitter gave me clear notice that she would be interviewing this month and would need some flexibility. I could have easily gone with our new arrangement earlier, but I thought it would be fun to have some time off. But of course, some great work opportunities have appeared during this time so I am mostly spending my time juggling.

They start at a day care center in a few weeks. I think it is more like an extended pre-school. My kids will be 5 and 3 and the center has a Pre-K and pre-school curriculum during the morning. Then lunch, rest time and the rest of the day is open play. They have a four-day option so I don’t have to pay for full-time, which is hard to find. I’ve heard nothing but raving reviews about the center, so I know we are making a good move. It wasn’t easy finding something that worked for us though.

I loved taking the kids to an at-home provider, particularly when they were infants. I felt good that they were in someone’s home getting lots of one-on-one attention. However, an at-home provider has some drawbacks, particularly reliability. For example, in addition to having to find alternate care when your own kids are sick, you also have to have a back-up plan when the sitter’s kids are sick. So, when it was time for this change, I decided to look for a center. Here are a few lessons learned:

- Talk to other parents! When I started looking for a new arrangement, I truly thought the kids would end up at a center that was very close to my house. Fortunately, I have a good network and was able to find parents that took their kids to this center. While it is a decent center, I learned things that I wasn’t happy with, such as the fact that they let the kids watch TV quite a bit during the day.
- Start as early as possible. When I called these centers in January, looking for spots in August, I thought that they would tell me to come back later. As it turns out, most good centers have waiting lists and I probably wouldn’t have a spot for them if I’d started later.
- Have a back-up plan during the transition. I don’t have one right now and I am really struggling to cover some days. I should have lined up a stay-at-home friend or a teenager on summer break as back-up care during this transition.

I’ve been talking up the new center to the kids and they are excited to start at the new school. I’m looking forward to the stability of a center that is always open. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!