Day Care

Sorry if this is a silly ? but, when chosing a day care should I be looking at one near my home or my job? I have about a 35 min commute to work everyday.

Re: Day Care

I think that's a personal decision. There are pros and cons to both, as far as I see it. My son goes to daycare actually AT my job and I personally love it. Baby #2 will go to the same daycare. I like that I am right here in case of an emergency, or illness and I need to take him home, etc. I also love having our car ride together in the morning and after school. However, I know a lot of parents like the car ride to be their own kind of quiet time to decompress before/after work. So it really depends what you are looking for!

Re: Day Care

Re: Day Care

When we were first TTC I would go back and forth on this. But we have a great day care at my job and for me I think I would be more comfortable having the baby close by. Especially because DH does not have a set office for work, he travels all over the place. So this way one of us is always right there. But like the PP said, it's a personal decision and you have to do what you're comfortable with

Re: Day Care

We chose a daycare close to home because DH does the drop off and I do the pick up. Sometimes if I work late I call DH, or another family member to pickup DS. We also get a lot more help from friends and family because the daycare is in our neighborhood.

Also, keep in mind sometimes you'll have doctors appt. You will have to drive to work to drop of DC and drive back to your dr's office which I assume is closer to home. and there will be times where you'd have to call in sick for work. Then what do you do? Drive DC to daycare and come home and rest? If I had the flu I wouldn't want DS to be home with me.

ETA: The less time DS spends in the car the safer he is, especially with rush hour traffic. I will not be able to drive with a crying baby. We were involved in 2 car accidents last year. Thank god DS was not in the car with us.

Message edited 11/2/2011 3:33:19 PM.

Re: Day Care

I worked from when my DD was born until she was 3 years old.

For me I chose a child care provider that was close to home...minutes away actually.

My main reason was that I left for work so early in the morning ... 6:15, and I didn't want DD to have to wake up so early. So Dh brought her to the babysitters before he went to work at 8:30.

Also, since I worked very far away (Levittown to Bushwick, Brooklyn, over an hour drive) I wanted a family member to be able to get to her if there was an emergency or if she was sick. With afternoon traffic it would have taken me well over an hour and a half to get to her.

And since I was a teacher --- those late nights when I had to stay for report card conferences --- she needed to be close to home so DH could get her.

And the babysitter was great and took her to the library a few days a week, and little by little she met some people in our neighborhood that we are still friends with now.

So for us, a babysitter close to home worked out the best!

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I prefer closer to home. It's easier so not just one of us is doing the pickups and drop offs.

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I work in a preschool and have to say that I think it is easier to have the baby near your job. If anything happens you are right there. There are soo many parents that if their child gets sick cant get to them til hrs later or if the weather is bad takes them soo much longer to get there, it always seems to be a struggle for them. My DS went to my preschool and I loved having him right there.

Re: Day Care

I went with one close to my house, because you can change jobs in the future. And if you find a daycare DC loves, best not to have to pull them out.

Re: Day Care

I just want to add one more thing. We already met some kids abd parents in our school district. When DS starts public school in 2 years he will already have friends in the class.

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Unless it's AT your job, I'd say by home. There may be a day you work from home, are sick, have a dr appt before or after work... all of those things would necessitate child care but near your home and not your work.

Plus, the idea of commuting with the kids every day makes me shudder Rather than have them sit in the car for the 35 min, wouldn't you rather have them playing, hanging out with other kids? That's how I look at it, at least.

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I've done it both ways (Same commute time as you) and I prefer close to home because:

1 - on days off from work or when you need to run errands around town, you can drop off more easily if you need a day off without the kid(s)

2 - our pediatrician is close to home as well so when baby got sick it was easy to pick up and head straight to the pediatrician, or pediatrician for a well visit, then off to daycare, then back to work for a half day- or straight home with sick baby if necessary. When you pick up a sick baby from daycare, all you want to do is get them home asap and cuddle and soothe them and make it all better

3 - if you forget something they need for daycare (happens to me all the time) diaper restock, a favorite blanket or sippy cup, you can always run back home real quick and get it then be on your way to work

4 - I didn't like sitting in rush hour traffic with baby in the car

5 - when it snows or there's bad weather, it's a shorter, less dangerous drive with baby in the car (like when they close daycares because of snow)

There's lots of reasons... definitely like it better with daycare close to home.