Daycare advice...cross post

I'm pregnant with #2. DS just turned 1 and I am due in November (yes, they will be very close in age). Right now, between my MIL and mom, they watch DS 3x per week and we have a sitter for the other 2 days who we drop DS off to at her house. She is great, very good with him, very close to our house. My only issue is that she has to take DS in the car during the school year because her daughter does not get the bus. They don't get out of the car, and the school is very close. I've gotten used to the idea.

Anyway, the conversation about what will be when the new baby comes was discussed. Turns out my MIL and mom will only be taking 2 days because they are both not young and 2 kids will be a lot more work. So we need someone for 3 days. When the sitter came back to me and said she'd be interested, she proposed a price. She did not realize we needed her 3x per week. It was extremely high, double the hourly rate that we pay her now. I understand it's 2 children, but what she is asking us for is the rate we'd pay full time at a licensed daycare. Plus, we drop DS to her, she is not coming to us and watching them in the convenience of our own home. After a few days, I flat out told her that we cannot afford the rate she is asking and we might need to seek other options. She totally understood, but said that maybe we could agree on a better number - she was obviously interested still. I told her I would get back to her and she just asked that I do so before Sept. DH and I looked a childcare place (Babylon Childcare) and thought it looked pretty decent and they were reasonable. I just cannot get used to using a regular daycare, I don't know why. There are pros and cons to each and that is where I'm stuck. I have nightmares of DS hating it there and then I'm back to square one.

What would you do? DH thinks we should try to get her to come down on the price because she has indicated numerous times that she is doing babysitting so she does not have to return to work, so DH feels that even if we asked her to go down on the price, the monthly rate we give her is more than double what she gets now - granted, it's 3 days vs 2 days, but we don't think she would ever get what she is asking.

Are daycares better?? Sorry so long...

Re: Daycare advice...cross post

I will admit I am very biased (I work in day care )......but I would never want my children in someone else's car at that age. Also I know at my center you get a discounted rate for a second child. Did you check out the centers stats on this site maybe that will help your decision. Good Luck

Re: Daycare advice...cross post

How many kids does she have? Just 1 who is in school all day? I would be concerned that an extra child may be too much for her as well where I would than look for someone else or look into daycare.

The other problem is alot of daycares do not accept infants p/t and if they do it is not any cheaper than f/t daycare. I would definetely contact daycares and possible other sitters before going back to her with a number.

Re: Daycare advice...cross post

Thanks for the replies ladies.

The sitter has 2 children; one is going on 6, the other is 9. It's the 9 year old who misses the bus cut-off, the younger one gets a bus. The daycare we looked at was in our price range and was fair even though they did not offer a discount once the baby comes. I'm just on the fence about the whole daycare thing and them being around so many other children - even though this is not a huge daycare, I think there are 8 total infants at full capacity and they told me that come Sept, they have hardly any infants enrolled.

I'm trying to decide if we should look at some in-house family daycares - other than the one we looked at, there are no other daycare centers in the area that we can afford. It's too bad because Tutor Time is so close to our house, but way above what this other daycare will cost.

Re: Daycare advice...cross post

Posted by Stacey1403

I will admit I am very biased (I work in day care )......but I would never want my children in someone else's car at that age. Also I know at my center you get a discounted rate for a second child. Did you check out the centers stats on this site maybe that will help your decision. Good Luck