Home How did you find your Nanny or Child Care?

[Dreamer_D]

Nanny''s in my area cost about $1800 to $2000 per month. Worth it if there are 2 kids I guess.

 

[steph72276]

Oh and another idea is to find a lady that has retired but still wants something to do....a retired teacher would be great. I know there are some ladies at our church that do this, so maybe that could be a resource.

 

[Mara]

DD I will have to see if we have anything like that referral center, I haven''t heard of it from asking Mom''s if so. Interesting idea though.

Here also a lot of times nannies will charge more for 2 kids, so we''d pay like $2k for one kid only but if we had two depending on the nanny it could be like $2500 or 3k. A little crazy.

 

[Burk]

Date: 12/8/2009 10:28:50 PM
Author: Mara


for those who have their babes in centers...when did you put them in? a lot of my local mom friends waited til 1 year to take their baby to a daycare.

We put Tayva in the center at 9 months. It just worked out that way...my initial plan was to wait until she was a year. The new baby will start at the center at 6 months.

 

[TravelingGal]

Just used care.com and think I''ve found a new nanny (my old one went AWOL and I have no idea what happened to her or if she still is in Honduras).

Care.com seems really good. I scouted out a couple of nannies, one of which I think I am going to hire. I also posted a job listing and got a ton (22, to be exact) of replies back to the job. Most were younger women wanting a job with very little experience, but there were a few good possibilities thrown in. I preferred to look at the nannies and solicit myself however.

A lot of the nannies on the site haven''t checked in for months, so many of the listings are useless. However, if you do some digging around, I think it''s a better resource than craigslist.

Also would like to thank mia for her fantastic list of questions in seeking a nanny. If you haven''t seen it, it is at https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/nanny-cams.120749/page-4. I used many of the questions on this list during the interview.

Anyway, she will probably start next week, so I will see how it goes, but I have to give the site 2 thumbs up. One thing though...the subscription automatically renews unless you cut it off. Not sure how hard it will be to do that, but I used a credit card protection service that spits out a temporary number, so they will not be able to automatically renew my subscription anyway.

 

[TravelingGal]

btw, just looked up some reviews on care.com. I would do some kind of safeguard with the credit card because when the site was new, apparently it was pretty bad.

http://www.workingmomsagainstguilt.com/2007/12/wmag-reviews-carecom.html

ETA, A- rating on BBB. http://www.bbb.org/boston/business-reviews/sitting-services/care-com-inc-in-waltham-ma-103708/

 

[taovandel]

Luckily for us, our boss also just had a baby and his sister-in-law is going to watch his baby and ours! Evan will be the only baby there until mid march and then my boss''s baby will join. We are paying 100 for 3 days a week....

 

[lovelylulu]

Mara,

I'm currently wading through this process as well. It is daunting and though I'm a researcher, too, I'm finding that it's difficult to pull together all my options. Basically, DH and I discussed whether we want to have a nanny or daycare and have nearly decided (for a lot of the reasons dreamer mentioned) that a daycare center is the best option for us. With that in mind, our city also has a database of certified centers that I have reviewed. I've also asked friends that have babies in daycare for recommendations based on their experiences. We've just sent in about 7 checks to secure spots on the various waitlists which are running about 12 months. Because the wait is so long, timing really is a consideration. If you want to use a center, you have to start that process much sooner than if you want to use a nanny. We may wind up needing a nanny or nanny-share (other option to consider) if we don't get a spot at a center by the time I plan to return to work...then, I'll have to rely again on word-of-mouth and there is also a very active neighborhood listserv - a bit more personal than craigslist, but much the same concept.

It's a lot to digest and to sort out, especially for a first-tme parent, so I've tried to use other parent friends as much as possible (like what do you wish you knew when looking at centers now that you've been using them for the past year kind of a thing) because I feel like a lot of considerations just might not be that obvious to me.

ETA: Daycare for infants runs approx. $1700/month. In-home more like $1200. Nanny $2000+

Good Luck!

 

[Mara]

thanks for updating the thread with info on Care, TG...good to know. glad you guys found someone to replace your nanny!! did you find out any more info?

lulu...yeah we are still looking into things as well. we do have a fair amt of good centers around here, i just would prefer in home care for a little longer for him. i think i''ll end up sucking it up and paying for in-home nanny care for the 6 months til he is 1 year then re-assess. it would also be easier on me to not have to drop and pick him up somewhere for a while and let me get back into the groove of things. and yeah the in home nannies here are like 2k+ whereas the centers range from 1k to 2k depending. but if it would be worth it, the 2k is fine for a while.

my mom asked our cleaning ladies if they knew anyone and they do know one gal who does child care, has her own car, license, speaks english etc but i was like hi mom the kid isnt even OUT yet. i can''t really line up child care for SEPTEMBER right now. the girl prob has to work til then somewhere else right?

we also have a few friends who belong to a lot of mommy groups that hopefully can put some feelers out for us as well. i figure i''ll start really looking like 2-3 months before i lose my summer-mom care.

 

[ponder]

Mara,

Its never to early to line up child care IMHO. I started looking into my options at 3 months pregnant. Daycare scared the crap out of me even though I was only going back to work 2 days a week after a 4 month maternity leave.

Luckily I was able to convince my friend''s mother to come out of retirement (licensed inhome daycare for 30+ years). My little one has one on one care and I dont think I would work if I did not have her taking care of my baby.

Check with other mothers of young children who stay home full time. They may be willing to watch your little one to help ends meet.