Education & Work To day care or not to day care thats the question

Hello everyone,

So our newborn is now getting close to 10 months and wife is full time at home. She is contemplating the idea of starting part time work which will be 2-3 days a week. We will look for a full day day-care centre if she proceeds. We are no breast feeding by the way so that makes it a tad bit easy I guess.

But the idea of sending a 10 months old to day care is worrying me. We are thinking about visiting some local centres to find out what services they offer and how good they are. I have spoken to some family day care centres already but don't know anyone who has used the service.

Do you guys support the idea of day care for a 10 months old? If yes, what is the best service for that. Family day care of child care centres?

 

At this point in the year is probably the best time to book in. Depending on your area you may have extended waiting periods for a spot, so just be aware of that. But you may be at a point where kids will go up from the babies room to the toddler room at the start of 2018.

I didn't really like the idea of FDC because I think you are too reliant on the 'one' carer - what if they get sick, their child is sick etc so you can't send your own child? What if they look after their own kids all the time in preference to yours?

Long day care (LDC) will have staff & casual staff if needed.

 

I had my first child attend day care when she was 6 months old. I got crucified by the mob, in the main women who thought I was a very bad mother for doing this. Seems my daughter turned out OK, she is now 27

The major issue you will have is your child will catch everything. Its inevitable that those that work will bring sick children to day care, because they have no choice. Am currently seeing this with my niece's baby who just started day care at 1 year, continually sick and inturn impacts on parents health. They are currently looking at other options ie nanny, home day care, a nice baby friendly aunty

My youngest daughter never attended day care, however, when she attended pre-school she caught everything.

 

1. Check financially if its even viable. Child care isnt cheap. And you only get 50% rebate of the costs up to the amount of $7,500 per fin year.
2. Not sure the type of work your wife does, but the ones i know that work in corporate, when they go back "part time" they end up doing full time hours anyway (and only get paid for part time).

My youngest will be going to day care at 20 months. I didn't want them going earlier as i was concerned about them getting sick due to a weaker immune system as they were younger (not sure how valid that last point is - but regardless, its how i feel )

 

Do what you need to do but imo its better if the mother can stay with the child as long as possible.

Also need to weigh up the cost/benefit ratio to ensure it is worth it from a financial perspective. I know in our case it was not worth it.

 

I just hope there is no stigma attached to parents placing their children in day care at an early age. Was in my day? Hopefully times have changed.

 

I dont believe there is anymore but you are right not so long ago it was stigmatized.'

We are thinking of putting little miss 3 year old in daycare a couple of times a week to give the Misses a break as she is at the high end of the maintenance scale

 

So true, this is such a scam. In my previous role, a colleague worked three days a week but was logged on to her emails for pretty much the whole day (even past 5pm) on her "off" days. I guess you'd save money on child care on those days but she was getting a decent amount so was probably quite ripped off by this arrangement

 

Ah childcare – damn if you do, damn if you don’t. Everyone’s situation is different so just do what is comfortable with your situation.

It isn’t cheap anymore and once you have a spot, you have to keep paying for it just to keep it. Also have to pay for public holidays if your kid has their childcare days on a Monday even when you are looking after them. We didn’t have the options of our parents looking after them as they are still working.

Wife took 12 months mat leave for both kids but we still send both kids to childcare (6 months for first kid and second kid at 10 months) once a week during the 1st year and then increased in days when wife returned to work as we wanted them to get used to interacting with other kids. To us the regular playgroup was not best option. Of course kids did get sick and daughter had chicken pox aged 9 months but better immunity now imho, YMMV.

When neK said 2. Not sure the type of work your wife does, but the ones i know that work in corporate, when they go back "part time" they end up doing full time hours anyway (and only get paid for part time). This is quite true in our situation and glad to say – 6 more weeks to the end of paying for childcare!

 

We'll be flying in the in-laws from China to look after them till they're ready for school. Kids gonna be speakin chinglish when we're all through with em

 

What a bonus! 2 world languages straight out of the gate!

 

haha - mine speak a weird German/English combo. Just had my two year old demanding "MILCH!!!! MILCH!!!!!"

 

lol... but isn't this what they are?

 

I tried and failed to go back to work when my first 2 kids were small. It actually cost me money at the end of the day, and wasn't worth it. My house was a mess, the kids didn't like it, I had no social life...after that I stayed home with the kids for the next few years and learned to trade shares and invest in property instead. Way more fun.

 

This is our idea too. But off course we understand the cost implications.

 

There are crazy waiting lists for some places, some even longer than a year. We plan to send our bub to daycare 1-2 times a week starting when he is 1, but booked our spot on the waiting list when he was barely 2nd trimester.

We are lucky that our parents are able to look after him, but we want him to be exposed to new fun environments, new kids, new carers, new ways of learning etc. Inevitably this will come with germs but he has to build up his resistance somehow

 

Definitely yes, they are both fantastic people who have never interfered with anything. It's part of our plan - pay the hefty visa fee to get them here permanently much quicker. They have been here many times for months at a time and we all get along very well. Well probably give them one of our places to live in at some point. They really are great, caring and selfless people.

 

Our first bub was about 10months when she started dc. My biggest gripe with dc is understaffing.. at 10months they're trying to walk and need constant supervision. That seemed too much to ask.. everyone second day we were filling in an incident report from either falling from something (not safe for a learner walker), getting bitten, hit with a drum stick?!?!
I'd definitely look into family day care if they have a low kid-carer ratio.

On a positive note we liked the social and sensory development she was getting from play group.

Now with Bub #2 we're going down the path of au pair, and will send bubs to gymnastics, swimming etc and still be cheaper than dc

 

We put our first in at 10 months 3 days a week. We planned to put him in much later but mother in law had cancer so it took up a lot of my wife's times. I think that age is way to early for them. Our second child won't be going in until he is 3 and even then only for a couple of days a week to socialise, learn and make friends. wife isn't working, she left a good job, has a uni degree etc but It's too hard with young children. Leaving them with parents was/is an option for a couple of days a week but we don't want to be a burden on anyone.

This may be controversial but I really hate how people decide to have kids and then just dump them with parents 5 days a week and go back to work. I would rather work 120 hours a week myself than do that to my folks. we all love the kids but they did their duty, now it's time for us to do ours.