Child care options

We just finished our third search for child care, so I thought I'd write a couple of posts about the process we've gone through.

First, the options. Most people break down child care into three categories:

• Daycare centers. These tend to be large, with kids broken up into multiple classrooms by age. Biggest pro: Always available. If your teacher is ill, the center handles finding a backup. Biggest con: Lots of kids can mean less 1:1 attention... and more germs and illness.
  
• In-home daycares. These are usually smaller. In Texas, for example, in-home daycares can have no more than 12 children at one time, regardless of the number of providers -- that's the size of one classroom at many daycare centers! Most in-home providers also accept kids of all ages, from infant to preschool. Biggest pro: Most in-home daycares have only one provider, so your child is able to really bond with that provider, rather than seeing multiple teachers over the course of his/her day. Biggest con: You'll usually find yourself scrambling for backup care if your provider is sick or goes on vacation.
  
• Nannies. A nanny comes to your home to watch your child. Biggest pro: Tons of 1:1 attention. Biggest con: Cost. A good nanny can easily cost more than your mortgage payment.

When I first started looking for child care, when I was pregnant, I thought these were the only options available. And, personally, I don't like any of these options, at least at Littles' age. I think that 1:1 attention is so important for infants/toddlers, but at all of the daycare centers and in-home daycares that I've looked at, Littles would be one of four or five children assigned to one caregiver.

A nanny certainly provides 1:1 attention, but the cost is prohibitive for us. Plus, Littles really does enjoy interacting with other kids, and I don't think she would get enough of that interaction if she were home alone all day with a nanny.

For me, the "sweet spot" is 2 or 3 children with one caregiver -- enough so that each child gets plenty of attention from the caregiver, but also plenty of interaction with other kids.

So I am lucky to have stumbled upon a couple of additional options, both of which hit my "sweet spot" for the number of children, at a reasonable cost:

• Nannies who bring their own child. This gives your child a built-in playmate. Also, the nanny usually charges a little less, since she's essentially getting free child care.
  
• Nanny shares. One nanny, two families. This is what we did in California, and it worked out to be about the same price as a daycare center.
  
• Stay-at-home moms. Some stay-at-home moms look to watch an extra child or two to make some extra money. This is what we will be doing in Texas. The mom who we'll be leaving Littles with is actually on the high end as far as what she charges, compared to other stay-at-home moms providing child care, but we feel she's worth it. And she's still cheaper than a daycare center.

In my next post, I'll talk more about my process of searching for child care.