Help me decide: Daycare/Work/Home Location

[rebneen]

After almost a year and a half of searching it's looking possible that I've landed a job in my field.

Now I'm stuck deciding if I want DD (2.5) really really close to my house (Daycare 1) or really really close to my new job location (Daycare 2). Both are JCC-affiliated and I'm happy with everything else equally but I am torn on if I should move her because more transitions, is it going to make my life harder if I'm sick, etc. This is very new to me since I have SAH for over two years. Help me decide!

Relevant details:
-Job/Daycare 2 are ~30-45 minute commute
-I have primary custody in the divorce so do all drop offs and pick ups.
-I have my very old dad (81) who can still drive fine (for now) nearby Daycare 1 and several friends who could get DD in an emergency if I needed them to or my old colleagues would even just entertain her for a while til I got there (I used to work onsite).
-I'll be a private school classroom teacher so afternoon commute won't have much traffic.
-DS will be in K right by my house (local elementary)
-DD attended the toddler class at Daycare 1 last year and actually has friends she really remembers.

[jinkies]

I would choose close to your house.

She already has friends there, and the daycare closer to your house is more likely to eventually feed kids all into the same elementary school, so she will start off elementary with friends.

It's also more convenient if you want to send her on days that you are off (holidays, sick, etc).

It sounds like you have plenty of backup who can pick up at daycare 1 if you can get there in time for whatever reason.

[andi]

Daycare 1 -close to your house. Not sure where you live, but in the midwest it's nice to not have to drive far with the kids to go to daycare if the weather is bad/snowy. Along with the other perks you listed, that's what I would do.

Also, she's adorable!!

[dcn]

I’ve done both and preferred daycare close to home. If I have the day off then I don’t have to drive 30 min to drop off. Also shorter drive home if they are sick and need to be picked up.

[steamboat185]

Daycare #1. Driving with a grumpy kiddo at the end of a work day is not fun.

[Mrs.flang]

Jul 2, 2020 8:25:37 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

Daycare #1. Driving with a grumpy kiddo at the end of a work day is not fun.

Agree!

[beerlover]

Also agree on #1. Plus, if you ever have or take a day off and still want to send DD to daycare, it's a short drive!

[noodleoo]

Jul 2, 2020 8:29:43 GMT -5 beerlover said:

Also agree on #1. Plus, if you ever have or take a day off and still want to send DD to daycare, it's a short drive!

Daycare 1 for sure.  Our daycare is very close to our house and I love that I can send her and take a day off once in a while to get time to myself (which doesn't happen otherwise!).  I also like that you have a network than can help in an emergency and she is already familiar with the place.  Sounds like a great option!

I also used to enjoy my commutes alone.  It was nice to zone out, listen to the radio, make a phone call.  A nice way to decompress at the end of the work day.  That was all pre-Covid of course. 

[Susie]

My 1 and 4.5 year olds go to daycare close to my office.  Until covid, that was my preference.  I liked being able to run over mid-day easily from the office, being able to pick up downtown before dealing with traffic, and pop over for the occasional event.  Posters on MMM have talked about being able to send your kids to daycare (more readily if it's near home) on days that daycare is open and work is closed, but my work is so rarely closed that that has never really been a thing.

Now though?  I have DS on a wait list to get into a daycare close to home, based purely on logistics.  I'm happy with the program where the kids are, which is a hard thing to leave, but it is a huge PITA to drive downtown to drop at daycare only to drive back to WFH.  I foresee a lot of WFH during the coming year or couple of years.  There are other logistical considerations too with our downtown daycare that I'm also anxious to stop dealing with (related to it being in a federal building).  I also prefer having both kids in the same town where we live for end of day pickups, rather than having one in our town, and one in the city where I work.

[icedcoffee]

Daycare 1. NO question. Love having daycare by my home. Now we just need them to reopen from Covid. LOL

[rebneen]

Thanks everyone. I was leaning toward keeping her in Daycare 1, but since I've been SAH I thought I might not be able to anticipate working parent needs (I was married and had a nanny when DD was an infant and I worked).

[pandorica]

Definitely #1! Driving longer with DD isn't fun, I know she'd rather have more time there. Plus for WFH it's great.

[pinkdutchtulips]

I’ve done both ... from birth to 5 she was at a daycare close to my office (30m from office, 60-90m from home - I had a 1-2h one way commute) then from 5-10 she was in afterschool care at school (school is 10m away from our house).

In this new pandemic world, I’d opt for daycare closer to home. Either way you’ll need ‘just in case’ folks to be able to pick your kid up in an emergency. My village was a godsend on occasion, especially as a single parent.

[goldengirlz]

Jul 2, 2020 8:25:37 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

Daycare #1. Driving with a grumpy kiddo at the end of a work day is not fun.

And on the flip side of this, my commute serves as a nice transition time for me, mentally.

But, yes, I’d definitely choose close to home, for the reasons everyone else mentioned.

[achi]

I'd go with number one for sure. There are a lot of pros.

Plus a screaming kid on the way home for 30-45 minutes sounds awful.

[hbomdiggity]

The only downside to #1 seems to be if you got stuck at work in an emergency, but that’s mitigated by the timing of your commute and local network. Def #1.

[jnibean]

DS is currently in a daycare 2 situation (one block from my school) and while its only happened twice, it's a pain to bring him to daycare when I'm sick because I'm essentially commuting twice. He also doesn't go during the summer, even though his daycare provider would be happy to have him, because I don't want to drive there twice a day (its 20 minutes each way). So, like others have said, daycare 1 would be my choice.

[ohgillian]

So, my kids go to a school really near my work, and we had to transfer them to get them there. I have found it really worthwhile having them so close, but this is mainly b/c my work can be unpredictable -- their daycare was far from work and it was extremely stressful some days to get out of the office by 5:20, and I pretty much HAD to get out the door by 5:20 or I could never make the 6pm pickup. Having them 7 mins from my work now that they're in school has reduced that stress a lot and I'm glad we did a transfer (before DS started kindy) to get them there.

I also like that i can just pop over to school for lunch, etc - daycare was a solid 15-20 min drive when it wasn't rush hour so that was never do-able for me except very special occasions. Does daycare 2 have parents in for shabbat? i mean at least in non-covid times? Our J camp has parents come (optional) for shabbat in non-covid times and the 25 min drive to camp meant I rarely made it to that.

[browneyedgirl9]

I would pick close to house.

[waverly]

Close to home.

I enrolled DS close to work thinking I could run over and BF him, but turns out he couldn’t nurse anyway, and they had given up his spot. So we ended up at the one close to home. I worked 9-5 or earlier so I always had time to pick them up and if the roads were icy my boss let us leave work early. With snow and ice sometimes my 30 minute commute could be an hour and when they were young I was the only one that could pick them up because my friends didn’t have extra convertible car seats and no family nearby.

I only had one emergency situation where I was late to pick them up because of car trouble and that was a bad night because I had to borrow my co-workers car move car seats and drive 30 minutes to pick them up then 30 minutes back to get my car fixed than 30 minutes back home after my car was fixed. But that only happened once in 7 years and luckily I have good co-workers. And if DH didn’t travel for work he could have picked them up for me. In hindsight I should have asked my neighbors to help so I agree put some local people in as able to pick up in case of an emergency. I was very much I can do this all on my own which was to my downfall sometimes.

[isabel]

Daycare 1, 100%.

We actually moved closer to our daycare for a variety of reasons, but one of them was because we were sick of spending 40 minutes in the car with the kids at the end of the day. It sucked.

Up until March, I worked about 45 minutes from daycare. I can only think of a handful of occasions where I needed to go pick one of them up during the day. Typically because one of them had a fever or other minor ailment. They just kept them comfortable until I could get there; it was a non-issue.

[ellipses84]

Working a normal 9-5-ish job, the rush to get out of the office and through traffic before daycare closes can be stressful. It sounds like you can beat the rush, so I’d definitely choose near your house. If you have two kids with pickups, it’s easier if they are close together I’d the hours are about the same. I usually pick up the oldest one first because it’s faster to deal with getting them and buckling them in/out of the car.