Post by goldengirlz on Aug 25, 2021 13:19:59 GMT -5
We plan to do extended care, like usual. It’s significantly cheaper, for starters. I also like that DD can get most of her homework done there (though I guess that’s less applicable for K.) Plus, she’s running around with her friends, not sitting around at home (she did enough of that last school year.)
Thank you for all the feedback. I think we are going to try extended day and see how the protocols seem and pull her and just have her come home on the bus or find a sitter for some afternoons but also put out feelers for the sitter to see if we hit a jackpot somehow. Thank you all for reassuring that extended day isn’t a bad choice all things considered.
We did extended day last year and will do it again this year. It was a pretty small crew due to Covid and while she was around kids that weren't in her classroom pod, they took the same care with masking, social distancing, and they were outside whenever possible. There was never an exposure situation the entire school year. Since masking will continue this year I'm hopeful the same will be true. In general I've always shied away from sitters and nannies for daily care because we don't want to deal with them being out sick, on vacation or generally unreliable.
Same.
EC wasn’t available until April, so part of me was like do we really need it if we are WFH?
But the ability to get 2 more solid hours of work in before he got home was huge.
I have been searching for MONTHS to try to find a reliable nanny to handle aftercare for B (who is in pre-k) and to be able to keep L (who is 1 and too young to mask) out of daycare. No luck - the demand is SO high and everyone is so flaky.
It was taking so much of my time and mental effort to try to figure it out, and I was seriously stressed thinking of giving up their aftercare/daycare spots and then being left in the lurch, that I threw in the towel last week and decided they are both staying at school/daycare full day until and if someone suitable presents themselves. I may end up using an agency down the road, but I don't feel like they necessarily have a cadre of better candidates, at least at the moment.
So anyway, if you have a good candidate in mind, or are okay with the possibility of inconsistency, then I would go with the sitter. But if consistency and reliability are important, I would stick with aftercare. The thing that sucks is that I'm not feeling like school/daycare will be a particularly reliable/consistent choice with Delta raging, either. So it's kind of a crapshoot either way.
We are doing extended care which is the same scenario for my DS as it is for your DD1. My school is also mandating masks and they do afterschool outside as much as weather permits (they have a tent with tables set up for kids who want to do homework), so that eases my mind a bit.
I've always been hesitant to go the nanny/babysitter route because it has seem like there is ALWAYS an issue with my friends in that boat. Babysitter calls in repeatedly, quits without notice, is just generally unreliable, etc. Maybe that's not fair but that's just not at potential problem I want to deal with.
This is my fear for babysitters as well. I nannied for a family in Brookline for 5 years in college doing this exact thing, picking the kids up and watching them till school was over and I just want to find someone as dependable as I was LOL.
I’ve said the same to my husband so many times! I was a long term nanny and babysitter during college and so responsible and reliable, lol. I basically stopped looking for a babysitter after flake after flake and last minute cancels. I didn’t put my oldest in aftercare last year due to Covid concerns, but jokes on me since she got it anyway in her classroom. This year my oldest 2 might need aftercare but our school lets you sign up on the day of if needed, so we will go that route if we can’t make pickups work.