Daycare vs Nannies

I am from Canada and I am planning on staying home with my babies for the first year. After that, I have to decide if I want to have a nanny or if I will put the kids in daycare. The cost is the same for either service (about $1,500 per month). There seems to be nothing but positives with having a nanny, the only real negative we can see is the loss of privacy with the nanny. She would live with us, in a bedroom on the same floor as our bedroom.

Does anyone have any suggestions on which is the best option...?

 

There are positives and negatives to both options.

We had a babysitter 20 hours/week from when I started working part-time (they were 12 months) until they started daycare at 2 1/2. Our babysitter did not live with us, so privacy was not an issue.

The pros included:

I didn't have to get them up/fed/dressed/in the car to get to daycare.
If we didn't need her on a particular day, we didn't have to pay her.
Our twins were preemies and were not supposed to be around other children for their whole first year, so they stayed safer at home.

When they started daycare, there were also pros:
Socialization! Until then, they had spent very little time with other children.
Stimulation - many more toys and activities, little field trips, arts and crafts, music time, etc.
No TV - while our babysitter knew we didn't like the TV to be on, we know that she sat the twins in front of a video much more than we would have liked.
Flexible hours - daycare was open from 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM. We never had our kids there that whole time, but we could decide even on a day to day basis when to bring them and when to pick them up (perhaps with a live-in nanny you might have this flexibility also).

Of course with either a daycare or a nanny, you need to find the right one.

Good luck figuring it all out.

Rachel

 

We went the nanny/au pair route and for us it has been the right decision. You'll have to weigh your options and decide what works for you and your family.

The biggest "pro" for me definitely was not having to shuttle infants/toddlers out of the house in the AM. I can barely get myself out the door!

Other pros: More one-on-one time (or two-on-one time anyway) with the caregiver. Less sickness. For us, I think the au pair route is less expensive than daycare would have been. Built-in babysitter for other times. Flexibility with scheduling (make sure you arrange for this as part of the deal). You can still go to work if the kids are sick.

The biggest "con" is the loss of privacy, but we are lucky in that our au pair room is on a separate level. This might have been a dealbreaker for me.

Other cons: We had to have an additional car and person on our insurance, and take her on vacations/holidays (could be a good thing, but sometimes you want just family). These are au pair gripes. You wouldn't necessarily need to take a nanny, but would you want to leave someone alone in your home for a couple weeks a year?

 

I have a part-time nanny, so she doesn't live with us, but the biggest thing for me was that I didn't have to get them ready to leave the house in the morning. Packing them & alllllll their 'stuff' takes a lot of time & planning each day - so having someone in our home worked best.
Do you have to have a live-in nanny? Could you just do a full-time nanny that comes each morning & leaves each evening?

 

We have a full time nanny who does not live with us. I love the fact that our girls don't have to leave the house if it's cold out. They can sleep in if they've had a rough night, and they nap in their own cribs. We don't have problems with TV watching because our nanny knows there's no TV allowed when the girls are awake (she watches TV while they nap sometimes). Our nanny takes the girls out every morning to the park or the library or to a play date, which I love. They have the best of both worlds - they get to stay home when they want and go out and meet other kids when they're ready to play. They go to the zoo and aquarium with the nanny at least once a week too.

We're moving in two months and our nanny will move in with us. I'm not thrilled about sharing my space, but it's worth it to avoid the hassle of daycare for a while longer.

 

I had a nanny until my girls were almost two, then we moved to 3 days/daycare 2 days/nanny. I could just tell at around the two year mark that they needed to spend more time with other kids.

I love the convenience of having a nanny come to us (ours was not live-in) but I do love the activities that they do at daycare, and so do they. I like our combo that we have now.

 

When my 2nd ds was born we had a part-time nanny that did not live with us. She came around 2:45pm and left when my dh got home from work around 6:30. I loved the fact that I didn't have to get the two boys ready to leave the house (getting twins ready is a scary thought at this point!). Even better was that we paid her a weekly salary, yet our hours were flexible. I worked 4 days a week (changing every week) at the hospital and on the weeks when I was scheduled to work the weekend (and didn't need her) then I took advantage of having her and got my haircut, ran errands etc. It worked out beautifully. We were lucky and had someone that was very responsible, that we completely trusted. She actually wants to try to help us out again when the twins come even though I am no longer working. Yay!

I have also put the boys in childcare. Depending on which childcare you use, it can be a wonderful experience. Our boys went to a school/childcare that was amazing and I have my 2nd ds on the waiting list for their preschool right now. I would suggest doing your homework and checking with any regulatory agency that monitors the childcare centers. The place we were seriously considering placing our 1st ds had a huge file with social services (we are in the US) of complaints of losing children in public places, lying about childrens ages to fit ratios, tying a child up because they would not sit still etc. Scary stuff. I don't know who you can check with in Canada, but it's definitely worth looking into.

 

The babies will be going to work with me until 4 weeks old. ( Thankfully it is a family buisness and I am setting them something up in my office.) After the first Month I will have a Nanny, my sister. She does this for a living. She will be taking care of the twins at my house from 8:30am till 5:30pm M-F. Hoping it works out well, she will also have her daughter with her who will be two in March.

 

QUOTE(Korey @ Nov 12 2008, 11:15 AM) [snapback]1067318[/snapback]
The babies will be going to work with me until 4 weeks old. ( Thankfully it is a family buisness and I am setting them something up in my office.) After the first Month I will have a Nanny, my sister. She does this for a living. She will be taking care of the twins at my house from 8:30am till 5:30pm M-F. Hoping it works out well, she will also have her daughter with her who will be two in March.



You are so lucky to have this option....I am so happy for you...!
As for me, I am just not sure what I am going to do yet....ugh