Seeking Advice from Full Time WAHM - How Do You Handle Childcare?

Hi N.,
I work 40 hrs a week and my daughter is in a daycare/early learning center in NFW. We absolutely love it and feel it's the best choice for our family. She's been in two different centers since I went back to work and we've never had an issue. With choosing a center, I feel there is more accountability vs. an at-home day care. Accountability in terms of licensing, regulations, background checks, etc etc... I also feel the cirruculum and interaction with peers her own age is extremely beneficial. Of course no one can take care of your kids like you do. It's really a personal choice and what you feel most comfortable with. Best of luck! -T.

I work from home, but my daughters go to an in home daycare in my neighborhood T and TH. I try to do as much as I can on those days and during naps/evenings on days they are home. I also set any appointments I may have for T and TH. It works really well for me.

I have worked from home as a mortgage loan agent, sales rep and virtual assistant. I had three special needs kids and never used daycare at that time. I was limited to working online and making phone calls in evening when kids where in the back yard and my husband was home. Since seperating from my husband and still not getting childcare, I work in a different field but not getting enough customers to make a profit with even occassional childcare needs. If you are working in computer or accounting field or any job requiring concentration, you might not want to try to keep your child at home until 4 or 5. All of the mothers here gave good advice. Working at home doesn't necessarily mean you don't need childcare. It depends on the job description and even what your employer expects. Look online for other support groups specifically for work at home moms, like www.wahr.com or www.wahradio.com. Best wishes to you!

Hi Nichole

I work from home and keep my child with me. If for some chance I have to get out without her, I usually ask a friend or neighbor to watch her.

Hi N. S, When my first child was almost 2, I had the opportunity to work full-time from my home for my employer. I jumped at the chance, but was realistic about my options regarding my daughter. Anyone who thinks it's easy to watch a child at the same time as they are trying to get their full-time work done at home has probably not had the experience. I found a really great day care and she and I both loved it. I liked the daycare route because they have curriculums and they are great for teaching social skills. I didn't want to fool myself into believing the occasional play group that we were able to attend would suffice in that regard. I recommend finding a great day care/pre-school program that you feel comfortable with and making your time outside of work all about quality time with your little angel. That's one good thing about working at home. You can do laundry and a little housecleaning during your breaks and lunch so there's less of that to do after work. It's really great!! If your interested in finding out about prices for nannies, since that's something you mentioned in your request, you might try a nanny website called www.nannydallas.com. I've found nannies listed on that website for anywhere from $200 to $700/week. It's just a listing service. They do not do background or reference checks. It's just like classifieds for nannies. But if you really want to go the nanny route, it's a place to start. I've thought about getting a nanny for my youngest, who's almost 20 months, but again, I will probably enroll him in a good daycare when the time comes. Good luck!

My sister-in-law nannied for a stay at home mom. Her employer paid her $10 an hour. She would run errands (pick up dry cleaning, grocery shopping, take the kids to school, get the car serviced...), and she also did dishes, cleaning, laundry... all while the mom was home. You could always go this route, maybe every other day so you can really focus on work and get things (like laundary) done through the nanny.

Hi, N., welcome to the ranks! :-) My workweek is 30 hours. One day a week I go to the office and work as many hours as possible (usually 9), and on that day I take my 19mo daughter to daycare. Then we also have a small playgroup that pools for a sitter one afternoon every week or so, so we moms can have some time to ourselves. Then there's a drop-in daycare just down the street that I've taken my daughter to a couple times. But for the most part, it's all scheduling, scheduling, scheduling at home. I get up early every workday and get at least 1.5 hours of work in before my baby wakes up. Then I work at least another hour during her naptime. For the rest of the time, I just have to be flexible. I have two computers I can work from in the house, one of which is a laptop. She can play downstairs while I work on that one, or I can work in my office upstairs while she plays in her room; she's always been good at playing by herself and is good to go for a half-hour to an hour. I hate to admit it, but she's got her own TV and VCR setup in her room already and she asks for Baby Einstein to be turned on when she needs her own 'veg time.'

I have to warn you at 8-10 mos was about the time that scheduling became really, really important. She was napping less and was more easily frustrated during the day because she could see things she wanted to play with but either couldn't get to them by herself or wasn't allowed to play w/ them at all. It seemed like for a while there, before she learned to crawl well, that I was rotating out the toys in front of her or having to move her to a new play spot every 15 min. But over time the attention span gets longer and you're able to do more at one time.

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions; seems like there are very, very few of us out there.

Good luck to you!
J.