Child Attending Multiple Daycares

[CVNelson]

Hi I'm new to this forum. I had a question regarding attending multiple daycares. Both my wife and I work part time jobs, and our 2 year old daughter has been attending a great daycare twice a week since last November. However starting this fall, due to a number of reasons, we will need to have our daughter in daycare for 3 times a week. The problem is that our daycare, while awesome in every way, is pretty expensive for us to afford at 2 days a week and would be hard to swing 3 days a week. We know of another daycare that is much cheaper, but would be a new environment for our daughter and she would be leaving the friends she has made at her current daycare.

So my question is this- Have any of you had a multiple day care situation with your child? We are thinking about setting up a situation where our daughter would go to one daycare 2 times a week, and the other daycare once a week. What are the potential problems we might have with this setup? Are their benefits to this approach? Or is it better just to stick to 1 versus 2 daycares?

[Chickenhauler]

IMHO, I think you would be better off picking one and sticking with it. One DC two days per week, and another one day per week can pose many problems, differences in rules, expectations, etc.

[GretasLittleFriends]

One thought is you might be paying for a part time rate at your current daycare. You may also pay a part time rate at the second daycare. Compare those two costs added together and investigate if it would be more cost effective to have her full time at one daycare.

Another thought is you get what you pay for... Perhaps your current daycare is more expensive but she offers a better environment where the second daycare is less expensive but doesn't have as much to offer your daughter??

Of course, Chickenhauler does have a valid point about different places and different rules and expectations.

[professionalmom]

Of course, Chickenhauler does have a valid point about different places and different rules and expectations.

I agree. Since she is only 2 years old, she will probably be very confused with different caregivers (authority figures), rules, and expectations for THREE different places - home, daycare #1, and daycare #2. It might work if she were 4 or 5 years old, but 2 years old is a little young to have that much inconsistency. Just my humble opinion.

[QualiTcare]

i wouldn't take her to 2 daycares, BUT if - and only if -you think the daycare that costs less is a quality place, and it's going to help you significantly financially....

i wouldn't worry much about taking her out of the one she's in now to put her in the new place and dropping the first place all together. kids are very resilient - especially at two.

my daughter had to switch schools after being in her kindergarten class all year - she switched when there was only a month of school left. prior to that, i was driving 3 hours a day - 1.5 hours there and back in the morning, and 1.5 hours in the afternoon...because i didn't want to switch her and take her away from her friends/teacher, etc. finally, my pocket book started hurting b/c of the gas AND it was going to be insane trying to get her registered if she didnt attend kindergarten - it was complicated.

surprisingly, she was EXCITED about going to a new school (even though i know the first school was a lot better). she was perfectly fine and never said a word about missing her old school. if you're going to end up switching, the sooner the better IMO.

[momofsix]

I had one little guy that came to my daycare 2 days per week, and another one 2 days per week. he did just fine, no problems at all. He was a child with a pretty easygoing personality though. He had a notebook that was kept in his bag where both I and the other daycare would write about his day--activities, naps, menus...so that we were both on the same page as far as schedules, he wasn't eating the same thing 3 days in a row...
I think that if you interview carefully and both providers share the same type of philosophy regarding child care it should be just fine.
There was another thread about this a while back, here is the link



.https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10243

[DBug]

I have had 2 dc children in this position -- one was a 16 month old who came to me once a week because her full-time daycare was closed on Wednesdays. She continued coming once a week after her mom went on mat leave, because she liked it here so much. The other was a 12 month old that started with me two days a week. Mom got a full-time position, and didn't want to give up her spot here (even though I let her know I was totally okay with her leaving to find a full-time spot elsewhere). So, she comes here Mon & Wed, and goes to the other place on the other three days. I was never in contact with the other providers, I'm sure our schedules are completely different, and from what the one mom has said, our philosophies are probably pretty different too. But neither child has had an issue with it. Both know the schedule here and don't have a problem at all with naptimes, etc.

That said, both of these children are easy-going kids, so that helps, I'm sure. Still, it's not impossible if you wanted to try going to both places, and you could always give it a trial run to see how your little one does with it.