We recently transitioned from a nanny to daycare and would love to hear others’ experiences.
We took our time finding a nanny and truly loved her. She was wonderful with our son and a great fit for our family. Around 12 months, though, working from home started to get tricky. My son always wanted to find me, and it felt hard to create separation during the day. I also started thinking more about socialization since he’ll be an only child.
After researching (and realizing how competitive spots are), we secured a daycare and started slowly with just two days a week before moving to full-time. Cost was also a factor for us, and daycare ended up being meaningfully less than a nanny.
Some benefits we’ve noticed with daycare:
- Much easier to work from home and do daytime chores
- Flexible hours if meetings run early or late
- More variety in play and learning experiences with being around kids his age
Some challenges with daycare:
- Missing the midday snuggles and hearing his little moments during the day
- Prepping all food the night before or the morning before
- Significantly more illnesses than we were used to, which has meant more sick days and one of us needing to take time off work
The hardest part has been drop-offs. Even after six months, he still cries most mornings. I know he settles shortly after, but it’s tough to leave him like that. It honestly breaks my heart every time.
I would love to hear if anyone else experienced this? Any drop-off strategies that helped?
On the bright side, pickup hugs are pretty amazing.
