Two Follow-Up Questions about WOHMing

More questions for you. (You are all so helpful!):

In the comments, Charisse asked if people would post how many kids they have, old their children are, and how long the morning routine takes.

By email, Lisa asked if we'd share what kind of childcare arrangement we have and how we decided on it and how it's working out for us.

My answers:

I have 2 kids who are 5 years and 22 months. The routine has been taking 90 minutes from the second they wake up, but I think it would expand to as much time as I gave it. I maybe could do it in 60 minutes if I had to. But who knows, since it's barely been a week.

My childcare arrangement is a combo of a babysitter who comes to our apartment and their dad having some half-days this week. Then there will be some vacation time, then a full-time babysitter at our apartment.

For us it's pretty much the only option because in our part of NYC the waiting list for an acceptable daycare is 3-6 months. And my 5-year-old is in school 3 afternoons a week, so we'd have to jerk him out of that to go to daycare anyway. There is no home daycare (which would probably be my first choice otherwise) in this part of the city, so that's not an option. We're sucking up the cost (which is astronomical but not that much different than two in daycare would be), but it makes things waaaay easier for me since the kids don't have to be dressed and I don't have to pack bags for them before I leave. They like to eat when they first get up, but the rest is just conflict resolution.

Now you share.

(This post written at 9:30 pm, right after I picked out my outfit--lingerie and all--for tomorrow and assessed my lunch situation for tomorrow.)

Comments

[pnuts mama]

our girl is 20 months (wow!) and up until last night we had my cousin babysitting her one, sometimes two afternoons and one night a week so i could get work done outside the house and so we could do our youth group work without her there. her committment has been sporadic, and last week all hell broke loose when she cancelled all week due to 'jet lag' from her spring break in italy, causing me to blow 450 buck on a seminar i was suppossed to attend monday, as well as my work schedule. she's a young 20, and i remember being a dumb 20yr old kid too, so my patience limit on this has been extremely long. i know this is tmi for you but i just need to vent. anyway, after we tried to talk to her about it she informed us that *she* was doing *us* the favor of watching pnut (which had been implied by her attitude and behiavior these past 6 months) becuase we are family, when she could be doing something else. which is when we politely informed her we'd no longer be needing her services. which screws us big time right now, but as my husband said, really, since she hasn't been showing up lately anyway it's no big change. anyway, what am i getting at here?

we are also looking for a childcare solution!! i feel your pain, moxie, queens is tough! manhattan has got to be worse, i'm sure. first of all, i don't need full-time care, i need super part-time, which most people don't care for. i'd be happy to have someone come here or leave her with some other kids at a house/apt. i'd be happier with someone here, to eliminate the need to bring her somewhere, which ultimately eats into my time, and her nap schedule is still so wonky as she is almost to one nap a day.

solutions we are currently investigating?
montessori- will take as young as 18 months, and could be expensive, but might be good 1 or 2 days a week.
ymca- ok in queens, probably impossible ($ and wait list) for you in manhatten.
i tried calling my diocese and seeing what was available, and the answer was 'nothing.' wonderful. the nyc diocese may be different, though. i know many somewhat-local protestant churches have nurserys and daycare options, and we have been checking those out.
craigslist- has many, many listings for babysitters, although it scares the s out of me to consider a stranger to watch pnut. i'm also hoping to make good enough friends with some moms at library story hour to see if they'd be willing to help us out on seminar-days, etc.

moxie, good luck. it sounds like your situation is working out for you so far, and i hope it continues to. sorry for the vent but this has been a major stressor here esp. with holy week fast approaching and oh yes deadlines for a chapter that just sits and collects dust while i wonder what the heck i was thinking!

[pnuts mama]

my apologies for the 4 million typos. meant to hit preview instead of post. sigh, mondays!

[liphovela]

Moxie: Best of luck to you.

I'll share what we do for child care. I've had an in-home nanny since my son was 4 months. It was 1/2 time until 6 months and now is full time (kid is 21 months).

In a major metropolitan area it is incredibly expensive to be sure, and I completely recognize that this would not be a feasible choice for many people.

Our nanny is extremely reliable, experienced, and caring. Of course, she does some things differently than me. I try very hard not to micro-manage it though. I trust her and I want her to know that. I think she is happy, which is important.

One tip on how to structure compensation packages-- we do not do birthday/Christmas bonus, but instead do a quarterly retention bonus of pre-agreed amount and irregular smallish presents (e.g., after an international trip). We all like this set-up without the guesswork and anxiety of a "tip."

[Katie]

My daughter is 4.5 and my son will be 2 next month. Currently my daughter is in preschool in the morning and with her brother at the in home sitter in the afternoon.
My mom watched children in our home for 7 years when I was growing up so I knew that is what I wanted. We started with our daughter in the home of a retired woman. It was great but we moved and it was not working out with travel and I felt we needed a change (she did not do naps like I needed and too many snacks). Before we found the current sitter we used the old sister, a college students and my MIL. Now that we have D it is great. D ran her own childcare center before watching children in her home, has early education degrees and her college age daughter was our daughters preschool teacher (our daughter attends a lab school for early ed majors at the university I work for).
Because I have the time and schedule worked out we take about 2 hours. That includes me showering and dressing, breakfast, starting a load of laundry, running the vacuum, dropping off my son at the sitters and then my daughter at preschool and myself to my office.