Anonymous
July 23, 2026Childcare solutions used & satisfaction
If you needed childcare in the past 10 years, what childcare solutions (e.g., childcare center/nursery, nanny, family support, adjusted work schedule, etc.) did your family end up using? Are you satisfied with the availability of childcare options in your country of employment, why or why not?
Over the past few years, we have lived in two countries — the US and Germany — under quite different circumstances. In the US, we had no family nearby, so our children attended daycare from 8am to 5pm. The availability of childcare options was generally good, although there were long waitlists initially, each requiring a fee just to join. Because our family schedules changed every semester, with different teaching timetables and conference travel, temporary or part-time arrangements were impractical. We initially tried fewer daycare hours supplemented by a nanny at home, but this proved unreliable: cancellations were frequent, and good nannies were hard to find. Daycare at least offered a dependable solution, and overall we were satisfied with it. In Germany, we have family support, so relatives can sometimes help with pickups or step in when one of us is travelling. We also have a reliable nanny. This backup matters more here because the daycare has a lower threshold for sending sick children home and turns them away more often than our previous daycare did. There is also a general trend of staffing shortages in daycare centers which means sometimes the kids cannot attend daycare. That said, we like the daycare itself - compared to many other daycares around us, this daycare has one of the lowest staff turnover, which provides consistency and continuity of care. Moreover, in Germany, daycare is nearly free.
Joined multiple waitlists?
Did you join multiple childcare waitlists while searching for care?
Yes
Biggest challenges & their impact
Looking back, what were the biggest childcare challenges (e.g., long waiting times, affordability, quality, location, etc.) your family faced? How did these challenges impact your work and family life?
In the US, the biggest childcare challenge was long waitlists, which left us stressed until the last moment -the semester was about to start and we still had no solution in place. There is also enormous variation between daycares in terms of philosophy and quality, so the choice of daycare really matters. Being in a small college town, our outside options were very limited. In Germany, the variation between daycares is minimal and we really appreciate that aspect. It removes that whole additional struggle of clawing for a spot at the "best" daycare that we experienced. People seem to judge daycares mainly by how stable the staffing is, and it is common to simply send children to the nearest one - convenient location is the key decision factor. However, reliability of care hours is a bigger challenge here, and we frequently face days without childcare at short notice. We were reluctant to send our children to daycare for so many hours a day, but given our erratic schedules and how demanding and stressful our work can be, it seemed like the most dependable option. These challenges affected our work life mainly through unpredictability: sudden gaps in childcare meant cancelled meetings, lost research time, and rearranged teaching, and one of us always had to be on standby. In the US, the lack of backup options meant any disruption fell entirely on us; in Germany, family support and a reliable nanny absorb much of this, though coordinating these arrangements still takes ongoing effort and planning.
One thing to change
If you could change one thing about today's childcare system, what would it be? (For example: access, affordability, quality, employer or university support, emergency backup care, or anything else.)
The main challenge for us in all of these situations has been unpredictability. I would say that emergency backup care is the most crucial change. I remember having to cancel class on several occasions because I could not arrange childcare at short notice. Maybe when regular care falls through, you can book childcare through an app or hotline and either receive a spot in a designated backup center or have a vetted in-home caregiver, with the employer covering some of the cost beyond a small copay (I think a version of this exists in some universities but I have not experienced it). The German system does provide paid leave for parents caring for sick children, but this assumes you stop working, which does not really work for us when we have to teach. More formalized pooled childcare models, for example, daycares or municipalities keeping a float of substitute caregivers on call, might also help.
Additional insights
Are there any additional comments or personal insights you would like to share about childcare?
Having also lived in the UK, I'm happy to share a broader cross-country perspective on childcare systems and challenges if helpful! :)
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