Sharings

The biggest challenge was the initial year of daycare - as a new parent, you think you have obtained reliable childcare, but then your child (and the rest of the family) gets sick every few weeks and it throws a wrench into all of your plan…

One of our biggest challenges was the rigidity of my work schedule. My son was born during a semester in which I was teaching three course sections, with the final section ending at 6:20 p.m. Although my employer formally offered six weeks…

Long waiting times at quality day care centers was the primary challenge for me. I have had to reduce my work hours or work late in the night to provide child care in combination with a part time nanny. Also, when the child is sick (which h…

I paid a deposit for a spot at the daycare when I was about 4 months pregnant, as there could have been a significant wait had I not. Fortunately for those living in my area, the current daycare that we use is expanding to a second location…

We are currently in the process, but uncertainty on the waiting list times has been challenging. We were told that there was no need to rush to sign up for the wait list at our preferred location, and then a few weeks later were told it is…

Location. The daycare is a bit far from my home; it took 1.5 hours per day on the road to drop off and pick up my child. Expenses. It's not cheap.

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 o…

Hours, location and quality. I had to compress my work days to accommodate drop-off and pick-up.

Waiting time affordability and commute. It impacted savings rate and commute logistics

Even with the support of a strong childcare system, I still face significant challenges. Childcare does not depend solely on institutional support; it also requires a considerable amount of parents’ time, energy, and emotional attention. Ma…

Finding the right mix of quality, availability, and affordability has been a leading challenge. Moreover, because of the competitive market, the first dimension on which we have compromised is affordability.

Probably waiting times. This essentially forced us away from a nearby affordable center toward a more distant (and more "high-end") option. This cost is OK, but the pick-up/drop-off time becomes a little cumbersome, which makes me work from…

All of those, plus (limited) hours and (unlimited amount of) viruses of childcare centers.

Having two children has certainly impacted my work output and my mental well-being quite substantially, but childcare wasn't the issue. But then, my setup is very fortunate.

Affordability. To stay close to work, we have to send our child to expensive private schools. We can also move to neighborhoods with good public schools, but that would be far from work.

Combination of nanny, preschool, and family. I have three sons, all under 7 years old. Nanny is from 7am-5pm, M-F. She gets sick at times, which causes considerable disruption to our lives. Similar disruptions occur when our kids are sick (…

All of these factors were relevant in making finding childcare difficult. From an everyday perspective, location was a primary criteria which quickly narrowed down to few affordable and quality options. Intermittent childcare has been extre…

all of the above challenges apply in the USA. We took a detour on the way to work to drop off children at a good daycare, then pick them up on the way back (another detour). Quality was good, but the price was like a college education.