Childcare

Sharings

47 of 57 sharings tagged “Waitlist & access”

AnonymousAug 4, 2026

While I did not have a long waiting time, the main issue was coverage. It was covid time and the nurseries were offering at most 3 days a week (while I was looking a service for 5 days a week). I gradually manage to increment to 4 days and…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousAug 4, 2026

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…

Waitlist & accessQuality & trustLocation & commuteEmployer & university support0 comments
AnonymousJul 26, 2026

long waiting times

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousJul 25, 2026

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…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustLocation & commute0 comments
AnonymousJul 25, 2026

long waiting times. I can imagine affordability being a major issue for many families.

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessEmployer & university supportNanny & family care0 comments
AnonymousJul 25, 2026

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…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustLocation & commute0 comments
AnonymousJul 24, 2026

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…

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AnonymousJul 24, 2026

affordability I relied on family support until my son was old enough that we feel comfortable to send him to daycare from Monday to Friday. We were lucky to find a very responsible nanny during that time so she could come and help us on S…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessWork schedule & flexibilityNanny & family care0 comments
AnonymousJul 24, 2026

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…

Waitlist & accessLocation & commuteEmergency & backup care0 comments
AnonymousJul 24, 2026

No such issues in Konstanz.

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessEmployer & university supportWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousJul 23, 2026

The childcare quality was fine. It was a bit pricey but not overly so.

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustEmployer & university support0 comments
AnonymousJul 23, 2026

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…

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AnonymousJul 23, 2026

The fact that our parents were available was a big help

Waitlist & accessWork schedule & flexibilityNanny & family carePolicy & government0 comments
AnonymousJul 22, 2026

I singed my kids up for daycare before they were born as I heard about the long wait lists that happen! Luckily my husband and I both do well so cost was never an issue with childcare. The largest challenge was finding reliable care that my…

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AnonymousJul 22, 2026

As I mentioned, affordability was a problem/challenge but there was a state-wise support for low income families.

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AnonymousJul 22, 2026

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

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustLocation & commute0 comments
AnonymousJul 21, 2026

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

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessLocation & commuteNanny & family care0 comments
AnonymousJul 21, 2026

Affordable and experienced nannies are increasingly difficult to find. Created much stress for us, the nanny who we finally found was constantly trying to make us pay even more (though we were already paying her well).

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AnonymousJul 21, 2026

I was very fortunate that affordability was never an issue – rather, we had the opposite problem, we would rather have spent less time jockeying for position on waitlists. The biggest challenge is assessing whether a program is good (and go…

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AnonymousJul 21, 2026

The biggest challenge was facing the uncertainty of not knowing if/when the childcare was going to be available.

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AnonymousJul 20, 2026

Quality, luck of flexibility.

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousJul 20, 2026

Having a child in May 21 implied that a lot of daycares had shut down with the onset of COVID. Finding a daycare in time for starting with work was a pure gamble, there was no choice. I took the first non-private daycare I could find (and l…

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AnonymousJul 19, 2026

Affordability and quality are the main challenges. We moved around the world. :)

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AnonymousJul 19, 2026

While there are many options for day cares, such as day-care centers, it is still very challenging for the working parents to find coverage outside the 8~9 hrs of day-care coverage. Consider a tenure-track AP job which usually requires more…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustEmployer & university support0 comments
AnonymousJul 19, 2026

Quality. It's hard to navigate work stresses and teaching responsibilities when kids have a tough time at the childcare place and then have tough emotions to process at home. The hours are also not suitable for evening teaching or Saturday,…

Waitlist & accessQuality & trustEmployer & university supportWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousJul 19, 2026

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…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustLocation & commute0 comments
AnonymousJul 18, 2026

Availability

Affordability & costWaitlist & access0 comments
AnonymousJul 18, 2026

Long waiting times ( in Canada), some teachers are not caring and difficult to switch class/daycare

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustEmployer & university support0 comments
AnonymousJul 18, 2026

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.

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AnonymousJul 18, 2026

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…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessLocation & commuteEmployer & university support0 comments
AnonymousJul 17, 2026

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

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustLocation & commute0 comments
AnonymousJul 17, 2026

The town we live in has only one childcare center. Luckily they had a spot when we needed it! We had to pay for the first half of the year while I was on leave (when we didn’t need childcare) to ensure our spot, though. Which was expensive!

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AnonymousJul 17, 2026

In the Netherlands, availability and quality was good but it was expensive. In our experience in the US, both availability and affordability could be better, but the quality is still good.

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trust0 comments
AnonymousJul 16, 2026

Quality of care, lack of back up, hard to find reliable babysitters. Luckily both of us are academics and we had to rely on flexible schedules to cover gaps, but that also meant working strange hours

Waitlist & accessQuality & trustEmployer & university supportWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousJul 16, 2026

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 & costWaitlist & accessQuality & trustLocation & commute0 comments
AnonymousJul 16, 2026

Affordability

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessEmployer & university supportWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousJul 16, 2026

Waitlist uncertainty, parenting at home while teaching during COVID

Waitlist & accessEmployer & university supportWork schedule & flexibilityPolicy & government0 comments
AnonymousJul 15, 2026

Before getting the spot at the daycare, my wife and I were taking turns taking care of the kid, which limited our availability to work. Hence, most of our lives were around the kid without much time to do other activities.

Affordability & costWaitlist & access0 comments
AnonymousJul 15, 2026

Cost and hours of availability were our biggest issues. As an academic i had to be the one to leave early since my job had more flexibility but it meant I'd have to make up the time elsewhere

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AnonymousJul 15, 2026

The biggest challenges were the quality of care (due to babies not getting enough one on one attention), falling sick often, and the constant work adjustments we had to make to accommodate that.

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AnonymousJul 14, 2026

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 (…

Affordability & costWaitlist & accessLocation & commuteEmployer & university support0 comments
AnonymousJul 14, 2026

We did put ourselves on a waitlist but when ended up getting we had already adopted other solutions so we also concluded that its not reliable.

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AnonymousJul 14, 2026

Price and trust. Answered above.

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AnonymousJul 13, 2026

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…

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AnonymousJul 13, 2026

Even with childcare, it was difficult to keep both of our careers. My wife made sacrifices, and this still bothers both of us. As immigrants, we have no other family around to help.

Waitlist & accessQuality & trustWork schedule & flexibility0 comments
AnonymousJul 13, 2026

Affordability and waiting times.

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AnonymousJul 12, 2026

Wait

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