Daycare: Near Home or Work?
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Is the best daycare near home — or work?
We’ve talked a lot about childcare over the years, including the general pros and cons of different childcare arrangements, backup childcare strategies and how to find childcare for a sick kid. We’ve talked about nannies (the logistics of a nanny share, how detailed to be for a nanny job listing), shared tips on how to manage au pairs, and daycares (including general daycare tips for working moms, daycare waiting lists, the cost of daycare, safety policies at daycare). We’ve even talked about how to level up your childcare when money is no object, working moms’ tips on using grandparents for childcare, and the pros and cons of granny as nanny.
Is the Best Daycare Near Home or Work?
A reader wrote in pondering this question a while ago, so let’s discuss. First, here’s her question:
Kat, I’ve searched the site but I can’t see that you’ve addressed this question before. Is it better to have a daycare near home or near work? Near work sounds attractive because I could visit the baby during the day or at lunch, and we could spend time in the car together on the way to and from. But near home is attractive, too, for times when my husband or mother will have the workday off and can drop off/pick up the baby, or if she gets sent home sick, etc. Plus, to make friends close by.
Interesting question!
Why Your Daycare Should Be Near Your Home
There are definitely some pros to having daycare near home:
- The BIGGEST pro I see is that you and your partner can much more easily share drop off/pickup duty if it’s near your home — unless you both work at the same company or in the same area, you’re going to end up doing everything
- It’s definitely a pro to have friends nearby your house — whether they’re mom friends for you or playmates for your child
- If you forget something kid-related you can run home quickly
- A short commute for your child (whether by walk or by car), which reduces the risk of him or her falling asleep in the car at a time other than naptime
- Your own commute is unencumbered by kiddo, which may mean you can start focusing on the workday ahead of you — or that you get a bit of personal time to listen to a podcast or some music — also, if you run errands on your way home you don’t have to worry about bringing your kids in with you
- If your work situation changes you don’t have to worry about moving your daycare as well
WHy Your Daycare Should be Near the Office
On the flip side, there are some pros to having a daycare near the office:
- If your daycare is through your work, there may be significant cost savings
- If you’re still nursing, you can pop in to see your baby during the workday (but — note that a lot of kids may be more upset to see mommy for a short visit that doesn’t end in their going home)
- If there’s some emergency at daycare you can be there quickly
- Depending on where you live versus where you work, you may be more interested in networking with the parents at the daycare closer to your office
Ladies, what are your thoughts? I think after going through the pros of both, I think my vote goes to the daycare near home — it’s just easier all around. Ladies, what are your thoughts? Does your answer change if you’re considering daycare for a little baby versus a toddler?
Pictured: Pixabay.
I feel mom guilt even saying this, but it was a no-brainer to have day care near work for us because of the hours we both worked (luckily each of our offices was only a few blocks from our centrally located but very expensive day care). Our youngest is now 10, so this was many moons ago, but we were both associates at law firms. So even though our daughter(s) were the last to be picked up from day care, we (whoever was on pick-up duty) was often the first young associate to leave the firm in the evening. And so it began – the feeling that I was managing to shortchange my child AND my career in the very same action. (And let’s not even talk about how we were shortchanging our marriage, sigh. What was that about having it all?)
If you ever work from home (without your kiddos), having your childcare near home offers a quick turn around. Since I often do this, I appreciate my daycare being close to home.
Home. Children make friends at daycare and then end up going to kindergarten with these same friends. Our daycare will bus the kids from the local schools back to daycare for after care as well.
I’ve always done near WORK. That said, I live only a 15 minute drive from home, and I would be open to one near home if one existed. Also, while the daycare is closest to my office, it’s only 15 minutes walk from my husband’s, so he can help with pickup/dropoff on occasion (my schedule is better for it most days).
Daycare is a 5 minute walk from my office. I am going to try nursing my newborn on my lunch break, but that is a bonus and not a motivation to be there by any means. Being near work mostly gives me reassurance that I can always make it to pick him up in time, even if I am running late. We briefly used a daycare once that was a 30 minute drive in traffic from work (and opposite direction from home too – we were desperate) and I was often biting my nails hoping I would arrive before they closed.
We’ve done both. I preferred close to work when I just had one child. Once we had the second baby, commuting with two became really difficult. With just one kid, I really treasured the time we spent on the metro, and it allowed me to spend an extra hour per day with her. With two, I was stressed out and not by best self.
We have since moved to a new city and have a day care close to home. My work schedule has changed and I work from home half of the time and downtown the other half the time. The downside of the arrangement is that on the days I’m downtown, I feel like I spend SO much of the day away from them. I really hate that. My commute is 45 minutes though.
My kids went to daycare close to my office because the kind of center that I wanted, especially at the infant stage, just wasn’t available near my home. The daycare centers near my house are all home-based centers, which would have been fine, but I vastly preferred the outdoor spaces and overall size/scope of the larger daycare centers near my office. It was a long car commute, but it all worked out great in the end.
Threadjack: What is the best way to deal with visiting Monster-in-laws as a new parent?
From comments about weight/body shape (and i am an objectively tiny, size0-2) to actively disregarding parenting preferences (tossing the food i prep for MY child) and general meanness and cruelty, ‘m seeing it all.
I know it is only a few more weeks, but it is a few weeks too many.
Great discussion! I didn’t really consider this pre-baby, and was lucky that what we chose works for us. Day care is two blocks from home, and has been really great!
I was pondering this recently – despite being just TTC. My husband and I work on the same campus – a 35 minute bus ride from home and within a 10 minute walk of each other. He works fewer hours (8-4) but I have more flexibility in my day. When the time comes, I think we’ll go with the daycare near my office (10-15 minute walk for him, 5 minute walk for me).
Not loving the idea of bus commuting with a baby but the daycare nearest our house doesn’t look nice at all. The better one would include 15-20 minute walk + 20 minute bus ride – fine on nice days but don’t fancy pushing a buggy up the hill in the rain or snow.
The daycare near work looks very nice (I see the groups of kids heading to the park during the afternoon and they seem happy/workers seem cheerful) and I think it’d be nice to be able to grab a coffee and head to the park on nice summer days when the baby is walking.
For my family, a daycare close to my work is the best option for us. We live in what I would say is a more rural area of a suburb (30 minutes from the major downtown area that I work at, but there’s really not much within 15 minutes from our house) and a good daycare is going to be at least 15-20 minute drive. When my son was a baby I nursed him at lunch most days and loved it. It helped me get to know his teachers and classrooms and the way daycare worked in general, and seeing him mid-day helped me feel like I didn’t miss as much. Also, my husband visits customers and travels a lot (I don’t travel at all for work) and drives a work van with no backseat. So he can’t transport kids anyways and it would be more of a hassle for him to swap vehicles to help with drop off and pick up.
Totally work. Although to be fair our commute is 20 minutes and daycare is in DH’s way to work. But I’m easily there in an emergency, and I know if I leave at 5:55 and be there at 6. I would lose my mind if I had to worry about traffic at night since I have clients who love to call at 5:45. That convenience is well worth the 1-2 times I’ve had to take a pukey kid home from school, IMO.
Also – I love being able to drive by on my way back to office from meeting with clients and seeing them on the playground.
I am surprised that everyone said home. I love having day care close to work. I nursed both kids when they were younger, am able to get there quickly when sick or an emergency. Day care closes at 6 and it takes me about 25 minutes to get home. If day care were by home, I’d have to leave earlier to be able to make it to day care before it closed, and be constantly stressing if I got caught in traffic as often happens in Seattle. With it close to work, if I get tied up a bit, I’m not panicking that a missed traffic light will make me even later to day care. And if the drive home takes 45 instead of 25, I have my kids with me so we can enjoy that time together, talking about their days, what we’re having for dinner, etc. I much prefer having the extra time together.
I will say that my husband and I both work in close proximity to day care, so we do have the option to split pick up and drop off.
My kiddo goes to daycare by/at my work, and I love it. Work has subsidized daycare on-site, so it was a pretty easy decision to make. It’s actually the next building over from mine (the company grew and is now in two buildings) but it’s comforting that she’s so close by. It’s about a 25 minute drive from home, which is a little annoying for my husband to do when I’m traveling, but the advantages outweigh that. Mostly, I love that when they have “Mothers Day Lunch” or other cute events, it’s so easy to pop in. She tends to nap when I take lunch, but I still peek in and watch her sleeping.
One benefit I don’t think anyone mentioned is that if you pick one near home, when you have another child, it’s easier send the older one to daycare while you are on mat leave with the new baby.
Home. I have a 45 min commute each way which many have pointed out is not ideal especially when you have traffic. Honestly, the 2 biggest factors for me were that if I work from home or take a weekday off it’s easy to still take them daycare and we have family close to daycare but not my work so it’s easy to arrange pickup if they get sick during the day. If daycare were close to my work, there are still times it is hard to just pick up and immediately leave to pick up a sick kiddo.
When I started my job I did negotiate slightly adjusted hours (7:30AM – 4:30PM) to allow me some buffer to make it before the pickup deadline of 6PM, so that helps, but also, with family close by, if something runs late it’s a lot easier to have someone else pick them last minute.