Two objections
1. We have landed in an area saturated with preschool options. Every half mile there's a Montessori this or church preschool that, and there are plenty of people around ready with recommendations for their favorite.
But does no family in this area include two working parents? Of 12-15 options recommended to me and that I've been able to find myself, exactly one offers childcare through 5pm. The vast majority are morning-only programs, sometimes with an "extended day option" until 2:30 or 3. Who gets off work at 2:30?
I can throw out glib comments about nannies and ultra-rich bankers but seriously, doesn't any couple around here, or single parent, work for less than it takes to hire a nanny/babysitter on top of a pricey preschool? I don't understand. Even my employers, who ought to know how long their own schoolday lasts, are recommending what turn out to be morning-only programs for Alice. "They're all good," one person told me after giving me a list of half a dozen. "The only question, really, is what feels best to Alice."
Well, no. The only question, really, is what works for Alice's parents.
Who are these people? (And why is this such a different market than Princeton?)
She objected: Railroad owners do build hotels along their lines.
She knows. She lives in one such hotel. Built, in fact, by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
4 comments:
I think the issue is the distinction between preschool and daycare, the former usually not designed to provide full time care, in my experience. We did find one that has flexible daycare after preschool hours, but considering the hourly rate, multiplied by two kids, a sitter actually turned out to be cheaper last year. That being said, since Elan started public school, I was unpleasantly surprised about the assumptions regarding parental availability. Parent teacher conferences and various classroom events are always during the middle of the day (not even first thing in the morning) and usually only with 1-2 weeks notice. (Not to mention all the half days but at least those are known ahead of time) I cannot be the only one who finds it very difficult. Somehow the the school schedule is behind the times and seems to be designed with the idea that the mothers are home and available anytime. That was my soapbox. What to join?
I think Lina is right. I have never seen an all-day/work day preschool. The preschools where we are (which is nothing like where you are now...) are all half day programs, usually from 8:30-11 in the morning, sometimes only 2 or 3 days a week, 5 if you're lucky. Someone needing care like you do/will would need to turn to a daycare. Our daycare has a preschool program; Daniel will be starting it in the fall. But aside from that, Princeton *is* a different market. Princeton is wealthy, but where you are right now is one of the top three wealthiest counties in the US. On top of that, I suspect that many families in the larger Philadelphia area make work 'work' by relying on childcare provided by family members. I hope something works out for all of you. I wish I had a recommendation of some kind, but we didn't have any children when we were in the area...
I've heard people draw that distinction between preschool and daycare before, but I've never lived in a place where it was operative. It has been pretty much all one and the same in our previous locations: childcare/daycare/preschool were rather interchangeable terms, preschool sometimes used to reference the 3ish and older kids in the broader childcare. In Colorado 9-12 programs were called "Mom's Morning Out" programs; everything else was full-day.
Searching on daycares here doesn't turn up more options, though; it's a gaping hole in the market.
That does seem strange. In Hoboken there are probably a dozen daycares that include preschool programs (although there were many fewer a few years ago), and most traditional preschools and elementary schools offer aftercare till 6 pm. Lots of people do hire afterschool sitters (or before school in our case since before-care doesn't start till 8) -- luckily there are a lot of students and artists in our area so it's easy to find good people willing to work just a few afternoon hours a day.
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