Author Topic: Back to Daycare?  (Read 3676 times)

engineerjourney

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 453
  • Age: 36
Back to Daycare?
« on: May 13, 2020, 02:42:51 PM »
Our daycare has been closed since mid-March and my husband and I have been working shift work (6am-2pm and 3pm-11pm) to be able to continue working and watch our almost 3 and almost 5 year olds.  They are getting sooooo much screen time its not funny.  Our company is too large to qualify for any of the CARES stuff.  Our daycare is saying they are going to re-open June 1st and need to know by May 19th who will be coming back and drop off/pick up times to staff correctly.  They are putting together a ton of new rules to be safer including no parents in the building, temp screening at the door and throughout the day, teachers wearing masks, no contact between classrooms, and higher frequency of cleaning.  We do trust them and think the class sizes will be pretty small since anyone with school aged siblings will probably not be coming back right now. 

My husband has no hesitancy about sending them back in right away so we can both work on 1st shift.  I am still conflicted because I need to know all the things to make the best decision and no one knows enough about anything still!!  All I know is that I can't continue this schedule much longer before there is some serious harm to my mental health and to my kids brains.  What would you do?  It might be possible for me to convince my management that I can work from home and overlap with my husbands shift (like 9am-5pm with 9-2pm also being on kid duty) but thats still going to suck, just to a lesser degree (I think).  I have done WFH for about 5 hours then gone into the office from 3pm-6pm as well on a couple days to support some day meetings.  My husband works with classified info so he really cant WFH much.  I access it periodically but could probably get away with just a couple hours here or there in the office. 

What do you guys think?  Anyone sending kids back to daycare?  Stayed in daycare this whole time?   I just dont see my company moving away from shift work to reduce amount of employees in the office any time soon and I just dont see "normal" coming any time soon.  I need a better sustainable schedule somehow. 

mrsnamemustache

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 99
  • Location: FL
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2020, 02:52:31 PM »
I feel you on the indecision. Ours reopened but we are waiting longer. How much longer, I don't know. Your work situation is worse than mine, though (we can both get away with part time while getting paid full time, for now). I think the rates of illness in your community is another factor to consider (but those can change quickly!). It sucks. Sorry.

chaskavitch

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1029
  • Age: 38
  • Location: Fort Collins, CO
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2020, 03:00:46 PM »
Oof, good luck.  That's a hard decision. 

Our daycare is doing kind of the same thing - they've stayed open for kids of essential workers, with everyone else paying 50% tuition to hold their place/keep the daycare open.  They've recently opened for everyone again, and starting in June everyone is back to paying full price or un-enrolling.  There are a few other centers that have closed, so they apparently have a lot of people asking about open spots.

We're lucky enough to both be able to WFH enough to cover child care, and to have not lost any income, and I think we're planning to keep both of our kids (1 and 4) home until I have to go back to the office full time.  Ostensibly it's because it will make it easier on the daycare, because social distancing with toddlers is a joke, but also because I'm nervous about sending them back.  They haven't seen anyone but our neighbors across the fence in almost 2 months, and I'm honestly scared to just throw them back into the petri dish that is daycare.  I mean, I'd love to have, like, and hour to myself during the day that wasn't childcare or work, but a lot of people are in that position.

If what you're doing is really unsustainable for you, though, it's probably worth it to send them back.  Could you maybe do half days, and try to shift your schedule around that?  It would give you a little bit of a break, and still keep their exposure to other people lower than full time.

Scotland2016

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 144
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2020, 04:24:37 PM »
I go back and forth on this decision 12 times a day. Ours hasn't reopened, but it's expected to on June 1. I am getting nervous about the new COVID-19-related illness children are getting. I have no answers for you, but you're not alone!

Teachstache

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 228
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2020, 06:46:12 PM »
We're in Nebraska & our daycare never closed. We pulled our 5 year old out of daycare & his public preschool closed so own. I'm a teacher, so I'm WFH & can structure my hours to entertain/care for my kid while also completing my teaching hours & meetings.

Spouse is also WFH but with very set hours. So, all of the childcare falls to me during the workday.

I struggled with the idea of pulling him out of all social interaction until August (hoping that in person school starts back up then). Ultimately, I decided that the risk wasn't worth sending him back, but it definitely has been difficult trying to juggle everything with work & also trying to do some sort of enrichment with my kid.

kpd905

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2029
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2020, 07:04:38 PM »
I think we are sending ours back on the 26th of this month.  My wife has been able to work from home for the last 6 weeks or so, but as OP said, screen time has been pretty bad lately. 

Hopefully the covid cases keep dropping for the next two weeks.  We've had a pretty good downward trend going for a week or so now.

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2020, 07:08:12 PM »
P2F - we have a very similar situation to the OP.
Daycare is reopening June 1st with a bunch of new regulations, but we still have a lot of uncertainty about whether those measures will be effective.
...haven’t made a decision yet what we will do, though to keep our spot we will need to keep paying.

Abe

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2020, 08:46:04 PM »
We’re going to send our kid back to daycare mostly so he has some social interactions. They are opening only for essential workers’ families. The risk of him getting covid is much higher from me as a physician than his peers. Our daycare has very strict rules about allowing attendance and plans to monitor the temperatures of children, staff and parents dropping off kids. Children cannot attend if any family member has any covid or other infectious symptoms. Most of the families have at least in healthcare worker so the likelihood of “cheating” to get the kid in is very low. I think this is enough contingency planning to keep the risk low.

engineerjourney

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 453
  • Age: 36
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2020, 02:50:31 PM »
It really helps to know I am not alone in this struggle.  We are still thinking it all through. 

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2020, 05:10:10 PM »
Here’s where we are at - after spiking about two weeks ago new cases of COVID have been on steady decline, and are pretty darn low in our county (something like 45 ‘active’ cases at present).  Testing has improved too, so I’m more confident that these recent numbers are closer to the actual than they were when they were higher.

But...things are starting to open up, while we’re getting an influx of summer residents returning.  None of these will directly interact with the kids from daycare but I do worry that we’ll see a second, bigger spike in the coming weeks.

So... we’re still uncertain.  Right now we are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach.  If the number of cases continues to stay low (or preferably drop) I’ll feel pretty comfortable sending our kid back to daycare.  But if there’s a sharp uptick at the end of the month we’ll probably pay to keep her home for a few more weeks.


FactorsOf2

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 27
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #10 on: May 16, 2020, 02:12:36 AM »
We have been back at  our daycare since the beginning of May, and we are technically in a hotbed area. At this point, I'm not overly concerned with the risk to our family as we are relatively young and have no underlying conditions. Consider Table 5 in this preprint: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054361v2.full.pdf which doesn't even account for underlying conditions. I'm also no longer worried about the possibility of overwhelming our healthcare system - if that was still a serious possibility I would act differently.

However we are practicing pretty extreme isolation in all other contexts so that if we bring something into the household from daycare we have a lower chance of transmitting it beyond the household. Daycare is a big deal to quality of life (two children under two, working parents), while being able to go out to eat, go shopping etc. is not. Thus we are adjusting behavior accordingly.

FactorsOf2

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 27
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2020, 02:17:50 AM »
We’re going to send our kid back to daycare mostly so he has some social interactions. They are opening only for essential workers’ families. The risk of him getting covid is much higher from me as a physician than his peers. Our daycare has very strict rules about allowing attendance and plans to monitor the temperatures of children, staff and parents dropping off kids. Children cannot attend if any family member has any covid or other infectious symptoms. Most of the families have at least in healthcare worker so the likelihood of “cheating” to get the kid in is very low. I think this is enough contingency planning to keep the risk low.

Our daycare also has implemented many measures like taking temperature at the door. However, it seems likely that the population with asymptomatic infection is likely an order of magnitude or two higher (at least?) than symptomatic population so I'm not sure that this is a particularly useful thing to do.

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2020, 07:49:45 AM »
We have been back at  our daycare since the beginning of May, and we are technically in a hotbed area. At this point, I'm not overly concerned with the risk to our family as we are relatively young and have no underlying conditions. Consider Table 5 in this preprint: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054361v2.full.pdf which doesn't even account for underlying conditions. I'm also no longer worried about the possibility of overwhelming our healthcare system - if that was still a serious possibility I would act differently.

However we are practicing pretty extreme isolation in all other contexts so that if we bring something into the household from daycare we have a lower chance of transmitting it beyond the household. Daycare is a big deal to quality of life (two children under two, working parents), while being able to go out to eat, go shopping etc. is not. Thus we are adjusting behavior accordingly.

We dont worry that much that our child will become gravely ill, as that seems possible but unlikely.  For us its really the kids acting as a vector.  As my spouse will be returning to the office in a few weeks we are concerned that we could contract and then spread it further.  Plus grandparents are chomping at the bit to come visit after 5+ months, and they are in a high-risk category (i.e. over 65). 

FactorsOf2

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 27
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2020, 11:18:19 AM »

Plus grandparents are chomping at the bit to come visit after 5+ months, and they are in a high-risk category (i.e. over 65).

Yeah this is definitely frustrating - my parents are also over 65 plus an underlying condition, and my sister is immunocompromised, so we probably won't see any of them for a good long while.

Sibley

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7428
  • Location: Northwest Indiana
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2020, 07:58:18 PM »
I'm not a parent, but the thing that struck me was that your mental health is being negatively impacted, and you think the kids are being negatively impacted or will be soon. You're not choosing between safety and danger. You are choosing between danger and danger. Which danger is worse? I do not know. That assessment will be different for every family and situation.

Life is not risk free, and it doesn't matter how much information you have, you can never have all of it. Make the best decision you can with the information you have. That's all any of us can do really.

Abe

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #15 on: May 16, 2020, 08:42:32 PM »
We’re going to send our kid back to daycare mostly so he has some social interactions. They are opening only for essential workers’ families. The risk of him getting covid is much higher from me as a physician than his peers. Our daycare has very strict rules about allowing attendance and plans to monitor the temperatures of children, staff and parents dropping off kids. Children cannot attend if any family member has any covid or other infectious symptoms. Most of the families have at least in healthcare worker so the likelihood of “cheating” to get the kid in is very low. I think this is enough contingency planning to keep the risk low.

Our daycare also has implemented many measures like taking temperature at the door. However, it seems likely that the population with asymptomatic infection is likely an order of magnitude or two higher (at least?) than symptomatic population so I'm not sure that this is a particularly useful thing to do.

It is unclear if this is true. It is likely the number of people exposed to covid is much higher than the number ill at any given time. However the percent of people who can be truly asymptomatic (as in no symptoms at all) and shed virus is unclear. Hence the insistence on any symptoms at all in the family = no Daycare.

engineerjourney

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 453
  • Age: 36
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #16 on: May 18, 2020, 05:02:52 AM »
We got more details on the daycare's policies to re-open.  I don't disagree with any of them but some make it very likely that we would end up having kids home last minute AND be paying for it.  Which for me is even worse than what we are doing right now.  For example, a runny nose in either kid means both have to go home for at least 48 hours.  Any low level fever (not sure if its still the 100 per usual or even lower now), both kids go home and must be fever free for 72 hours before returning.  The likelihood of them getting "normal" things by interacting with kids after not doing so after 3 months seems very high.  They even had a "cold" somehow last month with no interaction with anyone!  As I said, I don't disagree with the policies, they are being as responsible as they can. 

So my husband and I talked and we are going to switch up our work schedules a little bit to get more of a routine with the kids home.  The risk vs reward doesn't seem clear at all.  I thought I was just unsure on the risk but now I am unsure on the reward (since I cant count on my kids making the cut constantly).  We are deferring until July.  We will re-evaluate weekly whether we can make any positive changes on the work side or the childcare side.  There is no "best" decision here, good luck to everyone figuring this out!

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #17 on: May 18, 2020, 05:39:41 AM »
The increased vigilance on kids showing absolutely no symptoms is going to change things.  I agree it’s the daycare doing the best they can and taking appropriate measures, yet kids together share colds, so we are anticipating a lot of ‘send-home’ days if/when our child goes back.

Keeping a close tab no the # of new infections in our city.  Peaked at 29 a few weeks ago, now it stands at 13. Biggest metric for us is that those infections don’t spike over the next 2+ weeks.



engineerjourney

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 453
  • Age: 36
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #18 on: May 18, 2020, 06:22:27 AM »
The increased vigilance on kids showing absolutely no symptoms is going to change things.  I agree it’s the daycare doing the best they can and taking appropriate measures, yet kids together share colds, so we are anticipating a lot of ‘send-home’ days if/when our child goes back.

Keeping a close tab no the # of new infections in our city.  Peaked at 29 a few weeks ago, now it stands at 13. Biggest metric for us is that those infections don’t spike over the next 2+ weeks.


I have been trying to do the same to gauge how our area is doing but we have a couple nursing homes in our town and the next over so the numbers seem super high.  I feel so bad for those residents :(

cats

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1232
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #19 on: May 20, 2020, 03:24:57 PM »
Has anyone’s daycare provided a clear explanation of how they will be providing reduced class sizes? To me this seems to be the big sticking point. Our son was in a class of 24 kids. How is that going to be split into two smaller groups of 12 without hiring extra staff or reducing the hours offered to each child and thus driving up the expense per hour dramatically?

Is the idea that some people will continue to pay but keep their kids home? Or that there will be so many kids with mild symptoms on any given day that they will never actually have everyone there?  Neither of these models seems like they will be sustainable for long.

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #20 on: May 20, 2020, 03:37:01 PM »
Has anyone’s daycare provided a clear explanation of how they will be providing reduced class sizes? To me this seems to be the big sticking point. Our son was in a class of 24 kids. How is that going to be split into two smaller groups of 12 without hiring extra staff or reducing the hours offered to each child and thus driving up the expense per hour dramatically?

Is the idea that some people will continue to pay but keep their kids home? Or that there will be so many kids with mild symptoms on any given day that they will never actually have everyone there?  Neither of these models seems like they will be sustainable for long.

Our daycare is capped at 7, and they are taking measures to isolate each class from another.  Not that there’s some magic number at 7, but it is below the “less than 10” threshold required when you include the two caregivers.

I can’t imagine 24 kids In daycare at her age (18-24 mo).  Chaos. 

chaskavitch

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1029
  • Age: 38
  • Location: Fort Collins, CO
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #21 on: May 20, 2020, 03:46:43 PM »
Has anyone’s daycare provided a clear explanation of how they will be providing reduced class sizes? To me this seems to be the big sticking point. Our son was in a class of 24 kids. How is that going to be split into two smaller groups of 12 without hiring extra staff or reducing the hours offered to each child and thus driving up the expense per hour dramatically?

Is the idea that some people will continue to pay but keep their kids home? Or that there will be so many kids with mild symptoms on any given day that they will never actually have everyone there?  Neither of these models seems like they will be sustainable for long.

We're continuing to pay and keeping our kids home.  It's certainly less than ideal, but we like the daycare, want to keep our spot reserved, and haven't lost any income.  It's easier for the daycare in the short term, and we don't have to worry about our kids getting sick at daycare or about finding a new daycare (with a magical lack of wait-listing) when I have to go back to work eventually.

artemidorus

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 21
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #22 on: May 20, 2020, 03:49:12 PM »
One thing to also keep in mind is that a lot of daycares are likely going out of business. NYT just had an op-ed discussing that today: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/opinion/child-day-care-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

I've seen the news estimate as many as half the spots in daycare nationwide could disappear. Which will mean increased competition to get spots. And likely means increased prices coming down the road. There's a chance it's worth sitting on the spot for now by staying, and if rates surge to a point you are no longer comfortable, pulling kids out. If you give up a spot now, there may not be many options to get one back, and you're having conversations about one parent cutting back on work.

I can say all this, because my state has mandated no daycares reopen until July, possibly later. I'll be far less calm about this in a month when we are panicking too. But we are probably going back to daycare, because we are also going bonkers.

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #23 on: May 20, 2020, 03:54:41 PM »
One thing to also keep in mind is that a lot of daycares are likely going out of business. NYT just had an op-ed discussing that today: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/opinion/child-day-care-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

I've seen the news estimate as many as half the spots in daycare nationwide could disappear. Which will mean increased competition to get spots. And likely means increased prices coming down the road. There's a chance it's worth sitting on the spot for now by staying, and if rates surge to a point you are no longer comfortable, pulling kids out. If you give up a spot now, there may not be many options to get one back, and you're having conversations about one parent cutting back on work.

I can say all this, because my state has mandated no daycares reopen until July, possibly later. I'll be far less calm about this in a month when we are panicking too. But we are probably going back to daycare, because we are also going bonkers.

There’s already a 6 month wait to get into daycares where we are... if it gets a lot worse then many parents’ only option will be to wait until kindergarten starts. 
So disappointed by this lapse in our system.

artemidorus

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 21
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #24 on: May 20, 2020, 04:03:57 PM »
There’s already a 6 month wait to get into daycares where we are... if it gets a lot worse then many parents’ only option will be to wait until kindergarten starts. 
So disappointed by this lapse in our system.

It's appalling. I do hope this bolsters the arguments for universal daycare significantly. If it becomes a genuine impediment for people to go back to work in the next 6 months, there's massive economic benefits to instituting it.

I genuinely wonder what will happen when employers get sick of parents not being able to be normal, reliable 9-5 employees. I never imagined we'd be discussing the chance of one of us being a stay at home parent when we decided to have a kid.

joe189man

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 908
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #25 on: May 20, 2020, 04:31:28 PM »
We got more details on the daycare's policies to re-open.  I don't disagree with any of them but some make it very likely that we would end up having kids home last minute AND be paying for it.  Which for me is even worse than what we are doing right now.  For example, a runny nose in either kid means both have to go home for at least 48 hours.  Any low level fever (not sure if its still the 100 per usual or even lower now), both kids go home and must be fever free for 72 hours before returning.  The likelihood of them getting "normal" things by interacting with kids after not doing so after 3 months seems very high.  They even had a "cold" somehow last month with no interaction with anyone!  As I said, I don't disagree with the policies, they are being as responsible as they can. 

So my husband and I talked and we are going to switch up our work schedules a little bit to get more of a routine with the kids home.  The risk vs reward doesn't seem clear at all.  I thought I was just unsure on the risk but now I am unsure on the reward (since I cant count on my kids making the cut constantly).  We are deferring until July.  We will re-evaluate weekly whether we can make any positive changes on the work side or the childcare side.  There is no "best" decision here, good luck to everyone figuring this out!

we kept our kids in day care the entire time (it was deemed essential for other essential workers kids and existing parents) everything above is being done at our facility, workers are also temp checked and wear masks, kids don't. no parents are allowed in the building and workers bring the kids to the car at the end of the day and in the morning they signal us one by one to bring the kids to the door.

i wouldn't hesitate to bring my kids to "school" under these conditions, they are safer at daycare than going to the grocery store

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #26 on: May 20, 2020, 05:50:19 PM »
How do you conclude that they are safer going to school than the grocery store?

cats

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1232
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #27 on: May 20, 2020, 09:59:53 PM »
Has anyone’s daycare provided a clear explanation of how they will be providing reduced class sizes? To me this seems to be the big sticking point. Our son was in a class of 24 kids. How is that going to be split into two smaller groups of 12 without hiring extra staff or reducing the hours offered to each child and thus driving up the expense per hour dramatically?

Is the idea that some people will continue to pay but keep their kids home? Or that there will be so many kids with mild symptoms on any given day that they will never actually have everyone there?  Neither of these models seems like they will be sustainable for long.

Our daycare is capped at 7, and they are taking measures to isolate each class from another.  Not that there’s some magic number at 7, but it is below the “less than 10” threshold required when you include the two caregivers.

I can’t imagine 24 kids In daycare at her age (18-24 mo).  Chaos.

Our son is 4 yrs, classes in excess of 12 are pretty normal in our area.  There is also typically a lot of mixing between classes to avoid having to keep full staffing at all times.  e.g. if you have two classes of 24 kids but only 6 kids from each class come in between 7-8AM, only one teacher has to come in and the kids become one group of 12 kids until 8AM when second teacher shows up and more kids start to arrive.  Obviously that kind of practice is no longer possible.

I just find it strange that the expense or even impossibility of implementing distancing/safety measures does not seem to really be getting discussed explicitly. Even the link that was posted upthread about how many centers may close doesn't seem to say explicitly "because it will become too expensive for them to operate".  I have seen a few other pieces about closures being likely and they seem to be more of the "centers can't afford to be shutdown for longer than X period, so many will go out of business", not the impossibility of re-opening safely while remaining "affordable" or solvent.

We live in a fairly urban area, our preschool does not have much underutilized space.  There are common areas that get rotated through by each class.  The outdoor play area is a decent size but certainly not big enough to accommodate keeping multiple groups of 12 reliably separate if they are out there at once.  They are licensed to have up to ~150 kids.  The <2yrs rooms were already capped at 12 kids, I believe, but again there was intermingling between classrooms to keep staffing "efficient".  We haven't received any word about re-opening, but as I see it it's going to be impossible to comply with the guidelines without hiring a lot of extra staff and also restricting movement and outdoor time significantly (unless the teachers are willing to start doing a lot more "nature walks" off the premises in lieu of playground time...).  I'm having a hard time envisioning a scenario where it doesn't feel somewhat like, well...prison.  I've honestly been pretty cool with the idea of my kid being in care while we both work up to this point, and when he was a baby especially I often felt it was better for him to be in care than home with me all day as he had very experienced carers who knew what they were doing while I was a sleep-deprived mess.  Now?  I definitely question whether or not daycare can provide a comparable quality of care to what my husband and I can provide at home.

engineerjourney

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 453
  • Age: 36
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #28 on: May 21, 2020, 06:18:34 AM »
Our daycare just notified us that their re-opening date has been pushed from June 1st to June 22nd.  Not enough people were willing to come back at this point.

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #29 on: May 21, 2020, 07:55:18 AM »
Our daycare just notified us that their re-opening date has been pushed from June 1st to June 22nd.  Not enough people were willing to come back at this point.

Well, sounds like your decision was made for you.  Good news/bad news?

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #30 on: May 21, 2020, 07:58:00 AM »
Has anyone’s daycare provided a clear explanation of how they will be providing reduced class sizes? To me this seems to be the big sticking point. Our son was in a class of 24 kids. How is that going to be split into two smaller groups of 12 without hiring extra staff or reducing the hours offered to each child and thus driving up the expense per hour dramatically?

Is the idea that some people will continue to pay but keep their kids home? Or that there will be so many kids with mild symptoms on any given day that they will never actually have everyone there?  Neither of these models seems like they will be sustainable for long.

Our daycare is capped at 7, and they are taking measures to isolate each class from another.  Not that there’s some magic number at 7, but it is below the “less than 10” threshold required when you include the two caregivers.

I can’t imagine 24 kids In daycare at her age (18-24 mo).  Chaos.

Our son is 4 yrs, classes in excess of 12 are pretty normal in our area.  There is also typically a lot of mixing between classes to avoid having to keep full staffing at all times.  e.g. if you have two classes of 24 kids but only 6 kids from each class come in between 7-8AM, only one teacher has to come in and the kids become one group of 12 kids until 8AM when second teacher shows up and more kids start to arrive.  Obviously that kind of practice is no longer possible.

I just find it strange that the expense or even impossibility of implementing distancing/safety measures does not seem to really be getting discussed explicitly. Even the link that was posted upthread about how many centers may close doesn't seem to say explicitly "because it will become too expensive for them to operate".  I have seen a few other pieces about closures being likely and they seem to be more of the "centers can't afford to be shutdown for longer than X period, so many will go out of business", not the impossibility of re-opening safely while remaining "affordable" or solvent.

We live in a fairly urban area, our preschool does not have much underutilized space.  There are common areas that get rotated through by each class.  The outdoor play area is a decent size but certainly not big enough to accommodate keeping multiple groups of 12 reliably separate if they are out there at once.  They are licensed to have up to ~150 kids.  The <2yrs rooms were already capped at 12 kids, I believe, but again there was intermingling between classrooms to keep staffing "efficient".  We haven't received any word about re-opening, but as I see it it's going to be impossible to comply with the guidelines without hiring a lot of extra staff and also restricting movement and outdoor time significantly (unless the teachers are willing to start doing a lot more "nature walks" off the premises in lieu of playground time...).  I'm having a hard time envisioning a scenario where it doesn't feel somewhat like, well...prison.  I've honestly been pretty cool with the idea of my kid being in care while we both work up to this point, and when he was a baby especially I often felt it was better for him to be in care than home with me all day as he had very experienced carers who knew what they were doing while I was a sleep-deprived mess.  Now?  I definitely question whether or not daycare can provide a comparable quality of care to what my husband and I can provide at home.

Wow, that’s a lot difference from our daycare and licensing requirements. One of the frustrations we have had is how different daycare centers are operated from state to state and municipality to municipality. 

engineerjourney

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 453
  • Age: 36
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #31 on: May 21, 2020, 09:11:14 AM »
Our daycare just notified us that their re-opening date has been pushed from June 1st to June 22nd.  Not enough people were willing to come back at this point.

Well, sounds like your decision was made for you.  Good news/bad news?

We had decided not to send them right away in a couple days before they announced the change in date so it just confirms our decision.  We will see how the next couple weeks go!

achvfi

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 524
  • Location: Midwest
  • Health is wealth
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #32 on: May 21, 2020, 09:57:55 AM »
I am thinking to hold off sending our son back to day care this entire year. I work from home and my wife is at home, so it makes our decision easier.

Daycares never closed in our region and few people are sending their kids back already. I don't think its safe to send kids back to daycare no matter what Day cares or governments say. It will be interesting how this will play out.

waltworks

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5653
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #33 on: May 22, 2020, 09:16:13 AM »
I'm not sure some of the daycares in our area will come back at all, even if they're allowed to. The financial hit has been huge for them.

The local Waldorf/Montessori/SkiSchool schools are all in real trouble too based on my conversations with parents.

Might be a big jump in public school enrollment in the fall, we'll see.

-W

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #34 on: May 22, 2020, 09:39:53 AM »
I'm not sure some of the daycares in our area will come back at all, even if they're allowed to. The financial hit has been huge for them.

The local Waldorf/Montessori/SkiSchool schools are all in real trouble too based on my conversations with parents.

Might be a big jump in public school enrollment in the fall, we'll see.

-W

I'm not sure how many will survive Covid here, either. 
Pretty eye opening when an essential business cannot weather a shock lilke this, and does not have the institutional support.

There are some gaping holes in our social net.

waltworks

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5653
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #35 on: May 22, 2020, 10:21:23 AM »
I'm not sure how many will survive Covid here, either. 
Pretty eye opening when an essential business cannot weather a shock lilke this, and does not have the institutional support.

There are some gaping holes in our social net.

Agreed. It will be interesting to see if this crisis results in any meaningful changes in how we operate some of those institutions (ie healthcare, school/child care, poverty prevention, etc). UBI doesn't look so crazy anymore (at least to me), and in any just/sane world we'd massively raise taxes on the wealthy (I include myself) to fund it.

-W

nereo

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 17497
  • Location: Just south of Canada
    • Here's how you can support science today:
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #36 on: May 22, 2020, 11:14:03 AM »
I'm not sure how many will survive Covid here, either. 
Pretty eye opening when an essential business cannot weather a shock lilke this, and does not have the institutional support.

There are some gaping holes in our social net.

Agreed. It will be interesting to see if this crisis results in any meaningful changes in how we operate some of those institutions (ie healthcare, school/child care, poverty prevention, etc). UBI doesn't look so crazy anymore (at least to me), and in any just/sane world we'd massively raise taxes on the wealthy (I include myself) to fund it.

-W

Honestly, until I became a parent I thought the “struggles of finding a daycare” were overblown. 
We committed the cardinal sin of moving - twice - in the first 20 months of our daughter.  Each time we entered at the back of a 6+ month long waitlist.   Now our daycare expense eclipses our mortgage. Yet I realize the fixed-costs of running a certified daycare mean they have a very thin margin even while paying their caregivers a paltry amount for what they do.

Covid was just another fly in the ointment, an unexpected 3-month break on top of additional delays. 

Mrs Brightside

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 89
  • Location: a Cinnabon in Omaha
  • What one fool can do, another can.
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #37 on: May 23, 2020, 06:56:27 PM »
https://www.propublica.org/article/what-parents-should-know-about-coronavirus-as-kids-return-to-babysitters-day-cares-and-camps

Thought this was a good summary of info on kids and coronavirus - unfortunately there's just not a lot out there.

cats

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1232
Re: Back to Daycare?
« Reply #38 on: May 24, 2020, 05:48:48 PM »
One more anecdotal point, a friend’s daycare is re-opening and they will be having the kids wash their hands a minimum of once every 30 minutes. I know preschool and daycare workers are much more skilled at herding kids than I am, but...a group of 10 kids, each kid takes a minute to wash their hands...30% of the day taken up by handwashing??? I don’t dispute that this probably does a lot to prevent virus spread, but it’s definitely one more in the “is daycare actually a good environment for kids right now?”. I don’t demand that my kid be totally shielded from reality but the rules I’m hearing make it sound like a kid in daycare is going to get waaaaaaay more exposure to reality than many adults (especially those working from home).

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!