Growing up, my mom worked extremely hard in order to financially provide for my small family. Now that I’m an adult, I appreciate the long hours she worked at the factory so that she could afford to buy food and clothes for my sister and me. Unfortunately, due to my mom’s work schedule, my sister and I were forced to stay at relatives’ homes after school each day. Because we stayed at so many different people’s homes, our bus driver always got confused about the location he needed to drop us off at. On this blog, I hope you will discover the benefits of leaving your kids at a safe daycare facility each day. Enjoy!
When you think of 24/7 daycare, you probably imagine a daycare center that is open all of the time and never closes. Such daycares do exist, but there are limitations on how long you are allowed to leave your children in the center. Typically, you cannot leave your children in such a daycare for more than ten hours. That is the equivalent of one, eight-hour shift, plus an hour's worth of travel time in front of and at the end of the shift. If you need to cover a greater number of hours for daycare, you could try one of the other means of around-the-clock childcare.
Nanny or Au Pair
A nanny or au pair lives with your family in your home. He or she provides childcare all day and all night, as needed. The nanny or au pair cooks, cleans up after the children, and makes sure the children are fed and have completed any schoolwork. This leaves you free to work odd hours or have the occasional night out when you need it. If you are going to bring a nanny or au pair into your home, be sure to vet him/her for safety, and provide a room just for the nanny/au pair.
Boarding School
If all of your children are of school age, you can also send the children to boarding school. Boarding school provides room and board, just like college, to the students that stay there. The students also attend classes during the day, Monday through Friday.
If they need help with schoolwork, they can request a tutor, which is often an older peer who has already taken the class and done well in the subject. A cafeteria supplies meals and some snacks during the day. Each boarding house has supervisors to keep track of the children's comings and goings and supervise their behavior when the children are not in class. Usually, parents who travel a lot for their careers send their children to boarding school.
Using the Services of Two or Three Childcares
This last method is not wholly recommended, unless you do not have another way to cover your childcare needs. It is also quite expensive, since you have to enroll your children in two or three daycares and pay the fees for all of them. Some parents have to work twelve-hour or sixteen hour shifts, and even work swing shift (e.g., nurses, doctors, steel workers, etc.). In these instances, they place their children in one daycare at the start of their shifts, and then have the daycare bus or school bus drop the children at a second daycare later in the day.
Share3 January 2018
