baby childcare in Los Angeles
 

Folks - our first child will be 8 months old this June, and at that time my wife goes back to work, and we need to find a good childcare spot for him.

I know a lot of folks go with a nanny, but I don't think we can afford that, and I think it might be tough planning around a nanny's vacation time when we'd also want to make an annual trip to the UK to see family. Childcare at least has staff to cover absences.

We've started looking around, but I thought I'd ask on here for any LA based folks who might have gone this route. For those familiar with LA, we live just a mile or 2 east of Culver City. I work on the edge of Santa Monica (on Wilshire) and my wife works near Korea town. So we're basically looking; Culver City, Santa Monica, Palms, Mar Vista, Venice, Westchester, west of Downtown area type areas.

Anyone got any recommendations?

thanks,
Matt

Re: baby childcare in Los Angeles
 

Yvonne Ulrich. She was our sons daycare provider when we lived in Santa Monica. If she's not still in the business, she'll know someone local who is. Leaving your little one with a complete stranger is scary as he11, but i wouldn't recommend someone to you if i didn't have every faith in them, and i trust Yvonne completely. I will ask her on FB and get back to you. I'll also link this thread in my FB IM to her.

Re: baby childcare in Los Angeles
 

i found a local nanny through care.com recently. We have agreed between us that I wont pay her when she has holidays - (so i can find and pay for an alternative) and also she wont work/get paid when I take holidays (not that i imagine i will take a lot).

if you want to know more let me know.

Re: baby childcare in Los Angeles
 

that sounds like a possibility - I did a quick search and came up with:
Ulrich Day Care
1305 23rd Street # 1
Santa Monica, CA 90404-2028
Does that sound like it might be her?
thanks,
Matt

Re: baby childcare in Los Angeles
 

I went back to work when my daughter was 3.5 months and I looked at everything from official daycare centre to full time nanny. We netted out at something called "Family DayCare". This was in Northern California which probably isn't that different from what you can get down south.

Anyway, this was a registered and licensed carer (or carers, depending on how many kids) looking after small kids in their home. It's typically less formal than an official daycare centre and more like being in a family. In fact I'm sure my daughter thought of her as family since she spent so much time there. We lucked out since ours was really loving, completely flexible and when she went on vacation, she had a replacement come to her house to do the caring so our schedule didn't get all messed up. We had to do the drop off and pick up, plus provide food (or milk!)

It worked perfectly for us and, if you can find the right person, I feel is a cheaper alternative to official daycare and definitely cheaper than a full-time nanny. And as a bonus some of our daughter's first words were in Hindi!

Good luck in your search. It's a stressful thing to decide. Try asking parents of small kids at your work and your wife's work; they can probably provide the best local recommendations.

Re: baby childcare in Los Angeles
 

cost of childcare around here, it might be as cheap or cheaper just to get a nanny in...

Re: baby childcare in Los Angeles
 

Check your forum message box. Her cell is in there. Give her a call. Even if she doesn't have she could point you to someone trustworthy, and tell you what to look for and ask. Good luck.