Childcare

[mahafae]

My husband and I are considering the fulltime lifestyle. I am a RN and would be working as a travel nurse. We have a 2 year old that would need to be in daycare while I work. How do other fulltime families deal with this? (My husband won't always be with us as he travels with his job but we aren't able to go with him.)

[2oldman]

What will you do when the child is ready for school.. in 3-4 years? I don't envy you in this definition of "fulltiming."

Chock Full o' Nuts wrote:
what is your plan when the baby gets sick and you need to work? Will you have someone to back you up when the baby has chicken pox/flu/fever/vomiting and can't go to daycare for a week?

Absolutely. Kids get sick. Sorry but I'm not a 'go for it' kind of guy on this subject.

[Moderator]

We will move it to Full-Time if requested by the OP, but in line with our posting rules, please do not double post it. Thanks. 🙂

[tohare]

one other thought. Try posting this on the full-time forum. They not only have their opinions and ideas, but seem to aware of other resources.
good luck

[Tothill]

A couple thoughts perhaps alternatives to full time Rving.

From your second post I wonder where the two older kids will be during this RV adventure? Will they be with you, with your dh, or perhaps with another family member?

My kids go to an international private school grades 7-12. The school nurse gets free accommodation and children of staff attend for free. That would take care of employment, accommodation and a better education for the older kids. One of the teachers has a now 2 year old who has lived on campus since birth and has 150 teens who love him to bits.

Summer camps: here in BC a summer camp needs to have a nurse on staff. Last year the camp my daughter attended had a single mother nurse with a 9 years old dd with her. Once again employment, accommodation and a great place for kids all rolled in one.

I had huge challenges finding good daycare for my second child. He is 10 years younger than his brother and I had to work full time. For him, it was not good to change daycare, but we had to 5 times before he was 2 years old. All the daycares were licensed, but after the first one lost its funding it was almost impossible to find another good place for him.

Because of what we went through with ds2, I would hesitate to plan on moving a child from daycare to daycare when that young.

Later two of my friends watched the kids after school.

Good luck with your future plans, you know your family best and will make the best decision for your situation.

[Thunder_Mountai]

Don't forget local churches and the YMCA.

[sgartley]

This question is interesting to me because my husband and I are planning to become RVers in the next 2-3 years. I am thinking about employment opportunities that will make this work for us. I can do remote computer work such as technical writing, but I have been a child care provider for many years, and wondered if there might be a way to provide that service for other campers who need child care. I don't know how it would work, but I found this topic interesting just knowing that there might be a need.

[2324delk]

Hi

I have one son and two daughter in laws who are RN's.

They have always had good luck finding Nurses on other shifts, or other rotations who would swap duties babysitting with them, at no cost to either party.

One daughter in law works only weekends and swaps babysitting with a nurse who only works weekdays.

They are not full timers but it might work for you.

[Francesca_Knowl]

mahafae wrote:
Didn't realize this could be a heated topic. I have been a stay at home mom with the older 2. But it made our life more difficult. When they went to school, I went to work. But I continued to work after having the baby (10 year difference between middle child and baby). That being said, school is one of our biggest reasons for wanting to go full time. The older 2 have had a lacking education, tried homeschool with them but they were already indoctrinated to public school. With the baby, we want to give her a wealthy education. By that I mean to say, I don't want her to read about the Grand Canyon, I want her to be there, explore it. In order to do this, we both need to work.

We are still in the planning phase. I appreciate all of the suggestions. I had not considered a hospital that offers childcare.

With two older kids over twelve, is there a possibility that you can work your schedule so that the oldest looks after the "youngers" when you're at work? I grew up in a family where both Mom and Dad worked, and that's the way we did it.

Not that I was always crazy about the arrangement when it was me doing the babysitting! 😉

[TOOBOLD]

How long are you planning on staying in the area? I know lots of nurses that extend their assignments and some stay as long as a year. Look for a facility that has daycare. There are less and less these days. If there is a local university some have daycares, but are typically open while the university is in session. Be careful because lot of daycares have a waiting list. It may be harder to find someone if you have to work a 12 hr shift.

[RayUSMC]

mahafae wrote:
Didn't realize this could be a heated topic. I have been a stay at home mom with the older 2. But it made our life more difficult. When they went to school, I went to work. But I continued to work after having the baby (10 year difference between middle child and baby). That being said, school is one of our biggest reasons for wanting to go full time. The older 2 have had a lacking education, tried homeschool with them but they were already indoctrinated to public school. With the baby, we want to give her a wealthy education. By that I mean to say, I don't want her to read about the Grand Canyon, I want her to be there, explore it. In order to do this, we both need to work.

We are still in the planning phase. I appreciate all of the suggestions. I had not considered a hospital that offers childcare.

I agree with your plan to homeschool. We did ours. There's a lot of great curricula out there too with better math and science instruction than you find in the school systems. Hope you're able to get a hospital with child-care because that'll make your life much easier.

[Chock_Full_o__N]

I think it will be very hard to live in an RV, with both of you working full-time (with the added possibility of one parent being absent much of the time) and raising a very young child. It's hard to find excellent AND affordable daycare; doubly so, if you are working night shifts or 12hr shifts.

Another thought I had on this subject is this--what is your plan when the baby gets sick and you need to work? Will you have someone to back you up when the baby has chicken pox/flu/fever/vomiting and can't go to daycare for a week? Or will you just have to take that week off--not something a potential employer will be happy with AT ALL. Speaking as the mother of 3, this can be a HUGE problem for parents who do not have an adequate support system in the community. I think you need to have all that lined up before you proceed any further.

[mahafae]

Didn't realize this could be a heated topic. I have been a stay at home mom with the older 2. But it made our life more difficult. When they went to school, I went to work. But I continued to work after having the baby (10 year difference between middle child and baby). That being said, school is one of our biggest reasons for wanting to go full time. The older 2 have had a lacking education, tried homeschool with them but they were already indoctrinated to public school. With the baby, we want to give her a wealthy education. By that I mean to say, I don't want her to read about the Grand Canyon, I want her to be there, explore it. In order to do this, we both need to work.

We are still in the planning phase. I appreciate all of the suggestions. I had not considered a hospital that offers childcare.

[Lantley]

There is nothing wrong with using daycare. However using daycare while traveling will be challenging.

[NYCgrrl]

rolling_rhoda wrote:
You know your child best, and will make the right choice for your family. X2 on going where child care is available on site to make it less stressful for both of you. As a businesswoman and a mom, I get tired of the "why have kids if you're gonna put them in daycare?" condescension. We don't all have a choice. And many of us who work by choice, not necessity, have well-adjusted, happy kids. My cousin is a single mom, and raised her daughter while working as a traveling nurse. Her assignments were usually for six months or more.

Here here!
It's nice to live in a country where one lifestyle choice isn't mandatory.