What does remote work mean for child care in the DMV Area?
• Full-time nanny or au pair
• Full-time daycare
• Part-time in-home caregiver or babysitter
• Part-time or flexible daycare drop-off
Childcare options for the work from home parent
Full-time nanny, au pair, or a private educator is the most expensive option
Depending on the mental stress of your remote job, your budget, and/or your child’s needs full-time in-home care may be for you. A full-time nanny, au pair or even a private educator coming to your own home every day could afford you the freedom to get things done while giving your child the personal attention and support they need. A private caregiver also gives you the flexibility to be close by to your infant or children to allow for those special moments when you can pop into their day.
Full-time private hire is expensive and hourly rates or annual salaries vary depending on experience and the volume of professional in-home caregivers near you.
Reliability is also important as is having backup options for when the regular care provider is sick or has time off. Here, au pairs may be better than nannies as in most cases the au pair will live with you in your own home. Nannies and au pairs can be found through nanny and au pair agencies but can also be privately hired from online job boards and. The private hire route is cheaper, but you will need to do the work searching, interviewing, and vetting potential candidates as well as handling the Household Employee tax responsibilities
Full-time daycare is the least expensive option
If you can no longer do double duty or if you are seeking structure and stimulation for your child or infant, full-time daycare is still the best most affordable childcare choice.
Daycares as well as traditional elementary schools are still great for building social and emotional skills as well as a foundation of learning necessary to succeed later in life. Regulations ensure early learning basics are provided to every child at accredited or approved daycares. If this fits your child and your budget, be sure to look for highly rated daycares near you. You may still need a back-up care option for sick days and snow days, however, and a service like OndeCare which provides caregivers at short notice can be a lifesaver!
Part-time, in-home childcare is a great medium cost option.
If you are looking for the most flexibility and control and your budget is a bit larger than area daycare costs but not quite large enough for a full-time caregiver, then flexible, part-time childcare in your home may be for you.
The key is to tap into a reliable and flexible pool of babysitters or professional childcare providers to get you the best of both worlds. Nanny placement agencies typically don’t place part-time nannies so for most finding childcare providers is by word-of-mouth recommendations or through an online job board like Care.com or Urbansitter. Online job boards will give you give you a list or providers to start from but don’t do the work of vetting, matching, and coordinating schedules and can't guarantee reliability or provide backup options. If available in your area, a more comprehensive option is ondecare.com which matches you with pre-vetted, professional childcare providers, helps you schedule and manage your caregivers and also automates back-up care when you need it.
Part-time daycare is another medium cost option.
Some daycares allow for less than the traditional 5-day commitment Actually, again thanks to the pandemic, more daycares have figured out how to make this an option – some innovative daycares have built their businesses around this burgeoning need for flexibility when it comes to infant care, child care, or special needs care.
Part-time or flexible daycare drop-off is more expensive than traditional full-time daycare but can give you and your child the best of both worlds – some routine and some flexibility. If available in your area, a more comprehensive option is ondecare.com which matches you with pre-vetted, professional childcare providers, helps you schedule and manage your caregivers and also automates back-up care when you need it.
Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland In‑Home Childcare from OndeCare
- tutoring
- laundry
- recreational activities
- doctor's visits
- + 13 more
- light housekeeping
- virtual learning assistance
- socialization/entertainment
- pet care
- + 10 more
- laundry
- meal preparation
- socialization/entertainment
- tutoring
- + 11 more
- meal preparation
- light housekeeping
- recreational activities
- socialization/entertainment
- + 8 more
- homework help
- recreational activities
- virtual learning assistance
- socialization/entertainment
- + 6 more
- light housekeeping
- socialization/entertainment
- laundry
- recreational activities
- + 5 more
- transportation
- virtual learning assistance
- doctor's visits
- recreational activities
- + 10 more
- doctor's visits
- meal preparation
- tutoring
- recreational activities
- + 10 more
- pet care
- light housekeeping
- virtual learning assistance
- recreational activities
- + 7 more
- homework help
- recreational activities
- light housekeeping
- meal preparation
- + 7 more
- laundry
- house cleaning
- light housekeeping
- socialization/entertainment
- + 11 more
- light housekeeping
- meal preparation
- homework help
- socialization/entertainment
- + 7 more
- tutoring
- pet care
- virtual learning assistance
- meal preparation
- + 11 more
- transportation
- virtual learning assistance
- doctor's visits
- recreational activities
- + 9 more
Which solution is best for me when working from home?
'In-home childcare , full-time or part-time, while it can be the most flexible, tends to be more expensive than the daycare. Daycare is still the most cost-efficient childcare solution and now many daycares offer part-time options, too. If neither on its own is ideal, consider combining part-time daycare with flexible in-home childcare to create a tailored solution that perfectly fits both your child's needs as well as your work from home schedule!
Caregiving Services
4.9 out of 5 stars.
750+ Reviews.
Trusted by Our Partners
