Arranging Childcare
Feature — By Michelle on December 25, 2009 at 7:18 amDepending on the employment situation of you and your spouse, you may not be parents for very long before it is time to find child care for your newly placed/adopted child. While the last thing you may want to do while cuddling your child and welcoming him home is think about leaving him, daycare is a fact of life for many adoptive families.
One advantage, if you can call it that, is that during your homestudy, you will be asked about potential child care arrangements. Your homestudy doesn’t require you to show that your are going to register your child in a particular childcare center, but it does get you thinking about such things.
It is odd to think about child care for your future child–most women may check out child care options when they are expecting, and if that is the case, they have an anticipated due date and an anticipated date when they will need to have their child enrolled child care. Exploring child care for an “unknown” child–before you have been matched with a potential placement, feels odd. But a little leg work early on can reduce stress later on.
During your homestudy, you will be asked about your future plans for employment/child care arrangements. In our case, our answer was vague, and that was fine for our homestudy. We didn’t really investigate child care options until it was about a month before we needed child care for Macey. In our area, a month’s lead time is plenty. In other areas of the country, I’m sure it’s not enough time–larger metropolitan areas, or areas where there aren’t many child care options many require you to join a waiting list. When we found out that Junior could be joining our family, I mentioned it to the director at Macey’s center. She gave me the information I needed regarding an infant, and I registered him once he was placed with us and I had a return date for work.
If you don’t already know how much leave you are entitled to, or if your employer has any adoption related perks, find out.Once you know what your parameters are, you can figure out how old your child will be when you will need child care. This can be helpful when talking to potential caregivers. You may choose to share with potential caregivers that you are waiting for an adoption, or simply say that your planning for the future. Either way, potential caregivers should be happy to tell about their programs/services.
There are basically three options for child care: in home care (by a relative, a nanny or au pair), care in someone else’s home (either one-on-one setting or an in-home daycare) or care in a commercial child care center. Most accredited/licensed centers will not take infants younger than six weeks of age.
While you are waiting to adopt, here are a few things you can do to make the transition to child care are smooth as possible:
–find out how much leave (paid and unpaid) you and you spouse are entitled to get–talk to you HR person, look over the FMLA guidelines and see how long you can afford to stay home
–ask around to see what sort of arrangements friends and co-workers have made for child care. If you are comfortable, ask them the cost, or take the names of the people/services they are using and call directly, asking about price
–think about what sort of child care you will need covers a lot of areas–days of the week, hours of the day, and weeks per year are all things to consider
–take some time to call around and find out what sort of arrangements are available in your area. Arrange for tours, if you are looking for care out of your home. Collect names of potential babysitters/nannys if you are looking for in-home care.
–find out what kind of documentation you will need at the registration time. Most licensed centers require a recent physical and immunization record, as well as a birth certificate. Since Junior started at the center before finalization, our center accepted the letter of placement from our agency. Once we received the birth certificate after finalization, I brought a copy to the center.
With a little leg work,the transition to using child care can be a smooth one. Read more about the types of child care available and questions to ask potential caregivers at kidshealth.org.
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Originally posted 2009-05-15 08:34:20. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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4 Comments
Some of the strange things I had to consider while waiting for our child were:
1. “pre-qualifying” FMLA at my company. I had no idea when I would need to use FMLA, or how I would use it, but HR made me complete all the forms right away, once I told them I could be taking a leave some time soon….. In the next two years….. You know, because I could predict when they would need to file a piece of paper with the government.
2. Finding a pediatrician. It was strange, checking out the places and having to say, “well, no. I don’t know when the baby will be born. Possibly in the next two years. Do you think you’ll have openings then? Could you please check your crystal ball office schedule and calendar and let me know?”
3. Registering with stores for baby gifts…. With an unknown due date, one which could possibly be AFTER the store registry automatically expires!
That said, doing as much as possible like this in advance REALLY paid off, when we got a call on a Friday to pick up our son on a Saturday, then needed to make an appointment to rush him into a pediatrician we’d never met with on Monday!!!! (Again, thank God for our pediatrician’s office! Once they heard we’d adopted over a weekend, were first time NERVOUS parents, didn’t get to meet with any hospital staff before discharge, and had some major concerns about our baby – they got us in immediately!)
Michelle gives great points – it may seem strange to do some of these things in advance, but it’s good to think about them. You’ll be better prepared once the time comes that you need to act!
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Thanks for adding to the “while you are waiting” list, Stork! –MM
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Just wanted to note, because this is a question I see a lot in the circles I frequent: You do not have to have a vaccination record to enroll a child in day care. Almost all states have religious and philosophical waivers for vaccinations, and any agency that accepts state or federal money must accept those waivers. Private day care, whether in-home or a center, do not have to accept the waivers, but most usually do. It’s worth asking instead of assuming that vaccinations are mandatory.
I remember pediatrician shopping without a known due date. One office was downright rude to me about it.
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Good point Robyn! I know that my state does have such waivers. Sorry to hear that you were. Treated rudely about such an important thing as your child’s doc– not a good way to do business! Our kids are both seen by our family doctor. It was very exciting both times to call and let the office know we’d be needing that newborn appt!!
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