Anybody have any experience with grandparents serving as daycare ( in child’s home)? There is a potential situation where I become daycare for my grandchild. It is all very TBD right now. I am willing to do it but my biggest concern is the travel distance/time with winter and potential for poor driving conditions approaching. We are two hours apart ( in good weather conditions and not rush hour) and the deal would be that I stayed over during the parents’ work week, going to stay Sunday afternoon and returning home possibly Friday mornings —or Thursday afternoons if parents were home early enough —if the 4 day work week happens. It would be harder if both parents are on the same 5 day work week.
My personal concerns are if weather becomes so severe that I simply cannot get there ( genuine possibility) and me not having much actual time at home.
But the big concern is not overstepping my bounds with the parents, and avoiding any issues that might come up.
As you are all aware, daycare expenses for an infant are huge. They would essentially wipe out all of the mother’s earnings. Long term this would be difficult, especially as one vehicle will need replacing at some point in the not too distant future.
There is also the potential risk for them to move much nearer by but that would involve finding new jobs, selling their current t home and purchasing another one. Or re ring out their current home and living with us for a shorty while as they house hunt. Hubby may/may not retire in the spring but definitely dues not want to move to their more urban area. It’s just more stressful to deal with increased noise and traffic. Even son who could not wait to get out of our town is starting to look at the quieter, slower pace of life outside the Big City and suburbs.
BUT no move is likely to happen soon. They are exploring their options now but I’m on their list.
Any advice for me, the grandmother?
Child care's a hard one. IMO, if they can get their kid in an environment where they're interacting with other kids that is more ideal. So they should explore every avenue and grandma should be a last resort (if it were me). But if licensed child care isn't feasible than you've got to do what you have to do. There are often daycares run out of people's home that will be less expensive (and some run by registered ECEs).
I'm going to guess that social programs may not be as readily available for you as they are here, but for child care around here there are often subsidies available for low income families. That might be worth looking into if that's the kind of thing they'd qualify for.
As for the grandma option, it's really hard to say what would work best in terms of logistics, but I guess it'll just work out how it works out. And I'm not saying it's a big problem if you're the care taker, but consistent interaction with other children is going to be a big boost developmentally, perhaps worth the cost.
ETA: part time daycare is also a thing which gets you the best of both worlds. Some interaction time, some one on one time.