For the past couple of months I have really been struggling with the decision to go back to work on a part time basis. I am still not totally sure what I am going to do, but I managed to get myself an interview on Monday...

The job would be Thursdays and Fridays from 7:45-4:15, and Saturdays from 8:45-3:15. I would obviously have to find care for Jackson for Thursdays and Fridays.

Anyway....I don't even know where to start looking. I did a search in the Yellow Pages, but most don't appear to have websites, and those that do don't list prices on them from what I can tell. Do I just need to start cold calling all of them? Is there some resource that would weed out the inappropriate ones?

Help!

That's pretty much what we did. One place you can check is the NAEYC website - http://www.naeyc.org/ They accredit daycare centers and you can see if any accredited ones are in your area.

Ultimately you need to call and visit them.

Dennis

I knew I wanted in-home care and I checked with the hospital that Alex was born in to see if there was a referral line. They did and I called and found a terrific one. However, part-time for in-home can be hard to come across.

Check with your state's Child and Family Services department to see if they have a referral line by county. They will also check out any centers that you are interested in to see if there have ever been complaints lodged again them and that licensing is current.

I dont know if you have anything by you that is similar, but when I initially started looking for PT care when I first became a SAHM, I used this agency called Community Coordinated Child Care. I gave them my needs: how many hours, whether I wanted accredited, licensed, or family or was open to more than one of those options, how far I wanted to drive from my house, etc. They sent me a package of stuff in the mail a few days later with all the daycares that were available to me that met my criteria. From there it was my job to do the calling to see if they had space and to see if I liked them. Oh --I think that CCC was listed in the yellow pages under 'child care referral' or something like that.

Thanks guys!

I know I am going to have to call some of them, I am just looking for a way to narrow things down. When I did the yellow pages search over 200 were listed w/in 7 miles of my house....I don't even know where to start with that many.

I am going to look into something like Karri posted...maybe I'll check with my ped's office too...

i'm also in MA and found my inhome from this site. basically called everyone listed in our town about openings.

http://www.qualitychildcare.org/childcare_finding.asp

Thanks Kim...I will check that out!

I went back to work when Maya was six weeks old. By the time she was 12 weeks old she was on her third day care!

Her first day care was close to the house but gave off a "weird" feeling. Maya just started there when DH found an in-home day care that he wanted to try. We had to give the first center two weeks' notice, so after that we put her in the in-home day care.

After about a month the DCP there decided she wasn't going to keep kids anymore because she was pregnant and having complications. So we had to find another center. DH found one closer to his work that was just starting to take infants, so we put Maya there. And she's been there ever since.

She was the first infant they'd ever had, so not only do the teachers adore her, all the older kids do too. :lol: In fact, she never has to lift a finger to ge anything for herself because she has dozens of older "brothers and sisters" who trip over themselves trying to serve the Queen. It's cute but it's also the reason she's 14 months old and just learning to walk! :lol:

I'm in MA too, and we decided to do a nanny to cover my part-time schedule. Believe it or not, I found her through http://boston.craigslist.org When we just had Emma, we shared a nanny with another family, and they also found her through craigslist. I was surprised by the quality of the responses I got from there- wasn't expecting so many qualified people!