The #realmomseries continues and this week we are all talking about childcare. We touched on childcare in our working topic, a while back and as Archer keeps growing and changing so has our childcare situation although not that much (see what our childcare situation looked like when Archie was less than a year, here).

We still have the same nanny we’ve had from when Archer was just a few months old. We were super fortunate to find someone we loved the first time around. We found her through a friends nanny who recommended her.
Arch is 2 years old now so at the moment we’re waiting to hear if he has gotten into any of the preschools we have applied for but he won’t be eligible to go until September (learn more about what we looked for in a preschool here). In the meantime we are sticking with our current childcare routine which is this…

We bumped our nanny up from 2 weekdays to 3.5 weekdays so I have archer to myself one full weekday as well as half of another day. Archer is currently sleeping 2 hour naps in the afternoon and 12 hours at night, so I am still always working through naps as well as after his bedtime, on the regular. Saturday’s have become by default a work day for me as well since I have rupert at home to watch Archie and then we spend Sunday together as a family.

I feel pretty lucky to be able to work from home, and although my studio is growing with two employees now besides me, I love being close to archer while he is so young. Of course it has its disadvantages like at certain times of the day when Archie only wants mama and I end up having to either sneak out to the office or just take a “mama mama” meltdown head on.
One great advantage of working so close to my childcare provider is that over time I was able to see first hand so much of how she cares for Archie and that’s how I am able to leave him in her care with confidence that he is in good hands.

While we struck gold with our nanny we are not doing so hot in the nighttime babysitter front. On the rare occasion my husband and I do leave the house at night we have our nanny watch Archie but we are completely at her mercy. If she isn’t available we have no one else to call. In two years we’ve never left Archie with anyone but her or ourselves! At what age do you start letting high school students or people from babysitting services come in at night? Lord knows it would be a lot cheaper. I remember when I was 13 and I babysat my neighbors kids. They had a toddler and a newborn!! What on earth were they thinking?! Haha looking back i’m just happy everyone survived. But, it also makes me realize how nuts we are that two years have gone by and we haven’t sought out any other kind of childcare. How do you do it and do you have any tips on introducing a new babysitter, even if it’s just for one night? Gosh it sucks to not have family around especially when you have a small child.

I can’t wait to check out what all the other mama’s do, clearly I could use some help. See their side of the conversation from…
Ave Styles
The Effortless Chic
Sacramento Street
The Life Styled
Freutcake
Hey Mama
A Daily Something
Thoughts By Natalie
The Sweetest Occasion