Newborns and babysitting....

Lifestyle Relationships
1

I have few questions for working parents.

  1. How long did you guys wait after the birth of your child to go back to work?
  2. If you did go back to work right away what were the baby sitting arrangements like cost (American dollars) and if you had a live in person? Details are appreciated.
  3. How do you feel about leaving your child/newborn with babysitters?
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Re: Newborns and babysitting....

  1. 6 weeks afterwards.....not through choice though.
  2. No cost, well not in monetary value anyway - my husband had a couple of months off which coincided with me returning to work. After that it's been a mixture of nurseries and au pairs.
  3. Awful
3

Re: Newborns and babysitting....

to answer your cost question, it varies from state to state. I know people who pay $150/wk for babysitting while others pay $80/week. You can check out your local babysitters/nurseries to find out the cost.

A lot of women are opting to stay home for about a year with their babies before rejoining the workforce.

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Re: Newborns and babysitting....

Shahreen didnt you get off for maternity leave?

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Re: Newborns and babysitting....

I told my wives that they should stay home and tend to my mutant-DNA/s. I'll take care of the rest. Jokes aside, We planned for kids and even before we had our first one my wife (the one in US) had quit her job and we were trying to adjust to one paycheck. This step helped us a lot, otherswise it would have been two shocks. I put this option in front of my squaw first, since fire-crackers these days are very opinionated and career minded. Well my squaw had had enough of the workforce so she took my offer and ran for a touch down.

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Re: Newborns and babysitting…

I worked two days up untill before Harris was born with the intention of taking all my maternity leave entitlement after the birth, but unfortunately sometimes even the best laid plans don’t work out as anticipated and so I ended up returning after 6 weeks and taking the extra money instead.

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Re: Newborns and babysitting....

I have an almost 3 y/o daughter and another daughter expected in April. I have personallly made the choice to stay home with our kids. And my husband agrees that it's the best choice in raising them. Believe me it's like 2 full time jobs. We've never even had a babysitter, not even grandmas or aunties. Financially, in Manhattan, we're just scraping by, but that's a sacrifice that's worth it to us right now. There are too many nannies here, especially in the Upper East Side. Many mothers here just want their free time to have lunch and hair appointments, shopping etc, so they hire full time nannies. Many nannies, babysitters here receive a minimum of $10/hour and then bonuses. Plus if they do laundry or housecleaning, extra for that.
There's a board on www.urbanbaby.com new york one. There is non-stop discussion of what they pay their nannies and how much for holiday bonus, what duties they give their nannies. You could try posting a question and I'm sure you'll get atleast 20 replies 10 seconds later.

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Re: Newborns and babysitting....

Here in Austria all females who work get/can take maternity leave up to 2 1/2 years after birth of the child and still can go back to work after this time, where the employer has to give you the same job or a simular position again or you can do part time if you wish. I think its very rare that such rules exists in other countries. I think after childbirth a female needs this time to adjust to the new situation and of course the baby needs his/her mama! I am so gald of this regulation here. 2 Months before child birth and 2 months after child birth, it illegal for a pregnant women to work, its call mother protection, so even if you want to, a pregnant wowen is not allowed to work.

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Re: Newborns and babysitting....

This is more or less of what you get in USA, working for most companies. Mother gets 6 weeks maternity leave for normal delivery and 8 weeks for c-section. Father can take upto two months of paternity leave. They both go on short term disability after getting paid for their vacation and sick time.

I found a nursery close to both our jobs that has a flat monthly rate of approx $900. Which is managable but not desireable. I'm sure there are cheaper places, I just have to do my homework.

Unfortunately, one of us quiting job to stay home is not an option at this point but then again things can change.

Thanks all for your input. Please feel free to provide additional feedback.