First, whether you choose part-time or full-time daycare is often determined by your schedule. If you have full-time work or other obligations, you’re obviously going to need full-time daycare. Part-time work? Part-time daycare is a possibility.

However, with the recent increase in opportunities to work from home, many families have the option of choosing between part-time and full-time care. Also, you may benefit from having family or close friends nearby, which can open up the part-time option too. And that means figuring out which one is best for your family.

Part-Time vs Full-Time Daycare

Before we begin, part-time daycare can be partial days, every week day; or full days but not every day; or some combination of the two, ifs they are offered by your daycare provider.

Adjusting to a Schedule

One concern that many parents have about mixing part-time daycare and care with a family member is how their child will adjust to the mixed schedule of care. First, children are usually more resilient than many of us give them credit for. They will usually adjust to a mixed schedule — or any schedule — even if it changes from week to week.

Using Part-Time to Ease Them Into Full-Time

Children can adjust quite easily to full-time daycare even if they have never been cared for by anyone other than their parents. However, putting them into part-time care can help ease your mind about how well they will adjust. It can also help you ease into life without your children being constantly with you.

Try to Replicate Routines as Much as You Can

If there happens to be any issues adjusting to part-time daycare, it can help to replicate the daycare routine as much as you can at home. One way of doing that is to keep the same snack and nap times at home as your child has in daycare.

Part Time Can be Just as Expensive

Very often, parents consider part-time daycare to reduce their daycare costs. However, depending on your daycare provider, they may charge the same rates for part-time care or the costs will not be reduced by the same percentage as the time they provide carte is reduced.

To find out more about full-time and part-time daycare near you, contact us at Kinderdrop.