Childcare in larger cities

[NurseTang]

We are considering moving to a larger city (around 100,00 population) and I am concerned with daycare/afterschool care. I will be working 7-7, hubby 8-5. We live in a small town now and hubby has no problem with getting the kids by 6pm after work; but in a larger city, with LONGER commutes, how hard is it getting kids in time? Do most daycares stay open later? Any advice/thoughts would be appreciated!

[memphispanda, RN]

I have lived in 2 cities that would be considered larger if you use 100,000 as the cut-off point. One place I lived on the east side of the city, had my child in a home daycare that was about halfway to my workplace that was downtown. The hours were 7:30-5:30 at daycare and only very rarely did I have a problem with time--when I did it was usually on the pickup end of things.

Here, there are daycares with many varied hours, but generally for the better centers they are 6:30 or 6:45 to 6:00 or 6:30. A lot of the timing hinges on where exactly you are going and if you will be traveling against the rush hour traffic or with it. I am not currently having to use daycare but I will this summer, and I don't expect any trouble with getting the kids picked up on time. Before they were all in school we never had a problem.

I don't think daycare times will be a problem for you.

[abundantjoy07, RN]

There are afterhours daycare centers in some larger cities (Houston). These centers stay open very very late like 9 or 10 pm.