Does anyone have info on the daycare situation in Taiwan? I have an 8 month old girl and my wife is making noise about getting a job. I’d prefer a foreign owned/operated outfit but I might settle for a local one if it has a good reputation.
It really depends on where you live. The care can differ SO much
If it were me, let the wife work and stay home. I wouldn’t put my 8 month old in anyone’s care. Anyway, to each his own.
Do a lot of checking on the places you may find suitable, like showing up unexpectedly to see what it’s like when no one’s watching. Talk to other parents. Talk to the staff, not ony the administrators…they won’t be chaging your kid’s diapers.
Good luck.
I used to think I wouldn’t trust someone else with my small child, but we’ve had great luck with our nanny – a 50 something year old local lady whose sole grandchild is now about 7 years old (ie, she finished all the serious child-rearing with him a few years ago). She’s the mother of a lady that my wife works with and she treats our 11 month old daughter as if she were her own family. . . maybe better, because she seems to feel honored and privileged to be raising a mixed baby, especially our beautiful mixed baby. My wife only took 9 weeks off from work or something like that, so this lady took over in the days starting at age 2 months or so. We drop her off in the mornings and pick her up after work 5 days a week. Sometimes she’ll take Emily for a few hours on a Saturday if we need her too and she considers that a bonus for her. It has worked exceptionally well. Our nanny is taken, but if you or your wife know an appropriate local lady and investigate her and her house in advance, it could work just fine. Finally, one can’t overlook how incredibly cheap she is (I forget the exact price, but I’m fairly certain we pay her less than 15k per month).
I had a similar experience to MT. I had a local nanny. Cost me 16K per month. I dropped my daughter off there every morning from the time she was 6 weeks old and she kept going there for three years. Now she’s 5 but she still goes around there just for fun.
Kindergartens don’t start until age 2.5, so there are only nannies. I’d guess, therefore, probably not many foreigners doing it, though you never know. Can’t see that it would make much difference to an 8-month old (except of course that the Taiwanese do tend to pile on layer after unnecessary layer of clothing).
Anyway our 8-month old goes to a lady who, with her husband and mother, look after about four kids. Ours is way the youngest. We’re really happy – nothing is too much trouble, she doesn’t mind what time we pick him up and he’s even stayed overnight on occasion (one or two of the kids live there all week, and only get taken home for weekends – I find that pretty weird).
They absolutely dote on our kid (probably spoiling him really). They have a huge (like 20 ping) soft safe area where he can crawl around, loads of squashy toys and loads of clothes. He comes home bathed and changed every evening: we only change his clothes at the weekend. They’ve told us to stop buying clothes because they have so many, from all their alumni. In the UK we’d probably be spending the 15kNT a month we pay on clothes alone. Well maybe not. Whatever.
They’re safety conscious, understand the importance of play (a lot of nannies will have the babes just lying in the cot most of the time, I gather, so check that out carefully when you visit prospective carers), and they absolutely love kids. We’re very happy!
one other thing: your girl will be on solids already. I’d advise providing the food yourselves (our nanny requests this). If you rely on what they provide, if anything, it’ll likely just be xifan and sugary baby rice dissolved in bottles of formula.