Our Tips for Solving the Most Challenging Part of Travel PT with a Child:
Finding Child Care
“Its great you’re traveling now while you two don’t have any kids.” Easily the most often heard phrase we have heard over the last few years as travel physical therapists. Well, now we’ve got one. And guess what? We are still traveling, and plan to keep on doing so! That isn’t to say its super easy, but it is definitely doable. Here we will go over our tips for solving the most challenging part of Travel PT with a child: Finding Child Care.
When returning to work after having a child there are really 4 options for finding child care:
- Day Care
- Mom or Dad stay home full/part time.
- Utilize family or friends
- Hiring a nanny/baby sitter
Option 1: Day Care
There are plenty of fantastic day care options available for your little one. However, most of the more reputable day care centers out there have waiting lists or long application processes. As travelers we do not have the time to deal with this. Maybe you’re experience will be different, but because of these challenges we have not explored the day care option further so we cannot provide any meaningful advice in finding one that works for you.
Option 2: Mom or Dad stay home full/part time
The beauty of travel PT is that contracts are flexible and often quite high paying. Ellen was able to take 8 months off when she had Kinley prior to returning to work. Here are a few tips for making this option successful:
1. Find a low cost of living location
You are down to one income now. Your dollars will go further somewhere that has a lower overall cost of living. Incremental increases in costs quickly chew into your finances when you are on one income.
2. Secure a moderate-high paying job
Sometime sacrifices need to be made. In lower cost of living areas the contracts often are equally low paying. However there are always a few settings that pay more. Home health and SNF work normally pay the best. Now, keep in mind how much better pay travel is than perm. In Kentucky while working at a SNF I was still single handedly making the same as what Ellen and I were bringing home combined as perm outpatient ortho patients in Colorado.
3. If possible, be close to family/friends
Even when you are not working, being a stay-at-home parent is super tough work! Depending on your little ones temperament it may even be more difficult than your regular 9-5. Having someone close by during the day can be a much needed respite. Even if it is just to have normal adult conversation for a few minutes out of the hours of babble and crying, it can be surprisingly refreshing.
Option 3: Utilize family or friends
Once we both decided to return to work we were fortunate enough to have a friend offer to watch Kinley during the work day. We are super lucky to have had this offer during our first contract both working, but there are a few tips that should be kept in mind to make this a successful situation.
1. Just because they offer doesn’t mean you must take it.
It is your child, be sure they are the right person to watch him/her.
2. Pay them.
Unless it is a blood relative, sibling/parent, pay them for their care. Watching a kid is tough work, it will be in your child’s best interest to keep their caregiver as happy and content as possible.
3. Find a back-up plan.
This one bit us in the butt. Our friend became very ill and we didn’t have any other options for Kinley’s care. Being idiot new parents we actually dropped her off with our friends husband AT THE HOSPITAL!! I can’t believe it even now. Ultimately, this was the beginning of the end for that caregiving relationship, though we are fortunately still friends.
Option 4: Hiring a nanny/baby sitter
We cannot say enough about the caregivers found on a website called care.com We found Madison, our current nanny, on the site and are overjoyed with the work she has done for us. It is so relieving to hear our little girl squeal with joy when Madison walks in the door every morning to start her day. While there are other options for finding a nanny/sitter these are the tips from our experience.
1. Require higher education
There are multitudes of care givers on care.com that are fantastic at what they do, and I am sure they have other qualifications that matter, but when you have limited time to find and interview a potential caregiver setting up good search parameters is paramount. We required a college degree for our caregiver. Not because Kinley is so difficult, but because we wanted someone that was motivated, educated, and can take on something rigorous and be successful.
2. Do not pay their minimum acceptable wage
As I mentioned above, caregiving is tough work. Keep them happy and they will keep your little one happy as well. If you are cheap, or cannot provide them enough hours a week there is a good chance they will find work elsewhere. Then you have to start this whole process all over again. We pay our nanny 2$/hr more than she offered and have offered to pay her for a guaranteed number of hours a week minimum, regardless of what she actually works. Most of the time we only over pay her by a couple of hours, and if that is the cost for Kinley to be well cared for then we are fine with it.
*We are currently in discussion with another family in our apartment complex about some sort of a nanny-share arrangement but nothing has come of it yet. If we do set something up we will update this post with details as well.
So there you go! 4 Solutions to the most challenging part of travel PT with a child: Finding Child Care. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us!
- Find out about Ellen’s experience returning to clinical work after 8 months of time off with baby!
Written by: Stephen Stockhausen PT
