Carragee Consulting

In the news for those laid off in the last round of Bay Area cuts was a notification that Google is closing a childcare facility in Mountain View which served 300 children.

While I don’t know how many employees will be forced to find new daycare providers or if the childcare was subsidized or market rate, I do know I’d almost rather be laid off than lose our daycare. Its nearly impossible to look for work, interview or retrain without childcare.

Before we moved to Palo Alto we had a daycare .8 miles from our house in St. Paul that was open from 7:30-5:30 daily, provided cloth diapers and hot lunch and snacks for ~$2,200/month for our 18 month old.

I refused to schedule a move date until I knew we had found an affordable daycare, near our house that we could trust. We toured 4-5 centers and had to call around to see where spots were available and what prices and hours were. It was time consuming and not nearly as transparent as searching for a flight. One Montessori school Matt toured was going to cost $4000/month.

Its hard not to wonder if price is a value signal among daycare providers and if we chose the cheapest one would our child suffer some immediate or long term harm?

We chose Lilliput Infant & Preschool on Park Blvd in Palo Alto with the intention of keeping some Spanish language exposure, its less than 2 miles from our house and it was the least expensive program we could find. I highly recommend it to families who are looking for a place for their 2+ year old and I happen to know they have a few open spots.

The teachers, JR & Vicky are wonderful, caring and my daughter loves them. During the summer when I was back in St Paul she kept telling me how much she missed them and “JR/Vicky school” as she calls it. Today and everyday I am so appreciative that we found Lilliput.

I hope for those Google employees and their children impacted by the daycare closure that they find excellent alternative care with minimal transition pain.