Infant care in SG vs daytime nanny vs live in helper

[Bek]

Hi,

I have a baby daughter who is currently 5 weeks of age. I will need to go back to work when she is 16 weeks and my husband is already back at work.

We are looking for childcare options including:
- Infant care near Holland Village area
- Day time nanny to come to our place
- live in foreign domestic worker with newborn experience

Is anyone able to make any recommendations for any of the above?

Thanks!

[amarok]

Hi,

I have a baby daughter who is currently 5 weeks of age. I will need to go back to work when she is 16 weeks and my husband is already back at work.

We are looking for childcare options including:
- Infant care near Holland Village area
- Day time nanny to come to our place
- live in foreign domestic worker with newborn experience

Is anyone able to make any recommendations for any of the above?

Thanks!

I can tell you what was the situation ca 10 years ago. I don't think anything has change since then substantially.

Nannies coming to your place were and still are rare and expensive. The local model for this sort of care is you drop you baby to a local auntie at her place and likely your baby won't be the only one she takes care of at the same time.
It was not that uncommon to hire nannies from the UK. Of course this would cost you 3 arms and seven legs but people still did it what was a good indicator how desperate the situation was on the market. Covid era probably limited this sort of hire but not necessarily significantly.

We didn't manage to find any reasonable (as per our judgement) infant care place. I don't remember the details but somehow we could not trust.

Living-in helper is the cheapest option and an obvious lottery. Note: right now, as a foreigner you will have your application automatically rejected but with an infant you may try to appeal.

[Bek]

Hi Amarok,

Thanks so much for your reply. Yes, this is what I'm finding that full time nannies seem to be in very short supply. The agencies I have contacted do not have any free FT nannies on their database.

Infant care also seems to be in very high demand with places being booked up until mid next year.

Will look further into the live in helper option.

Thanks again!

[PNGMK]

You'll need to find a transfer FDW and they are as rare as hen's teeth right now. You won't have much (or any choice) so throw your preconceived notions out the door (as in don't have a list as long as your arm - just look for someone who won't burn the house down and will be able to keep your child alive for 8 hours).

[sndy]

Hi,

I have a baby daughter who is currently 5 weeks of age. I will need to go back to work when she is 16 weeks and my husband is already back at work.

We are looking for childcare options including:
- Infant care near Holland Village area
- Day time nanny to come to our place
- live in foreign domestic worker with newborn experience

Is anyone able to make any recommendations for any of the above?

Thanks!

Was in similar situation however did manage to hire a FDW after multiple tries and just weeks before the baby due date.
To me even if you set aside the money & demand factor, having a FDW is way more convenient than let say having a nanny who will be exclusively taking care of baby and mother or the hassle of visiting infant care centers on a daily basis

[amarok]

@Bek, we are just in a process of switching from the local nanny to a living-in helper. If you are interested I can PM you her mobile No. She was with us for over 9 years and is a real gem. She was with us only to take care of the kid, not for doing the usual household chores, so not sure if this is what you look for.

@PNGMK, actually it is not that bad. Probably much worse than it was before but still many of them are showing up for the interviews. Covid sealed the borders but at the same time many expats lost their jobs and left or are in the process of leaving.

[abbby]

Childcare around the Holland Village you can look at St James Church Kindergarten or Mindchamps they have branches in Holland Village. For St James Church I believe they run only on about 3 hrs sessions though. Otherwise you can consider further up Grandstand they have a few childcares there, but you'll need to drive it's a little inaccessible to get there.

Daytime nannies are quite expensive so most people get full time domestic helpers ie: Philipines. to help out with chores and child-minding.

Here's a useful page to start your childcare search https://www.singaporeexpats.com/guides- ... #Preschool

[the observer]

Helper -
Pros: Cost efficient, convenient, cooks/cleans the hse as well, frees up your spare time for quality bonding with the child
Cons: Takes time to build trust, a spare room for the helper to live in

Childcare -
Pros: One stop shop, "specialist" in the field
Cons: Cost, travelling time, the need to apply leave from work when the annual hand foot mouth disease outbreak hits, a higher adult - child ratio.
[a childcare is a profit oriented company afterall]

[amarok]

Living-in helper (main con) -> no privacy.