Child care while my husband goes to boot camp!?

Well my husband and I have decided the military will be his best bet for finicail freedom fromhis student loans. HOWEVER, I am a nurse and work night 12 hour shift I have had no luck with fiding someone to care for my children not to keen on the idea of a night daycre I was wanting someone that would come into my home but the going hourly rate is almost as much as I make. I love my job and do not want to leave it any suggestions on child care? What would you do? Also at what point will I be given a id card to get on base etc??? Thanks for your input.

at some point a couple of weeks after he reports to Basic Training, you will get a package in the mail containing all the paperwork you need to get your ID card. Once you get this paperwork, you can go to any base that has a Pass and ID office( including some reserve bases) and get your IDs. any children under the age of ten will not get an ID. You are not required to get the ID at a base of your husband's branch of service, you can go to the closest one available.

Upon getting that ID, you will automatically be enrtolled in TRICARE Standard. You will have to enroll in Prime and dental. Tricare has no monthly cost, although Standard does have co pays. Dental runs about $30 for a family(spouse and all dependant children). Youcan enroll online or in person at the base Tricare Office.

It is your responsibility to provide childcare. Most on base CDC do not operate overnight. You would also be hard pressed to find someone to do overnight in home care on base. If your employer does not offer on site care, you may have to look into changing your shift.

see if you can find a family member to take them such as parent, aunts, uncles, etc... Or maybe you could get family friends to stay one day a week at your home alternating etc...

you and your kids will be given cards to get on base you will be covered under DEERS (dont remember what it stands for) your best bet is to keep working and use your pay to pay for the sitter, and use his pay to pay for everything else. try and save as much money before he goes, there is no reason for him to spend any more then like tops $200 when he is in trainning, once he gets out you will be better off because you can get base housing, the only problem is that you might not be able to get base housing right away but you will be able to use the child care on base. It is going to be hard untill he gets out of trainning. i am guessing he is going to go in as a pay grade E3 or E4 so that is good for you it is a little more money.

He has to make it through bootcamp before you get any military benefits such as medical and going to the commissary to shop and stuff like that. They will pay him seperation allowance so he gets a little more money for leaving you behind for the so many weeks he'll be gone. You could use that money for daycare but until he makes it through boot camp, no luck.

If he has a degree and going in as an officer I wouldn't count on making much money because when I went I had to buy over 1500 dollars worth of uniforms, I didn't save much in the end. For enlisted well, maybe it's a bit different.

Check with the army/other army wives. I think you'll find your best support and support ideas come from people in the same situation you are. Ask your husband's recruiter for contact info for a wives support group.

I think that you should try to get family first. If this doesn't work or is not an option, is there someone at work who has children that you could exchange children with? You may also find a mom on the base that has a daycare that may work.

Good luck.

during his time in boot camp he will be taken to the DEERS office, this is the time he will need to show your marriage certificate ORIGINAL plus the children's birth certificates again ORIGINALS..............he will also enroll into Tri Care, this is another office and another set of forms again needing those papers, Tri Care then look into DEERS and you will then be enrolled into Tri Care...........once he is out of basic you will be able to obtain you mil. id cards............you HAVE to be present for these to be given out to you, but if there is a base closer then once he has done the DEERS stuff you can with a POA [power of attorney] get the id cards your self.....I did this whilst in another country and his was out to sea so it CAN be done.

As for day care / well in your case night care, the only way I can see it working is for you either to have family do it or change to day shift, if you will be on base after getting married be VERY careful about who you have watch your children base has MANY more rules re child care arrangements than out side....ie they MUST be CDC registered etc etc and base day care does not do night shifts..................

if you have any other questions please do not hesitate to contact me off this site.