I want to live in another state for 1-2 months of the year, is this an attainable goal with a 7 month old?

[lostinabook]

I live in Florida and hate it here for a multitude of reasons. But all of our family is here and it would be really hard to give that up and move elsewhere. I dream of having a summer house in New England but I don’t think it would make a lot of financial sense to buy a second home, especially when we want to explore new places. Our son is 7 months old currently but this pipe dream of ours wouldn’t start until a year from now.

Summers here are disgusting, so we’d target spending July and August in another city. We both work remote so as long as there are no issues with our jobs, but childcare is obviously the big hiccup. My son is currently in daycare and I don’t know how flexible, if at all, they would be in shortening his school year so we aren’t paying double childcare. Then the second big question is what would we do for daycare in another city? Daycares are very difficult to get into here and I imagine it is similar elsewhere, so a nanny might be our only option. Then how do we find and vet a nanny in another state? Beyond all childcare logistical nightmares it could become expensive very quickly. In the worst case scenario we’d be paying double childcare and double rent/mortgage. I’m ok going negative on our cash flow for a couple of months but it has to be within reason. If we’re hemmhoraging negative $5k (net) a month doing this then it’s probably a stupid idea.

Is this a pipe dream and unattainable? Is there a way to make this work that I’m not thinking of? Having one of our moms go with us as our form of childcare is the low hanging fruit but I don’t think I could live with either my mom or MIL for a month without going crazy.

 

[jenagirl]

@lostinabook We have an Au Pair. It may be a good option to look into for y’all. It’s more expensive than daycare at the end of the day, but relatively affordable for having someone who lives with you. Most of the girls who sign up want to travel. I’m not sure what the agency’s rules around an arrangement like this would be, and you’d have to be upfront with the Au Pair you chose, but it may work out.

 

[mollymalone]

@lostinabook What about a year round nanny that comes with you