And another related question, are all English/bilingual krippes usually private? And does private mean more expensive? I'm asking since we have to pay for it ourselves, no company to help... Or is there any way to get any reduction for Krippe costs? Both parents are working full time (myself at ETH Zurich), but are not married.
Cheers for any advice!
See if they have space for your baby, ask them if you can come and see their baby room, and then ask them who else takes babies in the thalwil area - the childcares usually know who else is around...
The best advice is to go to actually see every centre that could be possible, and see which one 'feels' right for your child.
The one I have listed, might have subsidised places, but as a double income family it's unlikely your family income would be that low - how many days per week care do you need ? Are you a student, or are you on a full salary ?
The full day rate, from what I can tell on the website, cuts in at a family income of around 100,000 per year.
Do you have a car ? Is there a location which is central to both parents - having childcare near your workplace reduces the hours that the child is in care, and maximises the number of hours you can be at work - leaving Zurich to get back to Thalwil by 5:30 or 6pm by public transport, cuts the time back that you can be 'in the office' - and also that time travelling with your child can actually be valuable 'together' time.
Anyway, that's just my advice. I took a job and had childcare literally round the corner, and my husband less than 5 minutes walk away... and it worked extremely well...
If you work at ETH then you might get priority for the childcare that is associated with the university - and from what I hear they have a very good reputation.
We take babies that young where I work, and they are essentially a 1:1 responsibility until they get to 7-8 months, so I would be more inclined to recommend getting a nanny if at all possible.
The other question to ask yourself is: "who looks after the baby when they are sick" - small babies get lots of basic illnesses - coughs, fevers, colds, spots, stomach upsets - and having them in group care means they have to stay home when sick - a nanny can look after a sick baby (within reason) - although if your nanny gets sick then you have a different problem ....
We are looking for a 5-day place.
Both parents have full salaries, and I assume for subsidicing they are looking at both parents although we are not married?
Parkside take babies from 3 months but they are bilingual.
Rainbow Daycare take babies from 6 months, they have separate English and German groups but I know when I enquired about my son they said they were unlikely to have space and I was looking for 12 months in advance (and he was going to be 16 months).
Froschkonig is also bilingual but it doesn't take children until 18 months.
If you want a space you need to start applying immediately and be prepared to take a space in whatever krippe you can get a space. Baby places are very limited. Also private daycare is more expensive than the state ones although if you are both on full time salaries then the difference may not be much.