Aiyis for babies?

don't assume that Suzhou is much cheaper than Beijing. in my experience cities in Zhejiang and Jiangsu can be just as expensive if not more than BJ-SH, especially if there is a captive audience of foreigners like with your uni.

MK, I know one Chinese family at my son's kindergarten that has employed an American man as the ayi for their child. I can only imagine the ridiculous amounts of money they must be paying for him, even if they got him through an au-pair agency or something. My dad met a guy at The Place (you know, that frou frou mall in Chaoyang?) once who was working as an au-pair for a foreign family and the au-pair agency only paid him a stipend of 800RMB a month although no doubt the family was paying much more.

Being obnoxiously wealthy is kind of a "thing" in Beijing so lots of people will overpay their ayis just so they can claim they have the best, but I know lots of foreign families who have had fancy overpaid ayis who still sucked, and the thing is, once they start making that amount they start making ridiculous demands and shopping around for new families who will pay them even more. I think it is nuts though to pay ayis more than trained, college educated primary school teachers make.

Also, once you start getting up past 4K or so, you can hire English speaking ayis who know how to cook Western, or even Filipina ayis, if you know where to look. Lots of expats don't know better and overpay even for "regular" ayis -- no formal training, don't speak English.

I think we pay about 1500 a month for M-F daycare near our home (has about 15 kids there). The kids can stay from 8:30 to 4:30 each day, lunches are served too.

Daycare actually might be better, socialising and all that. I will say this. Here in Korea a nanny would cost abotu a third of my salary. IN China it would be about a sixth. Though I guess it's fair to say that in Korea I make more than the norm and will in CHina as well, but still. It'll cost me half of what it does here.

I want a Chinese nanny so she can learn Chinese. She already has a Chinese name 

Daycare will be cheaper...and more reliable! Of course, daycare won't cook for you or clean your apartment...

There may be lots of ayis around, but not so many that will take care of a toddler. I can promise you that you won't get anyone in Suzhou for anything like 1000 RMB a month...more like 3000. I can attest that Suzhou cost-of-living is not far from that in Beijing and Shanghai; I actually lived in all three cities...and Suzhou has gotten even richer since I left.

It may be even higher for the SIP, since there's not that much housing out there...and most of what is there is pretty upscale. The factories bus workers to and from downtown Suzhou. So your ayi will likely have a long troublesome and/or expensive commute to add to her price.

I should also point out that ayis can tend to quit often, leaving you literally holding the baby.

You'll almost certainly have to go to an agency to book an ayi that does child care. Most agencies expect such ayis to have childcare experience, so it's not such a bad thing.
You'll also need someone, perhaps from your school, to come translate in the early stages. It's extremely unlikely an ayi will speak English, at least not at 2-4K per month.

Yeah, I was looking at the info they sent and couldn't believe the prices. I don't know how people get by on only 6000 kaui a month. I guess the more you earn. . .

HOw young to kindergartens take babies? I know the one that I was at took those 18 months and up. Is it still like that?

I honestly don't mind if they only speak Chinese

Kindergartens usually won't take kids younger than 18 months, but try looking for something called "tuoersuo" 托儿所 or seeing if your kindergarten has a "tuoer ban," 托儿班. This is basically the same thing as daycare. It won't be academic at all, they'll keep your child fed and entertained, but that's about it.

Personally, I think daycare/kindy can be great (both my kids are in kindy now) but you need to be really really careful about where you put your child. Traditional style Chinese kindergartens/daycares can be sort of scary. My son has a classmate, for instance, who left his old kindy and came to ours after his parents found out the old kindy had been closing kids up in the bathroom with the lights off as punishment. Some kindergarten teachers will hit the kids, and even if they don't hit, the teachers can be pretty rough -- arm dragging, yanking the kids around, that sort of thing. Early childhood education doesn't even require a high school diploma in China, it is a certification you can get after middle school, in a trade type school, and so the quality of the teachers varies a lot. There are good schools -- I'm really happy with my kids' school, but anything that is more modern or progressive is not going to come cheap (my son's kindy runs from 4000rmb-9000rmb a month, depending on the program you choose).

I think with that young of a baby I'd get an ayi before going for daycare in China. It won't cost you *that* much more and you can monitor the ayi much more easily than you can the daycare.

That sounds good. She'll be 16 months when we go and 18 months when I need to get her into a kindy.

HOw old are your kids Local Dialect? Are you in China for the longrun?

I worked in a kindergarten. I've seen how teachers can treat the kids.

I think it's going to depend on what I have access to. If someone I works with has a family member who needs a job, taht would be great. Maybe the uni I'll be at might even HAVE some kind of kindergarten. There are 100 FTs there and I know there are other unis closeby.

My kids are 4 and 2. We're in China for the time being, but (hopefully ...) not for the longrun. We plan on moving to the States when my oldest hits elementary school age.

We're really lucky that my kids get free tuition at the school where my mom works. It is a Montessori school and she and my dad moved out here last year so my mom could work there as a Montessori teacher. It would be completely out of our price range otherwise, especially with 2 kids.