Finding childcare where we live is AWFUL. Our 2.5 year old has been on waitlists for over 2 years.

Well, he was just accepted into a Montessori preschool that we recently found that has an opening! What they offer education-wise is incredible. His teacher has training in speech disorders and he has a speech delay. They also have special teachers come in for Spanish, art, and more. They have a large yard, gardening, and more that the kids do. I do worry that he’s not potty-trained “enough” to be successful there though as he needs to be potty trained to enroll (needs to be reminded to go almost every time and still has some accidents). His younger sibling would be put on their priority waitlist, but couldn’t start until at least 18 months old (currently only 4 months old).

Fast forward less than 2 weeks later and we received contact from a daycare that he’s come up on their waitlist! The daycare is much closer to our house, has more flexible hours, provides breakfast/lunch/snack, is $200 a month cheaper, and takes infants as young as 6 weeks, so his sibling could possibly get in much sooner. And I’ve heard it’s a GREAT daycare, but it’s also more of a typical daycare without the bells and whistles of the preschool. There’s a small playground, but not as large of an outdoor space.

We haven’t paid the enrollment fee at the preschool yet, but they did make a last minute exception to let him in and are expecting him to join at this point, so I also feel bad about that… What would you do??