For Parents
If you're a parent, or a future parent, and need childcare, plan early! Childcare is expensive, and especially so in Boston!
The following resources are generally available to postdocs at Harvard. Some services may be dependent on benefits eligibility. To determine whether you are benefits-eligible, check with your Department Administrator or the Benefits Office at 617-496-4001.
The site Child Care @ Harvard contains detailed information about child-care centers on or near Harvard's campuses, as well as resources for finding other types of child care. There is also information about back-up or emergency care, adoption resources, and more.
There are 7 nonprofit, independent child-care centers located in University space. 5 are on the Cambridge campus and one is in Allston near the Harvard Business School Campus (see map). Please do not assume that these are the default option. While "Harvard affiliated," these centers are i) financially independent of Harvard, ii) particularly difficult to get in (acceptance rate lower than for Harvard College students), and ii) no cheaper than other, non-Harvard affiliated childcare centers.
Feel free to contact any center directly, email the Executive Director of Campus Child Care, or email the Office of Work/Life. You can also learn more from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.
Some online resources to help to entertain your kids:
Childcare scholarships are available to researchers who are on a regular Harvard payroll and are fully Harvard benefits-eligible. If you have a question about your status, please contact your program administrator.
- Postdoc Parents list serve. If you're a parent, you can email postdoc@fas.harvard.edu to be included in the list of postdoc parents. This will enable to contact each other in case you want to set up a playdate, or borrow or donate stuff you no longer need.
- WATCH Portal: A service that connects parents with student babysitters within the Harvard community.
- Schools and Afterschool programs
- Parenting support in age of Covid: From The New York Times: ‘I Have Given Up’: Parenting in Quarantine. Readers tell us how they’re managing the Parent-Employee-Teacher trifecta during the pandemic.
- Lactation rooms, available on this map. Since it may not be perfectly updated, you can double-check with the Office of Work/Life.