Childminder or nursery??

Question

I am currently on maternity leave , I have to return to work to pay the bills althought I dont wnat to leave my little one !! What do people think is best for my child a nursery or a childminder?

Answer 1

I am a nanny who has worked in a daycare. My sister-in-law had a stay at home daycare for many years. My husband and I are trying to conceive and we will not even consider putting our infant in a daycare. At the same time, you have to be very careful with nannies and stay at home daycares. Make sure you ask for plenty of references and also ask about anybody else living in the household. Run background checks on the caregiver and anybody else who may come in contact with your child. You can never be too careful. If you do decide to go with a nursery, find out the infant/caregiver ratio and decide whether or not your infant will be getting the much needed one-on-one time.

Answer 2

We had the same problem and in the end chose a nursery for a short time

Our son was prem and very tiny for his age. A childminder would have had children of mixed ages and at some point during the day she would have had to take a bathroom break. my worry was that if my son cried during this time, one of the older children my go to the tiny baby and try to pick him up. Maybe a bit mean, but that was my thinking at the time and a question for you to ask if you do go with a childminder.

With the nursery my son was with babies of a similar age. However that did not stop them strapping him into a chair all day (he could not sit up at the time) and leaving him on his own in a room! In the end we employed a part-time Nanny.

Our Nanny worked in a nursery for 7 years and she says she would never put a child of hers into a nursery. So I think that the childminder is the lesser of the two evils.

If you do go for a nursery try to make sure you drop in to collect your baby at odd times, that way you can see what is going on.

Answer 3

It depends on the person. I went with a nursery because I was worried that an adult alone all day with my whingy teething daughter might shake her! In a nursery I knew that if one adult had had enough, they could get someone else to take over.

The other thing is that although I'm sure there are good childminders out there, the ones I see outside my son's school don't appear to have any interest in the kids they look after at all! They are strapped in the pushchairs and the adult never even speaks to them let alone lets them out for a toddle, just rocks the chair to keep them quiet while they talk to their friends.