Why choose childminder over nursery?

Oh and she picked up from school after they were school age. Very handy fir me.

My dcs are teens now and we're still very close friends with our old CM. My DD and her dd grew up together and are completely inseparable as teens. A real support to each other,

I chose I CM because my Dsis was one and it's what I was comfortable and 'knew'.

I looked at a couple which I didn't like, but then came across my eventual CM. She was newly registered.

I like the home environment.
She belonged to lots of groups and they often went out on fantastic day trips with a wider group.
Normal days out we're at the zoo, beach, Woods, Park, water parks etc. I would get texts and photos sent to my mobile while I worked.
There was a huge age range of children there and my children learned to get alongside children of all ages.
She was flexible to a certain degree.
In 9 years she was ill twice.
She informed us about holidays nearly 8 months in advance.

But on the whole she's was a lovely, smiley happy person who my teens still adore. I feel like I won the lottery!

My kid hated nursery. He was 1.5 when he started going and would cry for hours non stop. Personally think it was just overwhelming all the kids plus the adults, that's at least 15 people in the room. I moved him to a childminder and I kid you not from the second week onwards he would go in not even say bye and come home clearly happy and tired. It was a game changer. She has another two kids daily there same age as DS but total of four in the room.

I know that a weird thing to say about the pushchairs - I love all the pictures that my cm sends me. Cheers me up no end at work.

@redsummershoes

I can assure you my kids dont spend all day in a pushchair doing school runs.

I'm a childminder and children do not spend all day in a pushchair doing school runs!
I don't have any school age children, I might have nursery runs but in between these we go to toddler groups, parks, libraries and softplay, as well as doing activities at home.
With a childminder you are dealing with the person who is actually caring for your child, not a nursery manager or key worker. There is continuity of care, no moving rooms at different ages.
There are pros and cons for both nurseries and childminders, but please don't put us down for something that just doesn't happen.

I chose a cm because my DD was only 6 mo when I went back to work. I wanted her to have one person looking after her all the time and a home environment. DD is incredibly shy (yes, even as a baby it was very clear she hated new people) so getting used to one family was significantly easier than getting used to all the adults and children in a nursery.

We're still with the same cm now, DD is 8. Our cm is talking about retiring though, she's not doing any small children just school run, and I'm just hoping she can wait another couple of years before she retires complete. It would devastate DD to lose her, she's like an extra grandma (cm is possibly not quite old enough to be her gm, but close)

Our childminder starts 745 and has loads of experience with kids. Would highly recommend a cm - sometimes sickness can be a pita but dd so happy and asks for them and kids all the time so 🤗

because I didn't want my dc in the pushchair all day long doing the various school runs.
because my employer paid part of the childcare, but only if it was a certified nursery.

*trial of cm. I promise I did not make ds1 do c25k as a toddler...

I wanted a home from home environment for ds3 as I was having to go back 4 days when he was only 9 months old. When looking for childcare I wasn't looking for great ofsted reports or reams of info about how the provider met the EYFS requirements, I wanted someone warm who would be safe, affectionate and realistic. I met 5 well rated providers who didn't tick the boxes for me- all perfectly nice people, all highly recommended, clearly had high standards and were very professional, but just not what I was looking for. When we met ds3's cm I knew within minutes she was the right one. Her house is a bit smaller than most of the cms I saw, her last Ofsted was RI (used to be satisfactory until some eejit decided there is no such thing ), she doesn't come across as a polished professional... but she's looked after ds3 wonderfully for over 3 years. He loves her. Her house has been his second home for as long as he can remember. She treats him like part of her family, he's safe and secure and happy. He also attends nursery part time now so that school doesn't come as a huge shock to his system next autumn. The nursery is great, highly rated, lovely setting, really nice staff... but I'd still not have wanted to send ds3 there as a baby.

Pluses for nurseries of course are that parents are less affected by staff sickness and holidays and with a variety of staff around any safeguarding issues are harder to conceal. Every baby is different too. Ds1 loved nursery and hated the trial of c25k we did. There's no overall right choice.

Sorry about all the typos, my phone is smashed 😫

Childminders give a homelier environment, work more closely with the children (I believe I read they can't take more than 8 children at any time including their own children), and can be more flexible with times for feeds, naps, play times etc.
Nurseries offer more of a social aspect, I think nursery children are more school ready than childminder children as they've got into the routine and structure of a school usually, and they'll be more used to transitions as they'll move between rooms dependant in ages, and different staff on different days means they're used to different types of adults (eg there's usually the over enthusiastic adult, the education orientated one, the health and safety worrier, the one who only ever wants to do messy play, I could go on for ages 😂).
Each child reacts differently, and despite wanting to become a childminder in the near future, I recommend trying nurseries first. Some children just won't settle and need more one to one care, but at least you've tried it, and if it works out you've got more reliable care as childminders do get sick and need holidays and there's not usually someone who can take over on those days.

I am a childminder, cant really give advice on what you should chose, only you can make that descision but i know tje parents the i look after kids for chose me becaise they wanted their kids to be in a home environment. They can nap when tjey feel lile it, they can ask me to go somewhere and (obviously weather depending) we just go and do whatever they lile while we are there. All my kids become like extentex family members, they love my dp and my own kids. I love my minded kids and have a great relationship with them and their parents.

I had a cm for my son who wasn't in childcare til 2, but my daughter went at 9mo and I was more comfortable with the openness of a nursery, and the reliability (no sick days). My daughter has one of the same two adults with her every day and seems as happy, if not happier than my son was. Also, it was harder to broach particular methods I wanted the cm to use with my son because it felt like a personal dig at her parenting choices.

I chose nursery because I've had a couple of friends who's childminders let them down a bit last minute. I realise that they can't help being ill but my work wouldn't have been able to accommodate it. Childminders are people with a degree of flexibility or other family support I think.

I chose nursery as I know they'll always be open, no illness etc and I liked the multi adult aspect. Also, I saw some local child minders about and didn't like what I saw. (Not all CMs obviously are like this)

I chose nursery because I have no back up childcare and I didn’t have any way of covering either a childminders holidays or if the childminder was ill.