Nursery or child minder?

Wow, your level of ignorance astounds me.

Wow you really don't know anything about modern childminding do you? Numbers of under 8s are restricted. Numbers of reschool are restricted....so that's 6 in total with half being in school. My tv is never on, I have a dedicated play room, messy play areas, parents get photos of activities done in the day....children are good at demonstrating who they like and feel comfortable with. Unlike a nursery where a room is often left with only one staff member (I'm an assessor so been in many seeing awful things as well as the good) where children can be plonked in front of TV while staff do other things your childminder will be a consistent presence and always with the 3 children not one of several left alone with 8.
Do you know how many deaths, serious accidents, escaped children and abuse cases have happened in nurseries? I have a friend who was asked to cover up the events that happened in one by saying she had been there and witnessed it Numbers don't mean saftey.

Walking to and from school they may have that many....so an hour in the morning and a couple in the evening max....some may will be going as soon as they get in. The remaing 6 hours a day would be 3 of them. Then there's the ones you don't see who don't do school runs so have 3 all day.

You’re really trying to discredit CM’s here aren’t you. This is an awful post and I fear it reflects more about you than hard working and amazing childminders, mine included.

So many parents rely on their CM and are very happy with their service, my CM is friends with families she cared for many years ago and has kept in touch with them throughout the years which is what attracted me to her services in the first place.

Your suspicious and paranoid post reflects what goes on in your mind, not reality.

Are you for real?
I'm an ofsted registered childminder and we do NOT restrain children, plonk them in front of the tv, or mistreat them in any way.
We are regulated by ofsted just like nurseries are, and follow the same stringent guidelines that nurseries do.
We are regulated by the amount of children we can care for regarding their ages, and are inspected by ofsted regularly to ensure we follow all guidelines.
In addition to this, every childminder I know, loves and cares for the children we care for, and we foster very close relations with the parents too...otherwise why would the parents leave their children with us?
Your comments are extremely offensive to childminders, I don't know what experiences you have had, but they are NOT indicative of childminders generally!

Erm how would you even know at all what goes on in childminder's house behind closed doors, since there are possibly no witnesses whatsoever that can talk, and also how would you know who potentially gets access to your kids, particularly so if the kids are babies or pre-verbal toddlers? There is much more transparency with nurseries.
Childminding was initially introduced to regularise friends and family and to stop them from providing poor quality childcare and unfortunately, as it's often much cheaper (everywhere I've lived it has been) it has become an alternative to nurseries.
Multiple kids, very often 7 or 8 (can you look after that many effectively while meeting their needs?), different ages, full reliance that a person with a conflict of interest would tell you of accidents, no other pair of eyes, etc . How do parents even consider it, unless no other options.
To those who mention crimes in the news, how would you even know if that were to happen in someone's house behind closed doors? Childminders won't hand themselves in, will they? Kids usually plonked in front of TV, babies restrained and immobilised, appeasing kids with squash and cartoons etc

We had a really positive experience using a nursery. DD’s learnt sharing and tidying and got into routines. The lunches were very good and varied and they were never fussy eaters. Visiting the nursery we really liked the atmosphere and the staff and we couldn’t replicate the facilities: staff would babysit for us. After we moved out of the area, they would invite our DDs to special events they held. This was years ago now, but both DDs are independent and confident now. Never regretted going the nursery route.

Unfortunately, most childminders I've seen do have sole charge of seven or eight kids and there is zero individual attention.

I use a childminder one day a week and my mum has my little one the other day I work. I wanted the more personal touch as hadn't needed childcare with my eldest (parent help then covid). As other have said an advantage is childminder also has my eldest in the holidays.

Reliability is no longer assured with a nursery, not with the staffing issues they have now.
Throughout the last 6 months or so, childminders in my area have been providing cover for desperate parents who were using nurseries and found themselves without care because rooms had closed with little or no notice.
We’ve also provided care for children who were booked with nurseries and had their places withdrawn because they were overbooked - not just one nursery that did this, either.

They do close for sickness,. They’re as susceptible to norovirus and flu epidemics as the rest of us.

As someone who does supply work in nurseries, a childminder or nanny 100%

My DD goes to nursery. She is happy, socialised, able to play independently, eats everything, had lots of friends from different cultures!
I wouldn’t change it for the world!

I'm a childminder that only looks after early years, I don't do school runs.
My friends that do however...the school runs are very quick - how long do you think it takes to pick kids up from school?!

Wow!! As a childminder myself your comments are incredibly offensive!
You DO know we are ofsted registered I take it?
And the kids I look after are loved, cared for and cuddled.
Think about what you post!

@jannier thank you, that makes sense

Childminders and nurseries offer exactly the same educational experience the only difference is the size of setting and stability of 1 to 3 adults rather than a large group and temporary cover. So I'd try a childminder he's still getting time away from you and preparing for school learning all the skills a reception child would need.

Thank you for your reply @Tillsforthrills .

so you mean completely take him out of nursery and let him only go to a childminder? How many days at a childminder would be ok?

I don’t think it’s be a good idea to send him in more often to nursery, it’s probably too busy for him.

Try a childminder that can focus on settling him more in a smaller setting.

Hi,

I‘m a SAHM and have just sent my 23 month old son to nursery 2 mornings a week so that I can get a small break!

He has been going for a month now and just does not seem to be settling. He cries at drop off, pick up and for the rest of the day after we’ve picked him up he is very clingy, upset and not sleeping or eating well. He has not eaten a single bit of any food they offer him since starting so when I pick him up at 1pm, he hasn’t eaten a thing and is starving and miserable to the point that I can’t even drive off home without first feeding him in the parking lot. He also does not sleep at nursery so he is overtired by the time I pick him up.

I have chatted to the nursery staff and they just say that he is “up and down during the day” and that he really loves being in the garden so to give it more time.

I can see that my child is not happy and all this upset is spilling over into the rest of our week even when he is not at nursery. He doesn’t need to go to nursery at all as I am
at home but I do need some time for myself.

Should I take him out of nursery completely and try again in a few months, persevere for a bit longer (it’s only been a month now) or should I move him to a childminder only?

I even thought of continuing nursery as is but also maybe sending him to a childminder for one day a week too?

The nursery does not have more days available at the moment so I can’t send him for more days.

What should I do? Please help!

Living within two nurseries and seeing what goes on I’ve always preferred childminders. I’ve used one CM with assistants and one without and both have been great for very young children.

Please don’t think that nurseries are safer because others are observing, I assure you they are frequently negligent with crying or upset children and cover for each other. I have seen this with the two local nurseries that are full to the rafters.

We've used both for our children - I'm a Registered Childminder and DH works in a nursery.

Our eldest went to a nursery when I worked full time in a different job. It was great for out needs and worked well. Downside is that nursery workers are treated appallingly (in most cases), low pay, additional unpaid hours, unpaid sick leave, lots of insisted overtime and pressure from management for being off sick (that they picked up from the children). Consequently high staff turn over. My eldest went through so many key workers (20+ in her 4 years) and it did irk me.

Our others went to a Childminder. Fantastic lady who we all adore. Much more personal and she knew them inside and out and could support their needs well. All the children have a lovely bond, more like a little family. Downside if your Childminder (and if they have children) is ill you need to find cover. I know some who've had lots of time off and others that haven't. Ours minded for 30+ years and only had a handful of days off.

In both cases check the contract, sickness and fees policy carefully and make sure you understand what you're signing up to. Sickness and money are the two areas that seem to be an issue the most.

Don't go with what other people say is best. There's no "best" between the two. Only what best suits your needs and then you can find what you feel is the best setting for your child within those parameters.

We use a childminder for DS who is 13 months. First baby so we hadn't had to source childcare before. The day I went to meet the childminder and have a look around I knew that was where I wanted DS to go, we didn't go to see the nursery. A lot of nurseries in our area have had incidents recently which made the news, one baby burned by bleach and hot water, one toddler escaped without staff noticing and managed to walk all the way home (staff still hadn't noticed when the parent and child got back to the nursery). Although I am sure there are lovely ones too, it was a no brainer for me.

Taking time off if CMer is sick is a pain but DH and I take it in turns to cover if it does happen but it's not often. My little boy is so happy there and she is so lovely with him, they spent most of the day outside or doing messy play and we always get an update with photos atleast once during the day to see what he is up to and how he has been.

We used a brilliant nursery for DT’s. They started full time at six months and had the same key workers until they started school. The staff were specialists in childcare and development, the majority degree educated. Lots of outdoor space and local parks. We used two of the staff as babysitters. Liked the reliability (low staff turnover) and that they were open 50 weeks of the year from 7.30 - 6.30. We visited seven nurseries and knew this was the right one for us - it was also around the corner from DH’s work and walkable from home.

Our first went to nursery. I really liked it but he was ALWAYS ill, the staff were lovely but updates were sporadic.

Our 2nd was born and they both go to a childminder, she works with her daughter and they have up to 5 kids at one time.

I'm preferring the childminder, they have much more one on one time, we get daily updates and photos and they aren't sick as often!