To think nurseries are people's first choice?

[Writerwannabe83]

I have a 5 month old DS and today I sorted out his childcare for when I return to work. We have registered him with a childminder and for some reason I didn't even contemplate using a nursery.

However, it feels like in many MN threads (in differing topic sections) most children that are talked about are in nurseries as opposed to having a childminder.

Is nursery more 'the norm' now and am I depriving my DS of something by using a CM instead? There must be a reason why nurseries seem to be the preferred option for parents?

I didn't want my child being a paying customer in someone else family home
And reading mn people fall into or recommend cm as way ti make money,be home with own kids
And didn't want sole reliance on one cm.nursery more reliable in terms of cover

Nursery was our first choice for DS. Actually we didn't even consider placing him with a childminder. All the talk about the need for flexibility with hours is assuming that the childminder would be willing to do that and then the parents get a big shock when minders start charging late/after hours fees too. My mum did a short stint of childminding for a couple of years when I was in my teens ( she used to be a teacher but her health was poor due to chronic condition). Whilst she did a good job and rarely took a day off (she had long waiting lists), I did get to meet some other childminders through playgroups organised by the council scheme who were simply awful (think smoking, swearing, discussion of inappropriate subjects in front of kids, making judgements about their parents to their little faces etc). I suppose those issues could be there in nurseries too but there are more checks and balances. There were always a few parents who wanted to take advantage and, inevitably, it would affect my mum's relationship with the child even if she tried not to let it get to her.

I looked for a cm first for ds but had no luck. We ended up using nursery which has been great. Only 9 kids in tbe under 2 room. Under 2 room has it's own separate garden. There is a main room in the middle where we drop off pick up and they have their meals. The staff are great so calm and they always comfort a crying child. Now I am glad we use nursery as I feel it is nurturing but also very reliable. I also like that there is no tv!

When I needed childcare for my eldest daughter, we lived in a small town, where all the childminders were well known. They would be recommended on a word-of-mouth basis, or you'd get an opportunity to see them all with their charges at weekly toddler groups and so on. It was a no-brainer as far as I was concerned - the next best environment to home, and my daughter thrived and formed a strong bond with her childminder who also became a good family friend.

Recently after our move to a city, I started looking for childcare for my youngest. Automatically I looked at childminders first, at childcare.co.uk or wherever, and I realised how little I could know about any of them, even after a house visit. I'm not talking about anything sinister even, it's just that the idea of handing my daughter over to a near-stranger for most of the week felt almost viscerally wrong. Plus I wasn't blown away by any of the profiles I read - they all said the same anodyne stuff about how much they loved children and stuff but that was about it. Then I found a lovely small nursery on my bus route to work, we've had a few visits, I like the fact that it's an open-door policy there, they've got glowing care commission reports... I just feel better about it all round.

As a childminder I always find these threads bemusing. Childminding isn't a "pin money" job anymore. I have to deliver the same curriculum as a nursery, I have the same policies, procedures, fire plans, risk assessments as a nursery and I am inspected by Ofsted the same as a nursery. I have to do learning journals, assessments and planning exactly the same as a nursery.

Chiildcare is a very personal issue, there is no right or wrong way to do it, it just depends on what your needs as a family are.

Personally I have only had 3-4 days off sick in 13 years. My hours are flexible to the parents needs. For the past 10 years I have only ever had one under 5 during the day so totally 1-1 care for at least 6 hours. I don't charge late fees, I take holiday when the patents do, I provide all food from breakfast to dinner (and make it all from scratch). I would never get rid of a part timer to make way for a more lucrative child (and don't know anyone that would). I take children who are "under the weather" so parents don't have to take time off work and I go out of my way to make the working parents life as stress free as possible regarding childcare.

In the past 13 years I have cared for 34 children from 20 families ranging in age from 6 months to 15 years. And I have been caring for children under 16 for 37 years in a variety of settings.

I am not "all childminders" in the same way that the mediocre nursery at the bottom of the road is not "all nurseries".