Nursery vs Childminder & when is too young to start?

[pixiewitch]

At 3 months old :

1. is it too young to leave my baby?
2. if I did, would it better in a nursery or with a child minder?
3. what should I expect from them?

It would possibly be for 1 day & one half day per week.

Any ideas welcomed as I'm so lost looking on the internet.

(ps: I'm not due until June, just trying to work out finances/leave etc...).

It depends where you are. I'm in the SE, but outside London. Childminders here are £4.50-£5.50 per hour.

Half days in nursery are generally a lot more than half the whole day amount. The total cost varies. One local day nursery is £35 a day 8-6. Another is term-time only, 8.45-3.15pm and costs £2510 per term.

I am really surprised to nurseries taking children out once evry half term.Dont they go to the library every week? How do you get books out and change them? Also how do you do your shopping for snack?

We take them out in rotation at least every couple of days shop, forest schools,park library etc. The different age groups take their own groups.

pixie witch - here it is 3 pound to 3.50 an hour for either nurseries and childminders. Most would include all nappies, 3 meals including lunch home cooked and sun cream/hats etc. It would be around 30 - 35 pounds for the day.

THANK YOU EVERYONE.
My dp seems happier with the idea of CM, once we iron out some of the details, cost/timings/illness/holiday/etc...& seems it could be more flexible for our needs. I know people who's children are older so will see if they have any recommendations.

Plus I feel a lot more confident now & , thanks to everyones responses on here, I have a long list of questions to ask CM & I feel like its ok to ask them now.

Still can't quite believe I should start looking now, as it seems ages away, but will start looking at both options.

I'm in north London if anyone on here knows ...

Thanks again.

Pixiewitch x

Speaking as a CM... do your homework... go out and meet some local childminders and visit nurseries. Go with your gut feel.

I am a CM who focuses on the under 3s, I do not do school runs. Even though I am registered to look after older children I do not out of choice, so all meals/resources/outings etc. ate geared towards the little ones. I am always full and inundated with inquiries.. I think this is a boon.

Re costs... I charge £65 per day (all inclusive), which is average for my area. The 2 most local nurseries are £70 and £90 per day (all inclusive). I am SW London.

I've seem on my council website they run meet & greet sessions for cm's & prospective parents at play centres. Sounds like a good idea.& those cm prices seem very reasonable...

Hi there, baby will settle within any caring settled environment. Think this mud slinging of cm v nursery is unhelpful as obviously good and bad on both sides.

If I were you I would do lots of visits and get as many references as possible and then decide. Good luck.

Rita and Holy yes - definitely - as I said, it just depends where you are and what nurseries are like. The nursery my daughter is at won Best Independent Nursery of the Year last year so perhaps I am spoilt in the facilities / training / staff ratios that they have - other nurseries may not be like that but thats precisely the point - the OP might find a fab nursery / childminder / nanny which is exactly why generalisations don't work! Its no use having someone sing the praises of a wonderful nursery in South Manchester if she's based in London!

Rita I'm not saying you're wrong (forgive me if you thought that), I'm just saying everyone's experience is different and its down to personal choice based on the options the OP has available. I just wanted to point out to the OP that my experience of private nurseries (and admittedly I've only ever used 3) is different to yours.

molly - books, we have more children's books on site than the local library has, so we rotate them from our own collection. Food/shopping is delivered.

Mandy - I was suprised that any private nursery has a bigger budget than council nurseries, as private nurseries can rely only on the fees the charge to cover all their costs, whereas LA nurseries have money from any fees, plus their budget form the council.

It does sound to me that there are very good (&bad) reasons for both CM & nurseries (local&private).

It's been invaluable to both me & my dp to read all the info/opinions/responses on here & iI'd just like to thank EVERY ONE of you who took the time out to think about your experiences & to post a response x

I feel so much more informed & much more confident about how to go about making my personal choice.

We now have a clear list of what we're looking for, what we will & won't accept, what to ask about, confidence to go & speak to both & lots more...

It can be a bit daunting starting a new thread/asking a question as you never know where its going to lead, so thnx again to you all.

Pixiewitch
x

If you know of any really good, well thought of community playgroups (the kind where you leave the children, NOT mother and toddler type ones) then I'd call up and ask the manager if she can recommend a good local childminder. They'll see plenty, because of the free hours nursery places for 3 year olds. And they will see how the CM is when parents aren't there, as well as how the child responds to that CM. If they say someone is lovely, then they probably are.

I trust my DS' nursery manager's opinion completely. She is genuinely someone who loves and is interested in kids, and the atmosphere in the playgroup really reflects that. It's how we intend to get a CM, her recommendation. And she'll hear all the local gossip on who's good, who interacts well with the kids, etc etc as well.

I chose to take my DS to nursery rather than a childminder. He was 4 months at the time, and I felt more confident with him in an environment where there was more than one adult around. There were another 3 full time babies in that nursery and the key workers (ration 1 to 2) were absolutely lovely. My DS was a very happy baby and has turned out a very social, easily adaptable child. He's 8yo now. I am sure cm can be just as good, but my experience with a good nursery was fantastic. As with everything, you have to do a lot of research and put your name down early (I registered him when I was 2 months pregnant). Some of the nurseries I visited were horrible.

Hi all are they any good childminders you recommend near SE20?