which is better nursery or child minder for just two year old

[zippitippitoes]

and why?

bubble99 - I hope you do not feel I have been 'nursery bashing' as this was certainly not my intention. I just wanted to point out that it's not just nursery staff that do lots of training, some of us childminders do too and some of the training we do is alongside staff from nurseries. Different children thrive in different kinds of care whether it be at home with a parent or nanny, with a grandparent, in a nursery or with a childminder, as every child is unique.

zippitippitoes - I spend my time with my mindees, the only time I do not is like Hellybelly says when I am preparing lunch or clearing the table after lunch during this time we too have freeplay and I can see them from my kitchen. I do all of my housework after mindees leave or at weekend, I don't go shopping with them unless we are buying something as part of a 'project' we are doing eg buying seeds and compost to plant sunflowers or buy ingredients to do baking.

dh and I talked about this a lot and came to the conclusion that with nurseries you were more likely to get an adequate experience but with childminders you could get a fantastic one or an awful one.

We went with a childminder after trying a nursery for two days a week when he was 9 months old.

The nursery was absolutely fine and ds seemed happy there but I wanted him to 'love' another person. If I or dh weren't there I wanted him to have a person he felt especially close to. We decided on a childmnder for that reason. However I do know other parents who specifically chose a nursery because they didn't want their child getting too close to anyone else.

When ds is nearer to 3 years old he will start nursery but it will probably be part-time and I really hope that he will spend the rest of the time on my work days (3 days a week) with the same cm. I want him to come home from nursery to someone he knows and loves.

In the end the choice is so individual we can only give our own experiences but the final decision is up to the parent of each unique child.

I personnaly prefer a childminder;

dd and ds have developed a close 'family' relationship with her and her family.
I know and trust her whereas staff at nurseries change...
she can provide experiences similar to what he would get at home, nurseries are too institutional.
she is much cheaper than the nurseries around here
she takes them when they are ill apart from d & v

Having said that I have got a fantastic one, who a couple of my friends used prior to me. I have been with her for 4 years.

I've used both with mixed results. One of the nurseries back home was so incredible that we were very sad moving away from it. however, the other one was awful and we pulled ds3 out sharpish. We have also used childminders (both for ds23): both have been truly amazng, he is with one at the mo and will be as long a i can keep her!

IMO and IME it's the quality of the poeple that matters: 2 year old need a warm nurturing atmosphere and that can be provided in either setting bt only if the right person is in charge of their care.