Childminder of nursery?

[moomin35]

What's preferable and what should I consider/ask with each option? Thank you!

A nursery is no use if you have a 5 year old, so childminder can be looked at as being longer term care, some children may stay with the same childminder for many years.

Look at opening hours, look at number of children being cared for, consider if you want your child somewhere where they are mostly just in one place, of if you prefer somewhere that goes on outings.

Cost, calculate cost over a full year. Do not just go by hourly rate. Look at what charges there are for when you do not need care, what charges there are when the provider is closed, what extras there are such as costs for food, outings, uniform (yes some nurseries expect you to buy their uniform).

Thanks, this is for a baby...

We had to make this decision for our dd last year. In my mind there were the following pros and cons:

Childminder:
Pros: More individual, personal care, there's only one person looking after your child each day so your child can get to know them well.
Cons: Your child will have to fit into the cm's life so may be taken on school runs etc.

Nursery:
Pros: Lots of facilities, things to do etc. Social skills learnt from other children.
Cons: You can't choose your child's key worker, sometimes they are fairly young and inexperienced girls (though I'm sure lovely), a sensitive child may feel 'lost' among a large group of children.

I also found that nurseries were more expensive than childminders, in our area at least.

We chose a childminder for dd, although I met with several before finding the right one. It's a personal choice and you will have to consider what type of care will best suit your child.

Thanks mediumorchid what were you looking for in a childminder specifically?

Childminder definately for a baby. :)

What's that seb101?

Oops "why" not "what"!!

It's such a personal choice, I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, so I wouldn't be surprised if you got a mixed bag of views.

I'm a CM, was a nursery manager. I think the care I provide, especially for under 3s way way outshines the care even outstanding nurseries can provide.

Simple logistics of getting out any about daily, is just not possible when you are in a nursery. Primary caregivers are not always consistent in nurseries, for staffing reasons, nursery nurses may be moved from room to room, they move on, or are off sick. With a CM, aside from sickness, care is always by same person.

The environment is a biggy for me too, in the home children are so much more relaxed, it's not loud or aticificial or over stimulating. Every child I have had to settle in over the years has settled so much better in my home, than any child I looked after in the nurseries. I was very lucky to work in outstanding nurseries, but the level of care is just not the same. The personal relationship I have with child and parent is ten times closer than was ever possible in nursery. I think when you have an under 3 in childcare, the above are all so important I would never consider a nursery for my child now.

That being said, you need to visit lots of settings, ask lots of questions, there can be poor CM out there too!

The number of days for which you need care is also a factor. I get that people are concerned about nurseries not taking the littlies out and about so much, but if DC is only there for two or three days a week then that might be less of a concern.

I'm looking at full time 5 days a week..

For me it was mainly about a personal connection with the childminder, whether we clicked or not, and whether they seemed at ease and confident with my daughter. Having been a cm for a long time or having lots of qualifications mattered less to me than that. My cm had only been childminding for 3 years so was still working up through her qualifications, though she also had two older daughters. However I got on really well with her and she just felt like someone I'd be happy leaving my daughter with. My dd has been with her for a year now and I'm really happy with my choice.

Other things to consider are what their house is like - plenty of space, tidy etc, do they have a car, do they regularly take their mindees to groups and parks. How many other children do they look after - do they take extra children after school as well?

It depends massively on whats available. We happen to live near to a wonderful nursery run by a former nanny, she's amazing, very child orientated. A lot of other nurseries in our area are run by businessmen for a profit, like any other business.

You need to go and look, visit, ask around.

You have to decide what's important to you, and then go from there!

Make your own list of wants and needs and the visit as many different CMs and nurseries as you can. When you find the right one, you will know. If you don't find that one, then you will be well informed to choose from the others.

Location?

We looked at CMs but they would all have added on half an hour of travel at each end of the day. Nursery is five minutes' walk away which for us is massively less stressful.

There are also very few CMs who do school pickup round us so it doesn't necessarily work as a long term solution.

I used nursery and it was brilliant for us and definitely the right decision at the time. However, now that we are needing before-and-after-school wrap-around care I wish I'd realised the benefits of a childminder in the longer term. The children at school who go to a childminder before and after school are all children that the childminder had since they were babies. None of the childminders will take new school-age mindees, if they have a vacancy it is only for a baby or toddler, so we are completely stuck. If we had shared childcare between nursery and a childminder during the baby years we would have had a foot in the door and probably would be having a better time now.

If there's a reasonable chance you will move areas before school is an issue, then this is of course irrelevant.

I used a nursery a long time ago (ds is 11) and it was brilliant. They had pretty much the same employees for all 5 years. They used to put the little ones in tripple buggies and go for walks. When they were older they used their massive garden or went over the road to the country park. I could not fault them. They were open 50 weeks a year as well. Later on I had to use a CM for school pick ups and I was never quite as satisfied. But of course this was just one particular nursery and one CM. You need to visit and get a feeling yourself