For those who have used a nursery and a childminder can I have your opinions please?

[faceoff2000]

After seeing a parent saying they wouldn't be able to leave their child with a childminder on a different thread I started wondering what everyone else's opinions are.

I've used both a great nursery and a great childminder (I know there are many that aren't great). My preference would probably be a childminder until 3/4 and then a school nursery.

What are everyone else thoughts?

I’ve always been firmly in the nursery camp. I preferred the fluidity, the socialising, the monitoring, and personally I really didn’t like the idea of 1 adult only in home environment. One of mine did nursery from 9month to 4yrs 9 months and he thrived and had amazing key workers all the way through. The other only went from 2 until 4, but again they were amazing, especially as he was SEN. Locally there weren’t any childminders on par, but this was 12 years ago.

DC has been at his nursery full time since 3 months old and twin DC’s will also start at the same nursery at 3 months old.

Of course there’s some wonderful childminders, I just don’t like the idea of them. I like that nursery has multiple adults, I like that nursery is always going to be open because it feels more reliable and I like the nursery set up of separate rooms which accommodate different ages.

Dd1 went to nursery but found it overwhelming so we moved her to a cm and she was back to her normal happy self. Completely right for her. Dtds were super confident and much better suited to nursery. It depends on the dc.

From having my son with a childminder and then a nursery and also working in a nursery, I personally feel that childminder first and then nursery works well. Childminder definitely for under 1 ideally, nursery by 2/ 2.5 years.

@wellington77 childminders and nursery both follow the EYFS curriculum so both would cover school readiness like doing zips, putting on shoes and coats, taking turns, listening to stories, numbers, very basic phonics and rhyming games.

DD's nursery, once she got to the preschool room, even served the meals on the same type of tray they'd use at school so they could practice collecting and carrying their own lunch, pouring water from jugs etc.

I haven't used both as I was put off the idea of a child minder when I used to attend playgroups and some child minders would turn up with a group of children and just leave them to it while they relaxed with tea and chatted with other child minders, often with the kids running riot and I didn't want that for my child and I would find it hard personally to find someone I trusted not to be like that. I know there are many good ones out there, my SIL was a brilliant one, but didn't live close enough for us to use and she has now given up. I was fortunate enough to not need child care till 2yo so was happier about sending to a pre school by this time. If I had to use child care from say 1 year, I would probably prefer a less busy setting of a child minder, I would just have to do alot of research first.

I worked in early years and agreed with the OP only if I was confident I'm how good the minder was

Nice to know the person when they are little vs a random employee. But good before school too get used to a ‘teacher’

We haven’t had a great experience with a childminder. I bought into the ‘home from home’ environment being better for a baby. The problem is that it just isn’t a home from home. It isn’t as if they have their own nice little room and bed and toys. It’s basically your child in someone else’s home.

The big problem we had was that DD never got to nap properly. The day was set up with the assumption that the children would have one long sleep at midday. DD has two naps: morning and afternoon and would get disturbed from both as the childminder would go out on morning activities and then do after school pick ups. As a result she was VERY overtired and wouldn’t eat much, night sleep would be disturbed as a result. The childminder wanted me to pick her up early, argued with me about sending her for school holidays … I realise not all childminders will do that but it did annoy me a bit.

Given the choice - nursery. We had a really good experience with our nursery. I then used two different childminders (they worked alongside eachother one doing Mondays the other Tues-Friday) both Ofsted outstanding. However I never felt I could rely on them as everything revolved around their own lives..'Polly has a dental appointment so I am not working today..' Also as pp said really difficult to get them to agree to do anything over the holidays. One minute talking about their childminding 'business' and the next making me feel bad for expecting a regular service.

@Porpoising I never thought of that problem! DD was still a baby when she started in nursery and having two naps a day. The staff fitted in with what she needed. They had a quieter supervised sleeping area with cots in - each baby had their own sheet - so they were put down for naps when they needed a nap.

Personally prefer a childminder, I wanted him to have a single caregiver (other than us) and she was such a lovely lady, oftentimes it was just my son with her and she'd take him to loads of baby groups, music classes etc. When our daughter was born she was the person to call to come sit with our son. I think nurseries are good from 3ish when you want them to socialise and build friendships.

Research tends to suggest nannies or small settings like childminders are better for attachment in very little children particularly boys. Equally, it's very annoying if the childminder is on holiday or sick, so they're not as convenient. I also think a "dodgy" childminder who has bad practices would be able to hide it better than a nursery, where staff are more strictly monitored and processes are probably more robust- it's always a personal choice. I also met childminders who clearly didn't really care, wanted something to make money whilst they had their own toddler at home and I didn't like that vibe, I nuch preferred that our childminder had older teenagers and the only children in her care were her clients children, I didn't worry she was focused elsewhere when my son was with her

"I also think a "dodgy" childminder who has bad practices would be able to hide it better than a nursery, where staff are more strictly monitored and processes are probably more robust"

You'd hope so, but it seems that isn't the case. Staff have repeatedly shown that they don't report bad practice because they are afraid for their own jobs and are overwhelmed trying to make up for deficits in care.

The case of Kate Roughley, the nursery deputy manager currently on trial after the death of a baby, is a good example.
On the surface, the nursery looked a wonderful place, the owners had invested in the latest resources and facilities.

Nursery staff have testified that, behind the scenes, the nursery was poorly run and ratios were frequently exceeded. At one point, Kate herself was caring for 10 babies alone. Staff were stressed and overworked, poor practice seems to have been endemic as they struggled to cope.

No-one reported it.

I always thought I’d be team childminder but having visited both when my son was due to start at 9 months, I hand on heart didn’t think a child minder was for him.
At least the ones we saw!

The ratios were higher than nursery(apparently 5-6 children to one adult in school pick up times and holidays 😳😱), there was no consideration of his sleep routine - he’d just have to fit in with the other kids and grab naps when it suited the rest of the mindees/the activities planned for the day.

There was limited flexibility on timings as the childminder was out doing things with them, or on school runs for a lot of the day.

Whereas the amazing nursery he’s now at is a nurturing space with personal care. There’s a separate sleep room and his routine is catered for no matter what everyone else in the room is doing.

I can pick him early/drop him late if life happens or something comes up.

He’s grown into such a social and well mannered toddler and is very relaxed about new surroundings and new people as he’s had more than 1-2 “caregivers” in his life.

He also really benefits in my opinion to the exposure of a larger peer group. He has his friends (he’s 2 now) but also loves to play with and talk about the babies and the big kids.

it all depends what’s important to you! But I was very surprised that nursery turned out to be just what me and my son needed. So don’t write it off as “institutional” or not homely. You just need to find the right one!

It will depend on the setting somewhat

Childminder we first used was great but when covid hit it was so hard as every cough (both sides) there was no childcare, and once there was a bereavement and a period she had long term sick (both can't be helped) We were really really struggling to cover and ending up with a lot of issues at work etc. move to nursery was great but our son was 2.5 and I'm not sure how he'd have found it much younger.

Knowing that other than when he was sick we had childcare was really amazing to be honest.

Once he started at school we used a different childminder. She's wonderful and will cover inset days if needed, has him in all the holidays and he absolutely adores his time there.

We sent DD to an amazing childminder from around 12 months until a house move made us change to nursery at 3.5. Which for me was the best of both worlds.

As DD is an only I really appreciated the childminder setting which allowed her to be part of a bigger family, and let her see that her wants might not always immediately come first (ie. having to go out on the school run, CM dealing with younger children) And I think it was really nice to see friendships develop across a mix of ages.

Nursery settling ended up being quite hard in the end as I think spending so much time in one room with so many children was quite a shock, but was really good in preparing for school which then went smoothly.