Nursery vs childminder? Advice wanted pls xx

[Annie2222]

Hi all, was hoping for some advice on nurseries vs childminders for a 12 month old. We are so undecided! We like the structure, safety aspects and checks and balances of a nursery but we’re worried about staff turnover, lack of connection between staff and the kids, and illness. We do like the idea of a childminder who’d bond with our baby and it’s a smaller, more intimate setting etc, but find it hard to understand how one childminder could easily manage 4 young babies alone? Like how does it work? I know this is the legal ratio but in nurseries when there are multiple staff it seems more manageable?!

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated! First time mum and highly anxious about the whole thing 😕 thank you!

I don't know any childminder that has 4 babies

Maybe go and visit some of both settings before making sweeping decisions about either?

A childminder wouldn't have four young babies on her own at once. They are generally allowed one baby under one at any one time, plus another 2-3 pre schoolers, so perhaps a baby plus a couple of toddlers, and then possibly pick up older school aged children too. They are absolutely not allowed anymore than 6 children aged under 8 at any one time.

CMs have max 3 under 5....

I thought I'd be into nurseries but for the reasons you mentioned turnover, reduced accountability etc i didnt like nurseries and found i much preferred our CMs...

I found anecdotally my dd gets less sick than her nursery peers.
I also like how flexible the days are and would really recommend a CM for children under 2

Hi OP, I don't think there's a single right answer to this, partly because it's a really personal decision and also because you get good and bad nurseries and good and bad childminders. I suggest going to visit a few local nurseries and childminders, asking questions and seeing what vibe you get from them.

My childminder will only have one non Walker at a time. I’m very pro childminders but here are some other pros and cons you haven’t listed:
other pros:
they learn from ‘older children’
they learn to be caring and careful and understanding of younger children
My childminder is out with them all day everyday - they go to the zoo, parks, playgroups etc. she has even taken them swimming if she only has 2! This is the biggest pro for me - they have their whole lives to be in one room
they do tend to be cheaper (although this wasn’t a deciding factor for me)
you can have a long term relationship- my childminder collects from the school my son attends so he has been with her from ten months and still goes once a week after school. It’s his favourite day of the week.

negatives you might not have thought of;
they will take 4-5 weeks off a year obviously so you will need to plan your own leave around that
you are very reliant on a single person- if they are suddenly Ill or close for any reason you would be in difficulty unless you had near by family to rely on. That being said my childminder has had 2 days off in 6 years (apart from planned annual leave) - when her mum died and the funeral - not sure if that is the norm or if we are just lucky.

In a nursery, there may be more staff however, each and every one of those staff have their own ratio of children to work with. One person caring for, as an example, 3 children is much the same as 3 people caring for 9 children. A childminder won’t have 4 young babies to care for, they will likely have a mix of ages.

So in Scotland childminders can have 4 children under school age at any one time (this is with a variation as the normal is 3)
only one of these children can be aged under 1
I have had a 12 week old
2 x 2 year olds and a 4 year old
I loved it
they grew up together
Was wonderful to watch
I was very organised and only did it 4 days a week
I would always chose a childminder over a nursery but I am biase

We went for nursery because we don't have much other support due to distance and nurseries are less impacted by illness and holidays. More reliable. We also wanted good socialisation. We didn't discount childminders but our preference was a nursery and when we found an excellent one based on a style of childcare we like (forest, montessori style) we knew that was the right decision.

My sons nursery didn't have a high turnover of staff and the child gets a key worker, so they get that bond though them.

We wanted a nursery because I had a childminder when I was young and I found it very hit and miss. I had 3 childminders because they still leave the profession, so there is still turnover but you have to get used to a new home and new roles, rather than a new person but the same rules. My first childminder was great, my second was OK and wasn’t great.

We also wanted the reliability because we don’t have family nearby who could have them when childminder went on holiday or was sick. We wanted cover for 51 weeks a year. In terms of connections at nursery, our DD has had connections with most of her key workers. We’ve seen them in town or at the supermarket and she wants to go see them and talk to them. Even if they aren’t a keyworker most of the staff have loved having DD. One of the staff at her nursery, not her keyworker, was hoping she’d be DD’s keyworker in September but it looks like they’re having a shuffle around and she’ll be with someone else. They think DD is great and I think she’s probably one of her favourites.

Visit some places and see what you prefer. There’s good and bad childminders/nurseries. However, you might not actually have much choice. Near us childminders are all full and there’s limited full time childcare options.

I've never been able to find a childminder with availability locally (there's only a couple of them registered within a few miles of me) so we had no choice but to pick our closest nursery. Thankfully it has turned out really well! On paper they are a little old fashioned, daily paper slips instead of app updates etc, but the staff turnover has been extremely low and both our kids have been looked after by the same staff members and it's just so lovely to see their bond!

I've never regretted choosing them, and have complete faith in them looking after my kids as I see how delighted they are running in to hug them in the morning! Also don't have to worry about a childminder being ill or taking holidays, the nursery is open all year round except a few bank holidays.

I'd agree with all of these positives.

Re the 'cons', my experience is none of the CMers I used took that much time off, and when they took holiday, it was at a time when we could too, so took our break then. So, unless you aren't taking a week at Christmas, and a couple of weeks in the Summer yourselves, it needn't be an issue.

They seemed either immune to illness, or very good at ploughing through. Also, many CMers have a 'back up buddy' or two who will try and cover if they have space in their ratios. It was just never an issue for us in 10 years of using CMers.

I can't emphasise enough how positive it was that the CMer went out every day, doing all the sort of normal things you would do with dc, rather than sitting in the same room with underpaid Nursery staff day in, day out. Yes, I know there are Nurseries that plan trips out sometimes, but my job took me in to 30 - 40 Nurseries each year, and - whereas some were great, and some were dire, with plenty in between - that aspect always made me glad I'd used a CMer when mine were babies.

I used a nursery for ds1 and preschool for ds2 but I was fortunate that we didn't need to use paid childcare until they were 2.5. I have never used a childminder but if I had my time again I would use a childminder from the off, progressing to preschool with childminder doing some preschool runs. Then natural progression to school with childminder doing some school runs and school holiday cover.

The reason being is that my two children are fairly shy and sensitive and I think would have benefitted from the environment and quieter pace that a good childminder would offer. My children are 9 and 6 now but still find after school club etc too chaotic. Unfortunately I've left it too late really as childminders are full with huge waiting lists here.

To add to this....Not all childminders have that much holiday, not all childminders work alone....I have worked with a co- minder and I've also worked with 2 assistants

Well I think they will all take the legal minimum but usually part of it will be over xmas etc when most people will be off anyway!

yes I think most childminders do power through and rarely off but something to bear in mind you are reliant on one person which is difficult if you have no wider network as a just in case x

Some really don't 2 or 3 weeks is common some less because they don't get paid.
If you go for co childminders it can mean no closures.

Nursery all the way for us. Not all nurseries have high turnover, ours doesn’t.

Ours also does trips outside such as going to the park to feed the ducks.

I feel like nursery is more reliable, multiple staff to be held accountable, the keyworker system works really well etc.

All have pros and cons.

My DD aged 2 goes to nursery and she loves it there. She's always smiling and eager to go and the staff all know and love her. We also viewed a few childminders but none of them really aligned with us and our values as a family. We also, like others have said, don't have family around and the idea of childminder being off ill was too risky. We liked the structure and routine of nursery, whereas I didn't feel so sure of my DD going out meeting other childminders or god knows who I didn't know. I'm having another DD soon and she will be going to the same nursery. However this isn't a nursery Vs CM thing from me you need to find the right overall environment that suits your child and family's needs.

A good nursery does not have a high staff turnover.

We chose a nursery because they only closed at Christmas for a week and bank holidays ie: we didn't have to go on leave when the cm chose to*, and because they had enough staff to cover staff sickness.
My dc both bonded happily with their key workers and other staff, and were very happy at the nursery we chose. The nursery cook and manager have since retired, but still say hello to my dc (nearly 13 and 16) when they see them in the street.

*if the cm does school wrap around, they probably take their own holidays in school holidays, which is worth bearing in mind given the cost of holidays during school holidays.

Thank you for sharing all your experiences and knowledge. Currently 18 weeks pregnant and finding the childcare search very stressful as most nurseries in our area have an 18+ month waiting list and that's only a 'maybe'. So also considering childminders but as husband and I both need to leave for work before 8am it also rules out many cms. Such a minefield so early on!

Many childminders open earlier than 8am so it’s worth contacting some

Sorry, duplicate post!

We used both and much preferred a nursery. I found it very hard not knowing where my DC was when he was with the CM. I always worried that if something happened, there would be no way of knowing where they were and that he was my child.

Are there non that start at 7.30? 7.30 to 6 is pretty normal around me.

Did they not share their risk assessment and procedures for when they were out?