Childminder vs Nursery

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My little boy will be turning 1 in November, and I’m currently trying to decide between sending him to a nursery or a childminder. We’ve been offered a place at both, so I’d love to hear other people’s experiences!

The childminder could take him from January for 4 days a week, and she also has two assistants working with her. The main downside is that she takes 6 weeks of annual leave each year, which would mean having to plan all my annual leave around when she’s off.

The nursery wouldn’t be able to take him until mid-April, and they could only offer 3 days a week. However, they’re only closed for 2 weeks over Christmas.

I did get a better feeling from the nursery in terms of the facilities. It felt more modern, and they had a dedicated sleep room with floor beds for naps, which I really liked.

I’m only returning to work 3 days a week, but choosing the nursery would mean taking 3 weeks of unpaid leave while waiting for his place to start.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar situation. Did you choose a nursery or a childminder, and were you happy with your decision? Are there any pros or cons I might not have considered? 😊

We went with a childminder, though she took less annual leave than that - we would have found 6 weeks harder to cover. Does she tell you very much in advance when her weeks are? Ours took all of hers in the school holidays when we were also constrained to taking leave because of DH job, so it wasn’t a problem.

Main things we liked about the childminding setup:

Built a great trusting relationship with her. Very helpful over the years.

Both our kids - 2 years apart - were at the same childcare setting, and even when the older one went to school, she did all the wraparound care too so we’d drop them both off together and collect them together at the end of the day. I loved that they spent the whole days together and /or before/after school, even though we weren’t with them.

They got very fond of the other children there - idolised the older ones and “looked after” the younger ones - they’d come home and tell us one of the Little Ones had said this word or that for the first time they’d seen, started taking steps etc., would laugh about funny baby things they’d done. They’d “help” push the pushchairs on the school run. I do think it made them very caring of little children - my 16 year old DS now volunteers at beavers and really likes seeing what they’re learning.

Over the primary school years, she still did wraparound childcare so they’d spend their holidays there - she’d always do a mix of things for older and younger ones and it worked v well. It made the holidays easier not having to find holiday clubs all over the place (we used them for eg a week if she was on holiday and we weren’t).

She was very very rarely ill - maybe just 2 or 3 times over 10 years of our kids going to her.

Never tried a nursery so can’t compare, and of course all childminders are different and run things differently, but this is what we loved about ours. We did have a different childminder when we’d lived in a different city when first baby was born, and had similarly good experiences, though obviously different child life stage.

I would use childminder in Jan and switch to nursery in April.

Please don't do that.

We went for a nursery for a number of reasons. Facilities and access to activities was one but reliability was the other. If a member of staff is ill, it's the nursery's responsibility to manage. With a childminder you can literally find out and 7 or 8am that you have no childcare that day. And some childminders are more or less reliable than others.

Having 6 weeks of leave dictated to me would have me striking that option off before I started. Even if I wanted a childminder I'd go with a different one with less leave. If that 6 weeks eats all your leave, what will you do when your child is ill?

Edited to add we were very picky about the nursery. I looked around 8 before I picked the one DD went to and she absolutely thrived there. A number of friends enrolled their children after our experience.

Nursery 100% - having all of your leave dictated to you would be a total PITA especially (as is likely) if it was all in school holidays, massively driving up the cost of your holidays. And you sound like you liked it better anyway.

If you're working 3 days a week, you don't need more than that.

If you're not a single parent, can the dad not take some leave to ease the nursery start date issue? Esp as he could cover two weeks with 6 days leave as you only work 3 days

I’ve always found nursery so much easier. The rooms are tailored to ages so no stress over naps etc, you don’t have to worry about staff sickness or emergency closures.

I also think most children have outgrown a childminder setting by three so then you have to settle them somewhere else.

The other thing about the leave is that it's really nice to be able to take a couple of days for yourself when the kids are in childcare and the 6 weeks childminder leave makes that very difficult

It’s been a while since my kids were small, but we went for a nursery as it was more dependable. Open every day apart from Christmas and Easter bank holidays. My sister uses a childminder for before and after school and she has been ill which meant she closed and also takes holidays during the school term which makes life trickier. We never had that issue with nursery and then after school club.

Only do this if you are totally upfront with the childminder about your plan!

I went with a nursery, I met a childminder who was so lovely on the face of it but then I realised it was in her house and her partner had access to the children as well and I’m sure there would have been no issues but I didn’t like the idea of that.

You can't beat a really good childminder imo, but its a matter of luck how good she will be, so in that sense, a nursery is 'safer'.
I was a childminder, I just looked after one family at a time, and I genuinely cared for the dc as if they were my own. I never took a sick day, I even worked on the day my sibling died, and as I worked term time I didn't take holidays outside of the school holidays. I had a fair few friends who were childminders and a few who worked in nurseries, the nursery workers all hated their jobs, mostly due to management/owners and being forced to cut corners with the children's safety and care because of low staffing levels and general skimping on costs, so i am inclined to be biased against creches.
I used to go to a lot of play groups and play centres and the worst were the young nannies who just sat talking amongst themselves, completely ignoring the dc in their care. That is all just my experience though.

My husband is self employed so he said he won’t be taking leave off when childminder is off…

i said exactly what you said regarding our holidays, I don’t want to go on our usual sunny holiday in the middle of August! It’s what’s really putting me off the childminder as we don’t have family close by to help either so it’s all on me.

I also would be reluctant like you to have my leave dictated to. I do echo those saying they value the reliability of a nursery. We have family who used a childminder and they had to move their child after she continually cancelled days at the last minute. It was very distressing for their child and obviously difficult for the parents to juggle.

I would choose the nursery without a second thought after all the upheaval I saw the relative going through.

Exactly. I probably sound selfish but I’d also like to take a day off whilst he’s in childcare to have a day to myself every once in a while!

I think it depends on the childminder and the nursery in question. Personally I’d always use a nursery over a childminder and I’d pick one attached to a school if possible. I like the fact other people are involved and can monitor each other especially after that one childminder who was in the news lately who had 23 children in her care and frequently left them home alone. Nurseries can have problems too but I think there’s less risk. But that’s just my opinion and lots of people like the home feel of a childminder.

Not selfish at all. I'd say that was pretty healthy and necessary actually. Small children are relentless getting time to be just you and not mum is practically essential to a positive mental state of wellbeing.

Well he sounds lovely

Nursery 100% and you can put your child on a waiting list to go 4 days per week.

None of the childminders in my area accept the funded hours plus if they are sick or on holiday it's on you to work around.

agreed. Been many arguments with this, I’ve done it all alone basically which I do find tough

So my friend was telling me she’s given up her place at the nursery as they have major staffing issues.

they’ve been cancelling on children’s due to start with a few days notice! They’ve also had to call parents to of existing children who go to say they can’t have their children that week due to staff.

I think this has forced my hand to opt for the childminder due to the uncertainty of the nursery